Finale Forum

Is there a way, once you have finished a piece, to go back, add an instrument, and turn it into a duet?

Yes. Click the staff tool, then, in the Staff menu, New Staves... will take you to the Wizard, where you can add the new instrument.
By default, the new instrument will be added at the bottom. If you want it above an existing staff, click the staff tool, click in the box at the upper left of the staff, and then go to the Staff menu.

Is there a way to change an instrument? I.e. having finished a piece, go back and change the instrument assigned to a staff from tenor to alto sax or acoustic to electric guitar?

No problem. Open the instrument list, and use the center column drop down. Select New Instrument (it's at the top; you may have to scroll up to see it.) In the next dialogue box, at the bottom, select your new instrument. Note that this is where you can change channels, too.

Strictly speaking, you don't have to select New Instrument. You can just change the GM setting at the right. But I think it's less confusing than having 2 instruments showing in the same line!

Peaceful wrote:Is there a way to change an instrument? I.e. having finished a piece, go back and change the instrument assigned to a staff from tenor to alto sax or acoustic to electric guitar?

Staff tool.
Double click the staff to open the staff attributes window. Change the name (full and abbreviated), the transposition and clef if needed.
This will change the instrument globally, for the whole piece.
For playback, go to the Instrument list window and change the instrument (if needed, create a "New instrument" with a new midi channel).
You can also switch intruments locally in a staff with a staff style.

Is there a way to add new instrument staves in certain measures? I want the staves to appear on page two in the 19th measure and I don't want them to appear on the first page wasting space. The new instruments that i want to come in at the 19th measure are violin and cello voices, the instruments from the beginning are piano and solo cello. Please help. thanks

1) Are you still using Allegro?

2) Does the 19th measure begin a new system?

The general way the Finale programs work, is the other way around:
You add the instrument staves to the entire document, and remove them in the systems where you don't need them.
The removed staves will still be visible in Scroll View - they are only removed from Page View.

I don't know Allegro, but in Finale you would first enable "Allow Individual Staff Spacing" in the first systems of the score (where you don't want the added instrument staves), and then add the instrument staves.
New staves will not display in the systems where "Allow Individual Staff Spacing" was already enabled.

If the 19th measure doesn't begin a new system, you will also want to hide the added staves in the measures at the beginning of the system (cutaway score).
You can do so with the staff style "Hide Staff".

Peter Thomsen - Well, I liked the program so much I decided to buy Finale . I will try to do what you said. If i have any trouble I will ask you. Thank you guys so much, you're a huge help.

how do i enable "Allow Individual Staff Spacing"?

In PrintMusic, it's in the Page Layout menu.

For Finale and Allegro, more detailed instructions at: http://makemusic.custhelp.com/app/answe ... l/a_id/121

Do Songwriter and Printmusic support the addition of new instruments? I'm using NotePad right now, which obviously doesn't. I tried using the comparison pdf as a reference to find out which products give you the Staff tool, but I couldn't find the answer on the pdf. Thanks in advance.

miker wrote:In PrintMusic, it's in the Page Layout menu.

For Finale and Allegro, more detailed instructions at: http://makemusic.custhelp.com/app/answe ... l/a_id/121

SongWriter does not; PrintMusic does. I wouldn't purchase SongWriter, myself. Not only is it just marginally better than NotePad, it's still in v. 2007, so you would have to save any newer files as XML, and then import them into SW. Why go backwards?

Is there a way to do this? Songwriter 2005 doesn't have a staff tool so cannot add staves. It means that after the initial setup, I am stuck with the number of staves, and can't add or take any away. Help.

The only way is to set up a new score, and copy your music over to it.

Can somebody guide me how different between Songwriter and Printmusic in the way of support more features and reliable? I'm on the way to make decision to buy one.
Thanks for any help.

A lot has changed since this thread was begun. Currently, I would suggest SongWriter 2010. This version was brought up ALMOST to the level of PM2010. there are a very few differences between them. Then, PM2011 removed the ability to Allow Individual Staff Spacing. An error on MM's part, IMHO. For this reason, I suggest against buying that program.

But as always, I recommend that you download the demos, and decide for yourself.