Working with the Instrument List

To assign staves to MIDI channels and instruments

1. From the Window Menu, choose Instrument List. The Instrument List window appears. Down the side of the screen you see the names of the staves in your document. At the right side of the screen, you can see the Instrument each staff is assigned to (and the MIDI channel that Instrument uses).
2. To change the MIDI channel for a staff, click in the Chan column across from its name, and type a new channel number. Keep in mind that you’re now changing this Instrument’s channel; if any other staves share the same Instrument, their MIDI channel numbers will change, too.

You can also change the channel for an individual Layer of a staff. To do so, click the triangle to the left of the staff name; Finale displays new rows of information that correspond to the staff’s Layers. Change any Layer’s Instrument assignment, using the Instrument drop-down list across from its name, or just edit its Channel. If you want the Layers to have different MIDI channels, remember to assign them to different Instruments first.

3. Click the staff name’s upward-pointing arrow to “collapse” (hide) the list of layers.

If you plan to re-use a typical patch/channel configuration, consider defining it, and naming it, as an Instrument. To do so, choose New Instrument from the Instrument drop-down list across from any staff name. Enter the patch and channel numbers, and click OK. Then, the next time you want to re-create a particular channel and patch configuration for a particular staff, your new Instrument's name will appear in the drop-down list for quick access.

To load an Instrument Library

One of the advantages of Finale’s Instrument List is that, with a single command, you can configure a score with an elaborate MIDI setup, complete with channels, patch numbers, and their specific program names (“Breathy Winds.” for example).

1. Choose Load Library from the File Menu. The Open Library dialog box appears.
2. Navigate to your Libraries folder. Double-click the Instrument library you want to open. We’ve provided Instrument libraries for several popular MIDI instruments. You can, of course, create your own.

Once you’ve loaded a library, open the Instrument List. When you click the Instrument drop-down list (in the Instrument column across from a staff name), you’ll see a list of a dozen or more Instruments, each set up to match the names and patch information on your MIDI Instrument. Simply choose a program name to assign it to a staff. (You can view the choices more clearly if you select the View by Instruments button.)

If you customize a MIDI configuration, or own a MIDI instrument for which we haven’t provided a library, it’s easy to create your own. Using the New Instrument command in the Instrument drop-down list you can create several Instrument name/channel/patch setups. When you’re finished, choose Save Library from the File Menu, select Instruments, and click OK. Load this library the next time you want a quick way to assign channels and sounds to the staves of a score (see Save Library dialog box for a more complete discussion of libraries).