Percussion notation question

[Gareth Green]

Is there a rule (hard and fast, or otherwise) governing the direction of stems in single-line percussion staves? Finale appears to default to downwards, but to my mind this kind of doesn't make sense, because it means that the placement of dynamic markings in lower than it would be if the stems were upwards, so the staves take up more space in the score than I would like, particularly when there are several of them, as in my current project ... any thoughts, please?

Thanks in advance, as always

[David Ward]

Gould (p 283) ‘recommends’ stems up but describes stems down as ‘acceptable’.

FWIW I usually notate stems up, with down stems for special techniques (eg striking an SD on the shell) &c.

[Peter Thomsen]

To make a single-line staff display up-stems, go to the dialog box Staff Setup, and change the Stem Reversal from -4 to -3.

[Gareth Green]

Thank you, both; I went with stems-up in the end.

Peter, I actually used the Utilities > Stem direction ... facility to change the direction; I wasn't aware of the Staff Setup option - thanks for the heads-up!