Create Timbale MIDI Map and Layout

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RG921
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 2:50 pm
Finale Version: 26.1
Operating System: Mac

Post by RG921 » Mon Oct 14, 2019 4:25 pm

Hello. I am helping out a friend (a percussionist) who is doing a percussion ensemble arrangement in Finale 26 (Mac). Specifically, I am helping with finding the best options for playback especially for the non-pitched percussion instruments. He has available the Garritan Instruments for Finale and SmartMusic SoftSynth. He has notated exactly what he wants but as is known, there has to be a sound to correspond with that notation in the sound set. I have taken a deep dive into this topic as I want to understand this better myself. I have read many posts from this forum, the archived MakeMusic forum and the Finale manual. And thanks to several of you, I have learned quite a bit more. However, my mind is spinning for best methodology.

To the question at hand: Attached is the key for the timbale part.The closes Percussion Layout I found is the Timbale Layout that uses the SmartMusic SS Cuban Percussion. It contains 4 sounds and those sounds will work for the part. However, the part needs 3 more specific sounds.

From what I have read, there seems to be 2 main solutions. One is to create a new Percussion MIDI map and the other to use different MIDI maps in different layers. Here I think the best choice is to create a new MIDI map as the part is very active. I know there are suitable available sounds that would be adequate. This is where I need some help as even though I have read directions and posts, something is not clicking with me. Do the sounds I choose need to be SmartMusic SS also? Can I choose from GIfF? Then, how do I exactly do that? If there are directions for this somewhere, please let me know. Any help here is appreciated. Many thanks!


sandalwood
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:04 pm
Finale Version: 2014.5- W10
Operating System: Windows

Post by sandalwood » Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:43 pm

I'll try to tell you how I (still a newbie) do it in Finale 2014.5. There are very probably better ways of doing it.

* Seeing you have reached the 4 sounds of the Cuban perc., I believe when you highlight Timbales in the Score Manager and click Settings below, Perc. Layout Selection dialog box appears with Timbales highlighted on it.

* Click Duplicate and then click Select. Open it again and now click Edit > Perc. Layout Designer opens. Change the Layout name at the top, say "Timbales Project A" for instance.

* Click the "+" sign below, a new blank note type opens and is highlighted. Now open the "Note Type (Select)" drop down menu on the right hand side and choose World 2 > Timbale. Ten Timbale sounds should appear and you can transfer them one by one to your Perc Layout. Give each one a different notehead or a different position on the staff using buttons etc to the right. You'll later see that some have the same sounds despite different names. You can later eliminate those.

* Now, you can uncheck "Only view Note Types in Cuban Percussion", this will let you reach many more sounds where you can forage the various bell and cymbal sounds you'll possibly need and similarly add them to your custom made Perc Layout. You'll have to do a lot of auditioning because the names of sounds may often be misleading.

I hope I have not skipped anything and all this helps and does not mislead. Always work on copied Finale files to avoid ruining your only file. Think twice before deleting Perc. Layouts etc that you have not created yourself. It should help to read online the Percussion layout related chapters of the manual, first. Good luck!

ttw
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:29 am
Finale Version: 27.4
Operating System: Windows

Post by ttw » Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:03 am

I've mostly done this using the GWI timbales, but I tried using the Garritan Instruments for Finale to see what happens.

I'm using Finale 26.1 for Windows.

Using the Wizard, I set up a staff for timbales. In the File Manager I chose 5-line staff. Then (this probably only applies to Finale 25 or 26) loaded the Percussion Layouts library (a also load the GWI Percussion and my custom Latin percussion libraries).

Next in File Manager I chose "setting" and get a list of stuff. In this case, I'm lucky, I get a "timbales" percussion map already available. I copy this setup; then edit it (to give it a new name) and use the "list only available percussion" stuff. The percussion map starts with high and low timbales and rims. The Garritan for Finale doesn't have the high rim. So I delete that. Then I save the map.

The staff uses 2 lines (one of low and the other for high) and two note types (normal and rim.)

This procedure (with a few modifications) lets me setup all the "interesting" instruments. Cowbells seem a bit hard (only in Percussion Toys and Jazz?). I often just use Agogo bells for Cowbells. The cows don't know the differences.

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