Hey guys,

Running a 27"; iMac i7 on OSX 10.8.4, Finale 2012 and VDL 2.5.5 with Kontakt 5.

I'm going through the VDL De-Mystified video and am setting up my template from thewritescore. I've finally gotten Finale top recognize the template, but a couple of things are happening as I'm attempting to progress through the video:

1.) When I go to add more staves, I look for the Add Staves (with Setup Wizard) option, but it is no longer even listed.

2.) I've got lock icons popping up on my score that aren't in the video. Not quite sure of the rationale there.

3.) The title, arranger, etc. text I entered in the setup wizard is nowhere to be found, as if it were booted off of the page.

I'm sure there's a simple solution that's right in front of my face where I can't see it. :) If anyone could help out, it would be greatly appreciated. Just bought the computer yesterday, and am definitely excited to finally get to use VDL while writing for the upcoming season.


-Will

Will,

Let's see if we can get things going smoothly for you.

1. If you haven't reviewed the ";What's new in Finale 2012";, I would do that. Finale 2012 introduces the Score Manager window. This is added to Finale 2012 after the release of the Demystified videos. I'd also take a few minutes and study the new Instrument Change Utility.

2. The locks may be appearing because you are in Page View rather than Scroll.

3. Use the Text Tool, click where an item such as Title would appear, choose Insert from the Text Tool drop down menu and select that item.

Also, if you've installed the templates in the correct location you should be using ";New from Templates"; rather than the Setup Wizard.

Ted,

Thank you for the reply! I've managed to get my initial templates installed, and have had some success with VDL sounds playing back when a new score is built from the initial Setup Wizard rather than templates. As far as getting the templates to work, well, that's another story. At this point, I've been trying for over 10 days, and am about to just offer to pay someone any amount of money to simply come to my house and set this #$%^& thing up so I never have to mess with it again. :)  I've been using notation software for 13 years now and have never had this much trouble trying to get a program to work.

Anyway...

I've noticed a similar problem to the one I'm currently having over on TheWriteScore forum, and the solution posted there didn't work for me. I'm attaching a screenshot that I just took while trying to setup my template sounds. Any thoughts?

Thank you!

Will,

Based on the screen shot and the other spec info you've provided the problems appears to be the playback device. The templates from The Write Score were created and set up to run with Kontakt 4. This was the earliest and most common device available for use with VDL 2.5.5.

To fix the playback issue do the following:

1. from the Audio/MIDI menu select Audio Units Banks & Effects

2. in the dialog box that appears, select Kontakt 5 for the first bank of 16 midi channels

3. from the Windows menu select Score Manager, you may get a message like the one in your screen shot, if so click NO

4. in the Score Manager box, set the Device column to Kontakt 5 for each of the staves

5. in the Sound column, click Edit Player and then load the VDL sounds

6. make certain that the Bank column is still set to 1 and the Channel column numbers match the midi channels for the instruments assigned

7. the Perc MIDI column should show the XML files for each of the non-pitched instruments in your score

8. verify that for the non-pitched instruments Notation Style is set to Percussion and the settings have the matching Percussion Layout for each instrument


Let me know if this helps.

Thank you so much, Ted! I've finally got the right sounds coming through. I've been following along with the VDL: Demystified DVD, but with the differences in software versions (and with following some of the step-by-steps yielding different results--frustrating!!!), it's been a bit of a bumpy ride. My Finale 2012 and VDLs are both coming straight off of fresh installs on a new computer, so I haven't tinkered with any settings outside of the VDL:D and what's been mentioned here.

A couple of quick Qs (thought it best to remain in this thread in case someone has had the same start-up issues as me):

-When I re-load a saved document that contains percussion and winds, my banks are automatically scrambled, with the Aria player taking 1-16 and 17-32, and Kontakt being bumped into 33-48. When I go into the Score Manager, my sound banks are no longer saved. Am I missing something?

-Also, when I enter in notes on my nanoKey 2 (snare LH and RH hits, in particular), the notes show up on two different spaces, even though I'm inputting them exactly as shown on the DVD. How do I get them to appear on the same line?


And as a bonus third question--is anyone reading this near Nashville? I'll haaaappily pay you to just drop by and help me get this setup so I can stop bothering the nice people on these forums. :)

Good to hear things are starting to work correctly. To answer this new set of questions.....

1. I would first check the Audio/MIDI menu and verify that the banks are set up as you want them. Just going through the Score Manager may be what is causing the file to reset. without a copy of the actual file it is difficult to know for certain.

2. It is possible that the percussion layout for the snares has been modified to produce the results you're getting with the display. Again, without a copy of the file and knowing which entry method you're using it is difficult to know the answer for certain. To check the layouts go through the Score Manager > Notation > Percussion > Select then choose the snare layout for the instrument loaded and click Edit. Look for the notes which are displaying incorrectly and change them to match. If they are already correct in the layout, then it is possible that you are missing something in the note entry process.