Staff Styles not loading - Instrument changes

[StevenWalker]

Greetings Hive Mind,

In Finale 25, when I try to switch staff styles within the Staff Styles dialog box, VDL options are not populating. I am only seeing the generic option available within Finale.

I've loaded the FIN14_VDL255_Percussion.lib file into both the Common and User options of the Application Support/Make Music/Finale/Libraries.

All other VDL/WriteScore options seem to be functioning as normally. I am able to select alternative VDL sounds via layers, I simply can't get the appropriate visual representation within the score. Playback is working seemingly as it should. Additionally, within the score I even tried loading the appropriate FIN14_VDL255_Percussion.lib, but other than the spinning color wheel, I get no result.

Any feedback or suggestions are most welcome at this point. The innerwbz and YouTubez have yielded nothing helpful as of yet.

Many thanks in advance,
Steven

MBP 2019
2.4 x 8 i9
64gb/

[TBoliske]

Steven,

I believe that the Staff Styles were dropped from the templates around that time as they were not needed. This was around the same time as the introduction of the Score Manager and the Change Instrument Utility.

I would suggest you use the Change Instrument Utility, especially when working with non-pitched percussion. Switching from one rack combo to another (Cymbals to Metal for example) lets you select the measures, set up the channels in Kontakt, apply the Percussion MIDI Map and set the Percussion Layout without moving between too many tools. Add a Text Expression (those are built in to the templates) to indicate to the performer/instructor/director about the changes.

Let me know if this helps or if you were looking at other types of changes, say soft to hard mallets or mallets to non-pitched. Just about everything is possible via Change Instrument and Text Expressions.