Finale 2010 For Mac

Posted on |

You are here: Finale Tutorials > GPO and HP Tutorial > Garritan Instrument Setup

Setting Up Garritan Instruments for Playback in New Documents

For Finale 2010 and later and OSX 10.7 and later. This is a multi-purpose plug-in that creates patterns of various elements in the selected area. Version 1.07 has this functionality: Beamed Groups. Reorder Notes - Changes the order of the notes entries within each beamed group. Rests inside a beamed group are unaffected. Finale 2010 free download - Finale, Finale, Finale Notepad, and many more programs. Enter to Search. My Profile Logout. CNET News Best Apps. Finale supports you, making it easy to create whatever music notation you can imagine and to work in the manner that best supports your creativity. No matter where your inspiration leads you, from a simple lead sheet to preparing your Hollywood film score, Finale is the trusted route to the very best output available. Finale 2010 for Windows ® Make sure that you have the Finale 2010b update in place. XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 (64-bit compatible) DVD-ROM drive (for installation) 800X600 minimum monitor resolution; Minimum 512MB RAM (1GB or more recommended for optional use of Garritan sounds/Aria Player: more RAM = more available sounds).

Finale 2010 Old Version for PC & Mac, Windows, OSX, and Linux. The best tools are designed by the people who use them. Introducing Finale 2010 – the world standard in music notation software.

Do the following if you intend to use Garritan instruments - Garritan Personal Orchestra, Garritan Personal Orchestra Finale Edition, and/or Garritan Jazz and Big Band - in a new score.

  • If Finale is currently running, quit the application.
  • Full GPO users and JABB users: if you have not previously done so, download and install the latest update(s) for your instrument library.

Windows and Mac: http://www.garritan.com/support.html. When installing the Full GPO update, be sure to install the optional 'Notation Set for Finale.'

  • Full GPO users and JABB users: download and install the appropriate instrument.txt files for your Garritan instrument library. These files allow you to select your Garritan instruments in Finale's Setup Wizard.

Full GPO users: Download 'gpofullinstrument.txt' from:

JABB users: Download 'garritanjazzinstrument.txt' from:

You may need to select 'Save As' in your web browser to download these files.

Put these files inside the 'FinaleAU' folder in your 'Finale 2010' folder.

  • Use Finale’s Setup Wizard to create your score. On Page 2 of the Setup Wizard, from the Instrument Set menu, select Garritan Personal Orchestra Finale 2010 Edition, Garritan Personal Orchestra, or Garritan Jazz and Big Band. Instruments that include multiple sounds (for example, pizz. and arco for strings) are marked with 'KS' in their name - short for 'Keyswitch.' Choose the KS version of these instruments in order to take advantage of all available sounds.
  • Once your score is set up, if you want to hear the Garritan instruments when inputting music using a MIDI keyboard, from the MIDI/Audio menu, choose MIDI Thru, and select Smart. Turn up the modulation wheel on your MIDI keyboard to ensure Garritan instruments are audible.
  • The expressions marked 'use w/HP off FinGPO KS' are incompatible with Human Playback, and should be avoided if you intend to use Human Playback. Human Playback automatically interprets expressions like 'pizz.' and 'arco' without requiring you to set up a playback definition.
  • Before you play back your file for the first time, click the triangle at the left of the Playback Controls (Mac) or the speaker at the right (Windows) to reveal Finale's Playback Settings. Click the Human Playback menu and select the appropriate Human Playback Style for your score.

Setting Up Garritan Instruments for Playback in Existing Scores

Do the following if you intend to use Garritan instruments in a score that was previously configured for another instrument set (for instance, Finale's SoftSynth).

  • If Finale is currently running, quit the application.
  • Full GPO users and JABB users: If you have not previously done so, download and install the latest update(s) for your instrument library.

Windows and Mac: http://www.garritan.com/support.html. When installing the Full GPO update, be sure to install the optional 'Notation Set for Finale.'

  • Full GPO users and JABB users: download and install the appropriate instrument.txt files for your Garritan instrument library. These files allow you to select your Garritan instruments in Finale's Setup Wizard.

Full GPO users: Download 'gpofullinstrument.txt' from:

JABB users: Download 'garritanjazzinstrument.txt' from:

You may need to select 'Save As' in your web browser to download these files.

Finale

Mac: put these files inside the 'FinaleAU' folder in your 'Finale 2010' folder.

Windows: put these files inside the 'FinaleVST' folder in your 'Finale 2010' folder.

  • Open your existing score in Finale 2010.
  • From the Window menu, choose Instrument List and make sure each staff is assigned to a different channel in the Instrument List. This means you may need to create new instruments. For specific instructions, see Assigning MIDI Channels and Instruments in Chapter 6 of the Finale Tutorials.
  • If you have 8 staves or fewer: Assign your top staff to Channel 1, the next staff to Channel 2, etc., until each staff has its own channel.
  • If you have more than 8 staves - Kontakt Player 1 (Full GPO/JABB): Assign the first eight staves to Channels 1-8. Assign the next eight staves to Channels 17-24 (skipping 9-16). Assign the next eight staves to Channels 33- 40, the next eight to Channels 49-56, and each subsequent group of eight staves to Channels 65-72, 81-88, 97-104, and 113-120, until each staff has its own channel. (This means you may need to create new instruments). (The exceptions are multi-staff instruments like piano and harp - in that case, both the RH and LH staves can share the same channel - provided there are not independent dynamics in each staff.) For specific instructions, see Assigning MIDI Channels and Instruments in the Finale Tutorials.

You may want to reserve Channel 10 for unpitched percussion - although this is not necessary when using Garritan instruments, it can be helpful if you want to preserve the ability to switch back and forth between Garritan instrument playback and SoftSynth or General MIDI playback. For additional information, consult the entry on Percussion.

Here's what the channel assignments might look like for an orchestral score configured for Full GPO.

Instrument List example 1:

You can use a maximum of 64 simultaneous channels with Garritan instruments that use Kontakt Player 1. (Currently, Full GPO and JABB both use Kontakt Player 1.)

  • If you have more than 8 staves - Kontakt Player 2 (Garritan Instruments for Finale): With Kontakt Player 2, used by Garritan Instruments for Finale, there is no need to skip any channels. Simply ensure that each staff (or multi-staff instrument, like piano or harp) has its own channel.

Here's what the channel assignments might look like for an orchestral score configured for Garritan Instruments for Finale.

Instrument List example 2:

  • You can use a maximum of 128 simultaneous channels with Garritan instruments that use Kontakt Player 2. (Currently, only Garritan Instruments for Finale uses the Aria player, which also allows 128 different instruments.)

Once you have assigned each instrument to the correct channel, you are ready to configure your score for GPO Playback:

  • From the MIDI/Audio menu, choose Instrument Setup > Audio Units Instruments (on Mac) or VST Instruments (on Windows).
  • In the same dialog box, click on the pull-down menu next to Finale Channel 1-16 and choose Native Instruments: Kontakt Player 2, Native Instruments: Garritan Personal Orchestra (for Full GPO), or Native Instruments: Garritan Jazz (for JABB). You will also see Finale's integrated Aria Player that allows you to load the included Garritan sounds. For more on the Aria Player, see Aria Player.
  • Then click the Edit button next to the pull-down menu:
  • This brings up the first instance of the Kontakt Player, which you will use to load the Garritan instruments you want to use in your score:

Kontakt Player 1:

Kontakt Player 2:

The Garritan instruments are organized first by section (woodwinds, brass, strings, etc.) and then by instrument family (flutes, clarinets, bassoons, etc.)

Let's assume for the moment that the Instrument List for your score looks like Instrument List example 1, or the Instrument List example 2. In each case, the staff assigned to Finale channel 1 is a piccolo, so that's the first instrument you need to load.

Since this score uses orchestral instruments, we will describe the setup process using the Garritan orchestral libraries - Garritan Instruments for Finale and Full GPO. However, the steps for JABB users are very similar to the steps for Full GPO users, since both libraries use Kontakt Player 1.

  • Garritan Instruments for Finale (Kontakt Player 2) - click the down arrow button to the right of the Instruments button:
  • Then, select Piccolo Solo:
  • Full GPO (Kontakt Player 1): Click and hold on the Load button in the Kontakt Player, and then select Piccolo Solo KS from the Notation folder.

A recent version of Full GPO contains a set of instruments that have been optimized for use with Finale and Human Playback. These are found in the 'Notation' folder. So, whenever you load instruments from these sample libraries, you must remember to load only the ones found in the 'Notation' folder:

THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! If you are using Full GPO or JABB and you inadvertently load one of the instruments that isn't in the 'Notation' folder, many Human Playback features won't work correctly. The names of the non-Notation Garritan instruments are identical to the names of the Notation instruments, which means it's not possible to tell after the fact which version you've loaded. So be very careful when manually loading Garritan instruments!

JABB has a 'Notation' folder as well. Garritan Instruments for Finale does not have a 'Notation' folder because all of the Garritan Instruments for Finale instruments are Notation instruments. Finale's Setup Wizard always loads instruments from the 'Notation' folder, no matter which Garritan instrument library you are using.

You will also notice that in the full version of GPO, there are many more instruments to choose from compared to Garritan Instruments for Finale - for instance, as you can see in the illustration above, Full GPO has four different kinds of piccolo (whereas Garritan Instruments for Finale has just one). But no matter which Garritan instrument library you are using, whenever instruments with KS in their name are available - for example, Piccolo Solo KS - you should normally choose those instruments over other versions of the same instrument. For more information, see the entry on Keyswitches.

Finale 2010 For Mac Osx

You should now have successfully loaded your first Garritan instrument. The Kontakt Player should now look like this:

Garritan Instruments for Finale (Kontakt Player 2):

Full GPO (Kontakt Player 1):

  • To load additional instruments in Garritan Instruments for Finale (Kontakt Player 2): click again on the down arrow button to the right of the Instruments button. Then load the next instrument in your score. In this case, the second instrument in our score is a flute, so let's load Flute Plr1:

By default, the second instrument you load in Kontakt Player 2 will be assigned to Channel 2. In this score, the next staff below the Piccolo is Flute 1, and that staff is assigned to Channel 2. You can see which channel a virtual instrument has been assigned to by looking at the number next to the 'Midi Ch' indication in the Kontakt Player's Virtual Rack:

You will notice that Garritan Instruments for Finale has four different flutes to choose from, each with their own distinctive characteristics.

  • To load additional instruments in Full GPO (Kontakt Player 1): click on the first empty box in the horizontal strip at the top of the Kontakt Player (called the Virtual Rack) just to the right of the blue (highlighted) box:

By default, the second slot in the Virtual Rack corresponds to Channel 2. In this score, the next staff below the Piccolo is Flute 1, and that staff is assigned to Channel 2.

  • Load the next instrument in your score. In this case, the second instrument in our score is a flute, so let's load Flute Plr1:

You will notice that Full GPO has many different flutes to choose from, each with their own distinctive characteristics.

The procedure for loading additional instruments is much the same. Garritan Instruments for Finale (Kontakt Player 2) users can load up to 16 instruments for each instance of the Kontakt Player 2, and these 16 instruments should correspond to the instruments assigned to Channels 1-16 in Finale's Instrument List. If you refer once again to Instrument List example 2, you will see that these instruments are: Piccolo and Flute 1 (both already loaded), then Flute 2, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet in Eb, Clarinet in Bb 1, Clarinet in Bb 2, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Contrabassoon, Horn in F 1, Horn in F 2, Trumpet in C 1, and Trumpet in C 2. To load these instruments, repeat the procedure described above - click on the down arrow button next to the Instruments button in the Kontakt Player, then load the GPO instrument that best matches the instrument assigned to the corresponding channel in your score. (Since Garritan Instruments for Finale does not have a Clarinet in Eb, you will have to substitute a Clarinet in Bb. This is one of several additional instruments you will have access to if you upgrade to Full GPO.) The third instrument you load will be assigned to Channel 3, the fourth to Channel 4, etc. As you load up the Kontakt Player 2 with Garritan instruments, you will probably want to have the Instrument Window open so you can refer back to it.

  • Here's what the Kontakt Player 2 might look like after you load the first sixteen instruments from the Instrument Window from Instrument List example 2 (N.B. each instrument in the Virtual Rack has been minimized with the '-' button so you can see them all at once):

This instance of the Kontakt Player 2 is now fully loaded: there are sixteen available slots in the Virtual Rack (corresponding to Channels 1-16), and each one can hold just one Garritan instrument. Since our score has additional instruments, we will need to close this Kontakt Player instance and open another one.

On the other hand, Full GPO (Kontakt Player 1) users are limited to just 8 instruments per Kontakt Player instance. Since we already loaded two instruments, the remaining six empty slots in the Virtual Rack correspond (by default) to Channels 3-8, which are assigned to the next six staves in your score. If you refer once again to the Instrument List window shown Instrument List example 1, you will see that the next six staves below Flute 1 are: Flute 2, Oboe, English Horn, Clarinet in Eb, Clarinet in Bb 1, and Clarinet in Bb 2. To load these instruments, repeat the procedure described above - click on the next available empty slot in the Virtual Rack, then load the GPO instrument that best matches the next instrument in your score. As you load up the Kontakt Player 1 with GPO instruments, you will probably want to have the Instrument Window open so you can refer back to it.

Here's what the Kontakt Player 1 might look like after you load the first eight instruments from the Instrument Window:

This instance of the Kontakt Player 1 is now fully loaded: there are eight slots in the Virtual Rack (corresponding to Finale channels 1-8 by default), and each one can hold just one GPO instrument. Since our score has additional instruments, we will need to close this Kontakt Player instance and open another one.

2010

Note: In the example shown above, we had to substitute a GPO Bb Clarinet for the Eb Clarinet in our score, because Garritan Instruments for Finale does not include an Eb Clarinet. That's one of several additional instruments you will have access to if you upgrade to full GPO.

After closing the first Kontakt Player instance, you will see that the VST/Audio Units Instruments dialog box has remained open.

In this dialog box, click on the pull-down menu next to 17-32 and once again choose either Native Instruments: Kontakt Player 2 (for Garritan Instruments for Finale) or Native Instruments:

This brings up the second instance of the Kontakt Player, which looks just like the first one did - except for the title bar, which says:

What this means is that the first instrument you load into this second Kontakt Player instance will be assigned to Finale Channel 17, the second instrument will be assigned to Finale Channel 18, and so on.

Kontakt Player 2 (Garritan Instruments for Finale) users should continue to load the instruments in their score sequentially. Referring back to Instrument List example 1, you'll see that there are only 13 instruments remaining - the ones assigned to Finale Channels 17-29. That means we can load all of the remaining instruments into this second Kontakt Player 2 instance. So now it's just a matter of loading the remaining instruments into the Virtual Rack in order, just like we did with the first Kontakt Player 2 instance.

Once it's fully loaded with the remaining 12 instruments, the second Kontakt Player 2 instance (Bank 2) might look like this (again, instruments have been minimized to fit):

Meanwhile, Kontakt Player 1 (Full GPO) users can load only 8 instruments per Kontakt Player instance, the first empty slot in the second Kontakt Player 1 instance corresponds to Finale Channel 17. You can (hopefully) now see why, when we were assigning channels in the instrument list, we skipped Finale Channels 9-16. But if you still find this a little confusing, don't worry - so long as you set up your instrument list correctly in the first place, and you keep loading instruments in the order in which they appear in your score, you'll be fine.

Referring back to the first instrument list example, you'll see that the next group of eight instruments - the ones assigned to Finale Channels 17-24 - consists of: Bass Clarinet, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Contrabassoon, Horn in F 1, Horn in F 2, Trumpet in C 1, and Trumpet in C 2.

So now it's just a matter of loading the first instrument in this group into the leftmost slot of the Virtual Rack, loading the second instrument into the second slot, and so on, just like we did with the first Kontakt Player 1 instance.

Once it's fully loaded with the second group of eight instruments, the second Kontakt Player 1 instance (Bank 2) might look like this:

Continue to load each subsequent group of eight instruments into subsequent instances of the Kontakt Player 1 until you have loaded all of the instruments needed in your score:

Third Kontakt Player 1 Instance (Bank 3) - Virtual Channels 33-48:

Fourth Kontakt Player 1 Instance (Bank 4) - Virtual Channels 49-64:

As you can see, we needed a total of four Kontakt Player 1 instances to load all of the instruments needed to play our orchestral score.

  • Full GPO (Kontakt Player 1) users: before you close the final Kontakt Player 1 instance, click the Options button (below the Load button) and make sure the following settings are correct:
  • Use Std. CC#7/CC#10 Volume & Pan should be on.
  • Sustain/Sutenuto Pedal Mode should be set to Normal. If these settings are not already set correctly, after you fix them you may have to quit and re-launch Finale. (Remember to save your document first!) These options are set automatically for Kontakt 2 (Garritan Instruments for Finale) Instruments.
  • All users: If you want to hear the Garritan instruments you have selected when inputting music with a MIDI keyboard, choose MIDI Thru from the MIDI/Audio menu, then choose Smart. Remember to turn up the modulation wheel on your MIDI keyboard, or the GPO instruments might be too quiet to hear!

If you have used Garritan instruments with pre-Finale 2006 versions of Finale, and added expressions that were defined to trigger keyswitches (such as the expressions in the Finale 2005 Keyswitch Library available on the Garritan website), and plan on using Human Playback, you will need to edit the old keyswitching expressions used in your score so they are no longer defined for playback. To do so, edit the Playback Options (see “Expression Designer dialog box”) for all of those expressions and set them to None. The 'Notation' versions of Garritan instruments use different keyswitches, so your old keyswitch expressions will no longer work. In Finale 2010, Human Playback automatically performs keyswitches.

  • Before you play back your file for the first time, click the triangle at the left of the Playback Controls window (Mac version) or the speaker at the right (Windows version) to: reveal Finale's Playback Settings:
  • Choose the appropriate Human Playback style for your score:
  • In this dialog box, click the HP Preferences button, then click the Default button in the Human Playback Preferences dialog box.

You can find out more about all of these options in the Human Playback Preferences section - but for now, it's easiest to just hit Default, which will select the best HP settings for basic Garritan instruments playback.

  • Finally, to get the best stereo image for your instrument setup, from the MIDI/Audio menu, choose Set Panning.

That's it! Now your Finale document is ready to playback using Garritan instruments!

User Manual Home
You are here: Reference > Dialog Boxes > I > Instrument List dialog box

How to get there

Choose Instrument List from the Window menu.

What it does

The Instrument List provides a quick and convenient way to manage the playback of the various staves in your score. For example, you can silence a staff with a single click, or you can 'solo' a staff with a click, muting all other staves.

If your MIDI instrument is multi-timbral—capable of playing more than one instrument sound at once—the Instrument List also lets you assign a MIDI channel and patch (program information and optional bank change information which act together to provide an instrument sound) to each staff—and, in fact, to each layer of each staff.

The Instrument List also lets you create Instrument assignments for each staff and each layer of a staff. An Instrument is a MIDI channel/patch setting. For example, you might create an Instrument named Strings which will be mapped to your MIDI keyboard’s channel three, and will have the patch set to change your keyboard to its second bank of sounds and use the Strings program on that bank.

Then, it’s a simple matter to assign each of the string staves in your score to this same Instrument, saving you the trouble of assigning a channel and patch to each staff individually. Instead of mapping multiple staves into one Instrument, you can also do the reverse—map a single staff into multiple Instruments—by setting a staff’s layers to play on different MIDI channels with different patches.

The Instrument List window also affects recording with HyperScribe. Two columns in the Instrument List, R and RChan (R always appears; RChan only appears for multitrack recording), identify which staves or layers of staves Finale will record into, and from which channels, during HyperScribe recording. These settings appear only when View by Staves is selected.

The Instrument List, by the way, is a standard Finale floating window. You can move it by dragging the title bar at the top, close it by clicking the control-menu box in the upper-left corner, click the Maximize button in the upper-right corner to make it fill your screen, or make it taller or shorter by dragging the resizable frame. (You can also hide the Instrument List window by choosing its name a second time from the Window menu.)

  • R (Record). A Record (R) column that specifies which staves or layers will be recorded into, with the HyperScribe Tool, always appears. When the Record column is blank, no staves (or layers) of staves are selected to record into. Click in the R column next to the staff you want Finale to record into. A black triangle appears in the R column, indicating that Finale will record into the active layer of that staff.

You can also record into a particular layer of a staff. First expand the staff by clicking the down arrow next to the staff name; Layer 1 through Layer 4 appears. If the staff is selected to record into (a black triangle appears in the R column for the staff name), a small triangle in parentheses indicates the current layer that will be recorded into. If you change the current layer using the Layer Controls in the Document window, the small triangle moves to reflect the current layer that will be recorded into. To specify a particular layer to record into, click in the R column next to the layer of the staff you want Finale to record into. Note that you cannot record chords or expressions in an expanded staff; Finale will ignore any clicks in the R column for chords and expressions.

If you’re not multitrack recording (Record into One Staff or Split into Two Staves is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe menu), you don’t need to use the Instrument List to specify which staff to record into; simply click the staff in the score that you want to record into.

If, however, you prefer to use the Playback Control’s Record button (instead of clicking a measure in the score), then you must use the Instrument List’s R column to indicate the staff or layer to record into. Click in the R column next to the staff or layer you want Finale to record into. Click on a different staff or layer to select it instead. The triangle moves to the staff or layer you clicked.

If you are multitrack recording (Multitrack Record is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe menu), click in the R column next to the staff or layer you want Finale to record into. Click the R column to select additional staves or layers to record into. Click again to remove the triangle (so Finale won’t record into the staff or layer).

In an expanded staff list, a triangle in parentheses shows the default layer that Finale will record into. If you specify one or more layers of a staff to record into (for multitrack recording only), a striped triangle will appear in the R column for the staff name to indicate that one or more layers will be recorded into for the staff. The striped triangle also appears in a collapsed list so you can immediately see, without expanding the staff, that one or more layers will be recorded into.

  • RChan. The Record Channel (RChan.) column only appears for multitrack recording (Multitrack Record is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe menu). RChan indicates what channel(s) will be recorded into the staves (or layers). Enter the channel number(s) that you want Finale to record from for each staff or layer. By default, Finale records from channel 1 (RChan is set to 1). If you specify more than one channel for layers of an expanded staff, Finale displays the word Mixed in the RChan column for the staff (next to the striped triangle in the R column) to indicate that several incoming channels will record into this staff.

Note: If you’re using multitrack recording, you must set up the Instrument List window’s R and RChan columns for each staff (or layer) you want to record into.

Note: When you’re not multitrack recording (Record into One Staff or Record into Two Staves is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe menu), the RChan column does not appear. In fact, you don’t need to set up the Instrument List window at all; use the Receive On channel in the HyperScribe Options dialog box to indicate what channel will be recorded for the staff (or layer). Click the measure of the staff you want to record into. (Finale uses the Instrument List’s R column to determine which staff to record into only if you click the Record button on Playback Controls.)

  • Staff Name • [Arrows]. In the Instrument List, you see the staves in your score. (If you haven’t named the staves, they appear numbered.) Using the controls in this staff’s row (Play, Solo, and so on), you establish its various playback features.

When the small arrow next to the staff name points down, each setting you make affects all layers of the staff. If you want to give different playback settings to each of the four transparent layers of each staff, click the arrow. It turns to point upward, and six new rows appear in the Instrument List, one for each layer, plus one each for Chords and Expressions. At this point you can change the Play, Solo, Channel, and other parameters for each individual layer. Click the arrow a second time to 'collapse' the layer rows into a single staff row again. If there are too many rows to see in the window, use the vertical scroll bar to adjust your view.

  • Layer 1 • Layer 2 • Layer 3 • Layer 4 • Chord • Expression. These rows of information only appear when you click the downward arrow next to a staff name. Using these subdivisions of a staff, you can assign an Instrument, MIDI channel, or patch to each of these playback elements—allowing the music on each layer, for example, to have its own sound. Chords refers to the chord symbol you’ve placed in a staff; they can actually play back over their own patch and channel, if you wish. (If you don’t want chord symbols to play back, route them to an unused MIDI channel, or deselect chords from the Play column.) You can also specify patch and channel settings for the Expressions of a staff. Unless you plan to connect the computer to a MIDI-controlled mixing or lighting board—in the event that you’ve created expressions that control these external devices—you can leave the expression assignments alone.
  • M (Mute). In this column, a black square appears across from the name of each staff that you want to mute when you play your score. By clicking in this column across from a certain staff, you make the square disappearturn white, indicating that the staff will sound when you play the score.

If you’ve expanded a staff to view its individual layer assignments, and you turn on the Mute setting for some layers but not others, the square in the Mute column will appear striped. That is your signal that the individual layers of the staff have mixed settings in the Mute column. Note that the Playback checkbox in Document Options-Layers provides the same function.

  • S (Solo). When you click in the Solo column across from a staff name, a black circle appears, and the black-square Play indicators for all other staves turn white. In other words, you’ve just isolated a staff so that only it will play back, and all the other staves are silent. (You could achieve the same effect by clicking in the Play column for all other staves, so that their Play squares each turn white—but that would take much more time and effort.) You can solo more than one staff, if you wish—for example, you can solo two or three staves, and all the others will be silent. In fact, you can solo all staves, although there wouldn’t be much point, since you may as well solo none of them.
  • Vol. You can use this text box specify an exact volume value, 0-127, for a staff, and all other staves set to the same channel. This setting is dynamically linked to the Volume sliders in the Mixer and Staff Controls.
  • Pan. Use this text box to specify an exact pan value, 0-127, for a staff, and all other staves set to the same channel. A higher value pans right, a lower value pans left. Playback volume will be weighted to the left or right speaker accordingly. 64 is center. This setting is dynamically linked to the Volume sliders in the Mixer and Staff Controls.
  • Instrument. By clicking on the word Instrument, you produce a drop-down list containing all of created instruments, as well as, the New Instrument command. This command brings up the Instrument definition dialog box, where you can define the MIDI channel, program change, and bank change assignment for a new virtual Instrument (see Instrument Definition dialog box), whose name will now appear in this column.

Once you’ve defined and named one or more Instruments of your own, their names appear in the Instrument drop-down list across from each staff name. Now you can start to save time when it comes to assigning patches and channels to other staves or layers—simply choose one of your Instrument names from the Instrument drop-down list, and the staff you’re working with will automatically get the same MIDI channel, program, and bank settings as other staves with that Instrument.

Here’s an example. Suppose you have a piano part with two staves. Across from the top piano staff, choose New Instrument from the Instrument drop-down list, and create an Instrument called Pno Sound, that plays on MIDI channel 4, program 22. Now, for the bottom piano staff, simply choose Pno Sound from the Instrument drop-down list. Finale automatically gives it MIDI channel 4, program 22—and if you change the program or channel for either staff, the other staff’s program or channel will change to match.

To edit an Instrument name or delete an Instrument, select View by Instruments (see below).

  • Chan. This column displays the MIDI channel assignment for each staff (or layer), from 1 to 64 (or 32, if your MIDI interface is a 32 bit card). To change this number, double-click, and type a new channel.

If you’ve assigned several staves to the same Instrument, by the way, remember that they’re all linked to the same MIDI channel. Therefore, if you edit the Chan. assignment for any one of these staves, the Chan. for all of them will change to match, because any given Instrument can only have one channel assignment. (If you truly want a staff to have an independent MIDI channel, first assign it to a new Instrument.)

  • B. The Bank column (B) appears between the channel and program columns in the Instrument List. If you set up a simple patch assignment by entering a program change number with no bank information in the Instrument List, nothing appears in the bank column. However, if you enter a bank change and a program change number for an instrument, Finale places a 'B' in the bank column for that instrument.

To set up a bank change, click or ctrl -click the bank column to display the Instrument Definition dialog box. For details, see Instrument Definition dialog box.

  • Prog. The number in this column identifies the program (synthesizer sound) number assigned to each staff (or layer). To edit it, just double-click the number and type a new one.

If you’ve assigned several staves to the same Instrument, once again remember that they’re all linked to the same Program. Therefore, if you edit the Program assignment for any one of these staves, the Program for all of them will change. If you prefer to set up your MIDI instruments so that their programs are already selected for each MIDI channel, you can ignore the Prog. settings in the Instrument List. Finale will only transmit these Program settings to the MIDI instruments if Send Patches Before Play is selected in the Instrument List window.

  • GM. This column displays the General MIDI descriptive name of the Program number. By clicking on the name, you produce a drop-down list containing all of the names. Select the desired GM name to have Finale fill in the matching Program Number.
  • Percussion MIDI Map. From this popup menu, choose the desired Percussion MIDI Map for playback. See Percussion MIDI Maps.
  • View by Staves • View by Instruments. When View by Staves is selected, the information in the Instrument List is organized by staves, as they appear in the score.

You can also re-organize the list so it’s displayed by Instrument (by selecting View by Instruments). By doing so, you can see which staves and layers have been assigned to each Instrument.

  • Play All • Play None. These buttons turn the squares in the Play column for all staves (and layers) on or off, respectively.
  • Solo All • No Solos. These buttons turn the black circles in the Solo column for all staves (and layers) on or off, respectively.
  • Edit Instrument. Select an instrument and click the Edit Instrument button, or ctrl-click in the Chan., B, Prog., or Instrument columns to display the Instrument Definition dialog box, where you can change all aspects of an instrument’s definition, including the bank or program change information.
  • New Instrument. To create a new Instrument, click this button. The Instrument Definition dialog box appears. Here you can create the new instrument name, as well as define the instrument’s channel and Patch information. Note, this button only appears when View by Instruments is selected in the Instrument List window.
  • Delete Instrument. To delete an Instrument, select an Instrument name in the left column, and then click Delete Instrument. The Instrument is removed from the list. This button is only available when View by Instruments is selected in the Instrument List window.
  • Send Patches Before Play. Select this option if you want Finale, just before it begins playback, to transmit any patch information specified in the Instrument List to your MIDI instruments. You probably won’t want to select this option, however, if you prefer to assign programs to MIDI channels on your MIDI instrument before you begin playback, instead of letting Finale do it. If you select Send Patches Before Play, Finale will wipe out any MIDI channel/patch configurations you’ve set on your MIDI instrument, and use the information defined in the Instrument List window for playback.
  • Auto-create Instrument. This checkbox only appears when View by Staves is selected. If this checkbox is selected, Finale will automatically create a new Instrument for each new staff created. You can rename them or change their channel and patch assignments by clicking View by Instruments and editing the various boxes. If this box isn’t selected, then Finale will assign every staff in your score to the same Instrument, channel, and patch (until you change them by creating new Instruments).

Note: To have this function take effect, you must first select the checkbox, then create new staves. If you create new staves then select this button, all the staves will be assigned to the same instrument.

Note: If a dot appears in the Solo column, only the soloed staves (or instruments) will play back.

See Also:

User Manual Home

Finale 2010 For Mac Catalina