Just attended a session on Finale 2014and writing for percussion, and Finale now handles changing instruments on a single staff very easily. The question is, does it work this way with VDL2.5?

The demo was using the built-in VDL lite sounds and the rep wasn't sure if it works the same for the full version. I believe it was the 'score manager' feature? Anyway, no program or staff style changes necessary. Would be nice to know if this works. Thanks!

Mike,

It will work with the current version of VDL 2.5.5. You will however want to purchase the VDL/Finale templates. The template package contains all of the XML files needed for percussion mapping.

The Instrument Change feature you mention is actually found as 'Instrument Change Utility'. It was introduced with Finale 2012, along with the Score Manager window. While this feature works easily with non-pitched to non-pitched percussion, there are a couple of additional steps needed when working with both pitched and non-pitched together on the same staff. You can continue to use program and patch changes when handling mallet changes for keyboard instruments.

As mentioned above, all of the materials needed to assist with instrument changes are available with the 2012 templates. These templates will work with Finale 2012 and 2014. The 2014 templates are still in development. Template packages may be purchased from www.thewritescore.com.

When do you expect the new templates to be out?

There is no firm release date at this moment. Finale 2014 has several issues, especially on the Mac side, which have impacted development of the templates.

Ted,

I have recently installed Finale 2014 on a new computer and have VDL 2.5.5 w/ kontakt on here as well. Would you recommend me waiting for the '14 templates to be completed before proceeding with the purchase on the '12 templates? How is the ease of use with the '12 templates on Finale 2014?

The 2012 templates and both Kontakt 4 & 5 work with Finale 2014. There were no major changes to how Finale handles percussion with the release of Finale 2014, so I would not anticipate and issues in this area.

Thank you! Can you elaborate at all as to what the ";several issues"; were? You said there were some especially on the mac side.

I would suggest going to the Finale forums for more details. On the Mac side the entire code has been updated for the Intel/OS X platform.

They overhauled significant portions of the codebase on OS X to update from the older Carbon API to the modern Cocoa API. This involved re-writing much of how the program's interface works, and in turn kicked up some issues.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.finaletips.nu/index.php/component/content/article?id=96