Finale Forum

I'm writing some parts for a drumset and the beams are slanted like as in normal notation for regular instruments. Is there a way to flatten ALL the beams to be straight across rather than having to do them ONE by ONE?

Found it.

NOTE BEAM and REST EDITING / FLAT BEAMS.

You have found the setting for flattening all beams in the entire document.

You can also flatten the beams in a single staff.
This is done via the Staff Tool.

Not sure how to do that.

what i was doing was selecting which staff or measures I wanted to flatten then selecting FLAT BEAMS.

1) To flatten all beams in the entire document (all measures, all staves):
Document menu > Document Options > Beams > Beaming Style: Flatten All Beams

2) To flatten all beams in an entire staff (globally):
Staff Tool.
Double-click the staff.
In the dialog box Staff Attributes, select the Behavior option "Flat Beams".

3) To flatten all beams in a selected region of a staff (locally):
As in 2), but instead of altering the Staff Attributes, create a custom staff style, and apply the custom staff style to the selected region.

Awesome. Thanks for that. Never knew it.

Question ... is it customary to stem the foot actions (kick, hihat foot) down and the hand stem actions up?

If so ... how do I do this if they're all on one staff?

You can do it with layers.
Put the upstem notes in Layer 1, and the downstem notes in Layer 2.

You can specify the layer behaviour for each layer, in
Document menu > Document Options - Layers

Great.


I already charted it all out in one staff so I guess I'll have to do it again in layers on another staff? I'm trying to select just specific notes in Layer 1 to move to Layer 2 but it's not happening.

I guess I'll just have to go from square one.

I thnk there's a plug-in that will let you split the chords and reassign the layers. JW Polyphony, maybe?

I'll check it out. I've never been able to do it thus far but i haven't tried a plugin.

1) Miker is correct. The plug-in JW Staff Polyphony -> Layers -> Split leaves the top note in Layer 1, sends the 2nd note from the top to Layer 2, etc… in a selected region.

2) A 4th way to flatten beams in a selected region is using the plug-in JW Change -> Beams -> Flat.

Both plug-ins can be found on the finaletips.nu site (Jari Williamsson), downloads section.

great. just got it. I'll try it tonight and report back.

thanks for the help

I tried the split and it sent the Kick drum to layer 2 but replaced the note about 10 ledger lines too low.

It also didn't split the middle note (snare hit).

Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

Can you post a picture of what you have, and explain what you want?

I redid it all by hand ... but I will post when it comes up again. I think I worked totally backwards on my first drum chart but at least I know now how to start.