How to get there
Choose Instrument List from the Window Menu.
What it does
The Instrument List provides a quick and convenient way to manage the playback of the various staves in your score. For example, you can silence a staff with a single click, or you can "solo" a staff with a click, muting all other staves.
If your MIDI instrument is multi-timbral—capable of playing more than one instrument sound at once—the Instrument List also lets you assign a MIDI channel and patch (program information and optional bank change information which act together to provide an instrument sound) to each staff—and, in fact, to each layer of each staff.
The Instrument List also lets you create Instrument assignments for each staff and each layer of a staff. An Instrument is a MIDI channel/patch setting. For example, you might create an Instrument named Strings which will be mapped to your MIDI keyboard’s channel three, and will have the patch set to change your keyboard to its second bank of sounds and use the Strings program on that bank.
Then, it’s a simple matter to assign each of the string staves in your score to this same Instrument, saving you the trouble of assigning a channel and patch to each staff individually. Instead of mapping multiple staves into one Instrument, you can also do the reverse—map a single staff into multiple Instruments—by setting a staff’s layers to play on different MIDI channels with different patches.
The Instrument List window also affects recording with HyperScribe. Two columns in the Instrument List, R and RChan (R always appears; RChan only appears for multitrack recording), identify which staves or layers of staves Finale will record into, and from which channels, during HyperScribe recording. These settings appear only when View by Staves is selected.
The Instrument List, by the way, is a standard Finale floating window. You can move it by dragging the title bar at the top, close it by clicking the control-menu box in the upper-left corner, click the Maximize button in the upper-right corner to make it fill your screen, or make it taller or shorter by dragging the resizable frame. (You can also hide the Instrument List window by choosing its name a second time from the Window Menu.)
You can also record into a particular layer of a staff. First expand the staff by clicking the down arrow next to the staff name; Layer 1 through Layer 4 appears. If the staff is selected to record into (a black triangle appears in the R column for the staff name), a small triangle in parentheses indicates the current layer that will be recorded into. If you change the current layer using the Layer Controls in the Document window, the small triangle moves to reflect the current layer that will be recorded into. To specify a particular layer to record into, click in the R column next to the layer of the staff you want Finale to record into. Note that you cannot record chords or expressions in an expanded staff; Finale will ignore any clicks in the R column for chords and expressions.
If you’re not multitrack recording (Record into One Staff or Split into Two Staves is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe Menu), you don’t need to use the Instrument List to specify which staff to record into; simply click the staff in the score that you want to record into.
If, however, you prefer to use the Playback Control’s Record button (instead of clicking a measure in the score), then you must use the Instrument List’s R column to indicate the staff or layer to record into. Click in the R column next to the staff or layer you want Finale to record into. Click on a different staff or layer to select it instead. The triangle moves to the staff or layer you clicked.
If you are multitrack recording (Multitrack Record is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe Menu), click in the R column next to the staff or layer you want Finale to record into. Click the R column to select additional staves or layers to record into. Click again to remove the triangle (so Finale won’t record into the staff or layer).
In an expanded staff list, a triangle in parentheses shows the default layer that Finale will record into. If you specify one or more layers of a staff to record into (for multitrack recording only), a striped triangle will appear in the R column for the staff name to indicate that one or more layers will be recorded into for the staff. The striped triangle also appears in a collapsed list so you can immediately see, without expanding the staff, that one or more layers will be recorded into.
Note: If you’re using multitrack recording, you must set up the Instrument List window’s R and RChan columns for each staff (or layer) you want to record into.
Note: When you’re not multitrack recording (Record into One Staff or Record into Two Staves is selected in the Record Mode submenu of the HyperScribe Menu), the RChan column does not appear. In fact, you don’t need to set up the Instrument List window at all; use the Receive On channel in the HyperScribe Options dialog box to indicate what channel will be recorded for the staff (or layer). Click the measure of the staff you want to record into. (Finale uses the Instrument List’s R column to determine which staff to record into only if you click the Record button on Playback Controls.)
When the small arrow next to the staff name points down, each setting you make affects all layers of the staff. If you want to give different playback settings to each of the four transparent layers of each staff, click the arrow. It turns to point upward, and six new rows appear in the Instrument List, one for each layer, plus one each for Chords and Expressions. At this point you can change the Play, Solo, Channel, and other parameters for each individual layer. Click the arrow a second time to "collapse" the layer rows into a single staff row again. If there are too many rows to see in the window, use the vertical scroll bar to adjust your view.
If you’ve expanded a staff to view its individual layer assignments, and you turn on the Mute setting for some layers but not others, the square in the Mute column will appear striped. That is your signal that the individual layers of the staff have mixed settings in the Mute column. Note that the Playback checkbox in Document Options-Layers provides the same function.
Once you’ve defined and named one or more Instruments of your own, their names appear in the Instrument drop-down list across from each staff name. Now you can start to save time when it comes to assigning patches and channels to other staves or layers—simply choose one of your Instrument names from the Instrument drop-down list, and the staff you’re working with will automatically get the same MIDI channel, program, and bank settings as other staves with that Instrument.
Here’s an example. Suppose you have a piano part with two staves. Across from the top piano staff, choose New Instrument from the Instrument drop-down list, and create an Instrument called Pno Sound, that plays on MIDI channel 4, program 22. Now, for the bottom piano staff, simply choose Pno Sound from the Instrument drop-down list. Finale automatically gives it MIDI channel 4, program 22—and if you change the program or channel for either staff, the other staff’s program or channel will change to match.
To edit an Instrument name or delete an Instrument, select View by Instruments (see below).
If you’ve assigned several staves to the same Instrument, by the way, remember that they’re all linked to the same MIDI channel. Therefore, if you edit the Chan. assignment for any one of these staves, the Chan. for all of them will change to match, because any given Instrument can only have one channel assignment. (If you truly want a staff to have an independent MIDI channel, first assign it to a new Instrument.)
To set up a bank change, click or ctrl -click the bank column to display the Instrument Definition dialog box. For details, see Instrument Definition dialog box.
If you’ve assigned several staves to the same Instrument, once again remember that they’re all linked to the same Program. Therefore, if you edit the Program assignment for any one of these staves, the Program for all of them will change. If you prefer to set up your MIDI instruments so that their programs are already selected for each MIDI channel, you can ignore the Prog. settings in the Instrument List. Finale will only transmit these Program settings to the MIDI instruments if Send Patches Before Play is selected in the Instrument List window.
You can also re-organize the list so it’s displayed by Instrument (by selecting View by Instruments). By doing so, you can see which staves and layers have been assigned to each Instrument.
Note: To have this function take effect, you must first select the checkbox, then create new staves. If you create new staves then select this button, all the staves will be assigned to the same instrument.
Note: If a dot appears in the Solo column, only the soloed staves (or instruments) will play back.
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