Hi Robert
I’m on FinMac 25
I’ve just spent this last week dealing with this. Agree that it’s confusing to
say the least. And all I wanted to do was setup a standard rock/jazz drum kit.
Sheez
Here’s my overview for a drum kit using the SmartMusic SoftSynth General MIDI
(GM) Percussion map:
- Can’t have both AU unit sample playback and external Midi Devices (Yamaha
MU100R, MU50 and E-mu Proteus 1 and 2)
- Except you can have AU playback to Garritan Instruments for Finale and
SmartMusic SoftSynth (GM)
- left Percussion Input Maps…: set to “Match Input Map to Output Map” at
Finale>MIDI/Audio>Device Setup>MIDI/Internal Speaker Setup…>MIDI System
- In Finale>View>Show>Percussion MIDI Values selected in order to see the MIDI#
numbers in the score. NB: They are strictly graphical and cannot be printed
from Finale. Instead I’ve taken screen snapshots to save as PNG for reference.
I have these ON whilst settting up the Drum staff as a visual cross-check
- For me to figure out what default Percussion MIDI Maps are available and
their respective MIDI note# to respective staff positions, I used the Score
Manager:
- ie in the main, upper-half of the window, Finale>Score
Manager>Instrument List (tab) shows the Name/Instrument as Drum Set/Drum Set;
the Device is SmartMusic SoftSynth; the Sound is Standard; the Prog 1, Bank 5,
MIDI ch 10; and the Perc MIDI Map selected is General MIDI.
- To select/define the mapping oif the devices’ MIDI sounds to
notation, go to Finale>Score Manager>Instrument List (tab)>lower half, right
side. The Notation Style chooses the Percussion stave style
- to access/edit the Percussion stave style and note representation of
the MIDI #, go to Finale>Score Manager>Instrument List (tab)>[right side]
Notation Style>Settings… button shows Percussion Layout Selection as
“Percussion”
- The Percussion Layout Selection list comes up. Choose the Percussion
Layout required eg “Percussion” and go to Finale>Score Manager>Instrument List
(tab)>[right side] Notation Style>Settings>Percussion Layout
Selection>“Percussion”>Edit… button at left-hand bottom.
- The Percusion Layout Designer window comes up to show thew Note Type
(GM Instrument/Souond Name), a graphic preview of Finale’s Staff representation
position and note types, and corresponding MIDI note number. To the right of
the listing, you can see/edit the list entries accordingly.
- eg the note MIDI# 40 corresponds to "Electric Snare Drum"
patch/program and Staff Position 7 in the “Percussion” layout
- From the Score Manager nested menus, I then laboriously took screenshots of
each entry and manually pasted into a working Word document for this piece
- NB: from the Percusion Layout Designer window you can, apart from
checking/editing current default Percussion MIDI Maps, also create a new Map
from scratch or duplicate and existing one;
- Confusingly, there is also another menu ostensibly to create “Percussion MIDI
Maps” via MIDI/Audio>Play Finale Through Audio Units>Device Setup>Edit
Percussion MIDI Maps. This brings up the Percussion MIDI Map Editor. Here it’s
possible to select the Device and its relevant Maps. The existing MIDI note
numbers can be edited and new Note Types added to the existing Maps. This menu
works in conjunction with the Score Manager menus above. However, in this case
you can create/edit the Note Types, whereas, in the Score Manager menus, the
Note Types are allocated and only the Finale staff positions are manipulated.
Further, by selected the New tab, it sends you to the Finder save dialog box
entitled “Save Finale MIDI Device File” .xml and points to the directory “MIDI
Device Annotation" directory at ~user/Library/Application
Support/MakeMusic/Finale/. In that directory, exists default .xml files:
This appears to be the .xml file that contains all Percussion MIDI Maps for
each of the respective devices.
I’ve imported some General MIDI drum patterns from the internet and they are
automatically allocated to a default Device’s Percussion drum map (priority of
this can be set in Finale>MIDI/Audio/Sound Map Priority…) that can be quickly
changed in the Score Manager. However, how the MIDI# manifests itself on the
staff notation is dependent on the Notation Style settings….
I found the default Percussion Notation Style settings OK but will necessitate
me doing tweaks on a piece by piece basis, most likely. Although, I’m next
going to try setting up a preferred ‘standard’ drum set and save in the
“Percussion Layout Selection” dialog box. This will then become part of the
data contained in the device Percussion MIDI Map .xml file. I’ll make archival
backups etc.
Finally, I’ll tackle creating some Percussion MIDI Maps for all of my
old/vintage external MIDI devices (Yamaha MU100R, MU50 and E-mu Proteus 1 and
2). The Yamaha are XG (Xtended General MIDI) shouldn't be too difficult but the
Proteus sample playback devices are non-GM. They still sound great and have a
variety of temperaments for playback, such as Valotti-Young, and have many
pieces’ playback set for these sounds. I’m hoping someone on this list might
have already done the hard yards and developed some MIDI Maps for the Proteus?
Anybody? ;)
sorry if the above is a bit rambly, but I’m still getting my own head around
all of this, hope it helps
> From: Robert Patterson <[email protected]>
> Subject: [Finale] Percussion setup
> Date: 24 October 2016 at 00:30:13 ACDT
> To: finale <[email protected]>
>
>
> Does anyone have a handle of Percussion map setup? It seems like a complete
> CF to me. Half the time I select a percussion instrument and it puts up
> "The Percussion Layout(s) cannot be found" dialog box. Then it won't play
> back the correct sounds even when I enter the correct notes.
>
> And don't even get me started on having to constantly refer to the mapping
> to discover which arbitrary keyboard note I have to hit to get it to
> display on the correct line or space. Is there something I'm missing? It's
> so laughably bad that I can't see how anyone uses it. The way it worked 10
> years ago (or so) may have been geeky and computery, but at least it worked
> the same every time.
cheers, Claudio
*********
Dr Claudio Pompili (PhD)
MODBURY HEIGHTS SA 5092, Australia
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