Finale Forum

Hey all,

Percussion maps. geez, what am I doing wrong. I have a Korg nanoPAD2. I wat to use it exclusively for percussion input. For example, I want Pad 1 to be the Hi Hat, Pad 7 to the bass drum, etc...I am completely lost as everything I have tried (For example, setting Pad 8 for MIDI note C5) so it could be for inputting snare drum, but Finale keeps putting it as a C 3 octave below. No matter what I do!!!

Please help me set up a percussion map with an external MDIi controller other than an 88-key keyboard.

Thanks!

David

I don't have much experience with percussion, but there is an Application Preference for whether Middle C is C3 or C4. Perhaps that is a factor?

Davidabb wrote:I want Pad 1 to be the Hi Hat, Pad 7 to the bass drum, etc...I am completely lost as everything I have tried (For example, setting Pad 8 for MIDI note C5) so it could be for inputting snare drum...

I wish I could be helpful, but I have always found the percussion section one of the most maddening parts of Finale. I have huge libraries of drum patterns. I can drag these into any DAW and they play just fine without any tweaking. If I try to bring one of those MIDI (General MIDI) files into Finale, all hell breaks loose. The playback is only right for one or two kit pieces, and the notation is insane. There have been multiple occasions over the years where I have spent 10+ hours trying to come up with some process that would make this work and each time I have given up in rage.

I don't know why it has to be so difficult.

There are both input maps and output maps. The input map relates a MIDI note received to a particular instrument, and doesn't have to correspond to where on the staff that instrument's note is displayed.

In September I did up a score for a "downsized" version of a musical. I did the drums per Finale (hi-hat, snare, toms, cymbals, kick etc) and in Finale (JAAB, SI-drums, etc) the score played back as I thought it should. Then I gave it to the real drummer, a pro from a local symphony.

EVERY cymbal was not where she expected it to be. My hihat became her ride, and the bell of the ride when I thought the hihat was open. My ride cymbal was she expected the crash to be...

So we sat at my laptop and played it back while she made notes on her score. Not the way it was supposed to go, but in the end it turned out all right.

I don't know why this hasn't been fixed. They've sure known about it for a long time.

EVERY cymbal was not where she expected it to be. My hihat became her ride, and the bell of the ride when I thought the hihat was open. My ride cymbal was she expected the crash to be...

Maybe I'm wrong, but you could have edited the Percussion Map in use to change the location of the notes to what the percussionist was expecting, and just printed out a new part.

I agree with Ron Brown - drum set notation is not standardized. Some players will be forgiving, others not so much.

N.