Finale Instrument upgrade tutorial. Long but very good read

[MetroidHunter26]

Well I kinda figured this out a long time ago but once I did it just hightend my experiance for making music

so what you basicly do in a nut shell is switch files so you can have more instruments at your disposal.

you first get an instrument text file they can be found in your finale folder under this direction (I use vista but HOPEFULLY you all can find it)

C:\Program Files\Finale (any version Allegro,PrintMusic,Notepad) (Any Year 2005,06,07,08)\Component Files

and there you will find a text file called Instrument and in this text file is this!

[INS:Piccolo]
Name          = Piccolo
Abbr         = Picc.
useKeySigs      = 1
Transposition   = 12
StaffType       = standard
Clef         = treble
Patch          = 72
RangeLow      = 74,74,77,85
RangeHigh      = 108,103,96,99
ExWizDisp      = 1

that is what it uses to do instruments. but this is from the Allegro Intrument file

[INS:Piccolo]
Name          = Piccolo
Abbr         = Picc.
useKeySigs      = 1
Transposition      = 12
StaffType       = standard
Clef         = treble
Patch          = 72

This is from the Notepad

In notepad you can ADD more instuments just by using that as a template.

for example you want a Taiko Drum but it doesn't have it on Finale notepad.
you simply use the above

and tweek it

[INS:Taiko Drum]
Name          = Taiko Drum
Abbr         = T Drum.
useKeySigs      = 1
Transposition      = 0
StaffType       = standard
Clef         = bass
Patch          =

now patch is a weird thing to do. see the instrument list on finale has a different # set to the instruments.


if you were to find taiko drum on finale it would say it is # 117 but the PATCH # could be ENTIRELY different! well ocasionaly most of the instrument patches you just need to subtract 1 from the number of what the Finale instruments say.

but it gets realy technical and I did ALOT of trial and error which is why I made a back up of the instrument list before I mess with it!

but that's not all theres plenty to do!

when you scroll down in the text you'll see something like this

[GRP:Keyboards]
Name         = Keyboards
Abbr         = Kbd.
GroupBars      = 0
Piano          = x
Harpsichord       = x
Synthesizer       = x
Organ          = x

[GRP:Voices]
Name         = Chorus
Abbr         = Chor.
GroupBars      = 0
Soprano       = x
Alto          = x
Tenor          = x
Bass (Vocal)   = x
Voice         = x

[GRP:WW]
Name            = Woodwinds
Abbr            = W.W.
Piccolo          = x
Flute             = x
Recorder         = x
Oboe             = x
Clarinet in Bb       = x
Clarinet in A      = x
Bass Clarinet       = x
Soprano Saxophone   = x
Alto Saxophone       = x
Tenor Saxophone    = x
Baritone Saxophone    = x
Bassoon          = x

that basicly is the group of the instruments of where they should go. so I could add an extra woodwind if I needed to or make a new group!

BTW all of the = x should be lined up well some of them. you'll need to use TAB when you want to line them up but if they can't then just TAB once others you'll need to TAB twice.
same goes with the instrument part on the top

Now the next part is the Orchestral Order.
[ORD:Orchestral]
Piccolo         = x
Flute          = x
Recorder       = x
Oboe          = x
Clarinet in Bb    = x
Clarinet in A    = x
Bass Clarinet    = x
Soprano Sax.    = x
Alto Sax.       = x
Tenor Sax.       = x
Baritone Sax.    = x
Bassoon       = x
Horn in F      = x
Trumpet in Bb   = x
Trombone       = x
Baritone (T.C.)   = x
Baritone (B.C.)   = x
Tuba          = x
Violin          = x
Viola          = x
Cello          = x
Contrabass       = x
Soprano       = x
Alto          = x
Tenor          = x
Baritone (Vocal)= x
Bass (Vocal)   = x
Voice         = x
Mandolin       = x
Banjo          = x
Guitar          = x
Guitar TAB      = x
Electric Guitar = x
Electric Bass   = x
Bass 4 String   = x
Bass         = x
Harp          = x
Harpsichord    = x
Piano          = x
Synthesizer    = x
Organ         = x
Timpani       = x
Mallets       = x
Snare Drum      = x
Bass Drum      = x
Drum Set      = x
Percussion       = x

if you manage to get all these instruments on one sheet this is how they'll be aligned. you can also change that but you can do that in the setup part in the program but if you want to add an instrument to the mix it's easy just type the name and and TAB Once or Twice and type = x and your set!



A little something you might not of known


but also another cool thing. While I had Finale Allegro I discoverd that the instrument file will work anywhere! and all I did was put my Allegro instrument file into my notepad and printmusic one and so it was from this



to this!



so yeah just wanted to share that

I hope I enlightend you all!

[starpikachu]

So this was what you were talking about? Cool

[MetroidHunter26]

yes indeed

[Tgamer240]

I'm going to try it today.

[MetroidHunter26]

I'm going to try it today.

but there is alot more to go through so just hang on I will put the rest soon (meaning now)

[Akiro]

There is no point if you have Finale 08 itself, which is really easy to get.  Which also I just stated the obvious.

[MetroidHunter26]

There is no point if you have Finale 08 itself, which is really easy to get.  Which also I just stated the obvious.

exactly unless if you have a slow computer and want to try that your self but it is time consuming.

[Beethoven II]

hehe. I hax. now my printmusic has all the ones as Finale

[PianoMasta7]

Ya...I added Cymbals to Finale NotePad but I don't have it anymore...

[HungryDragon]

I had discovered this a while ago with notepad 07 but I really didn't decide to mess around it too much. Thanks for making some of it make sense