Finale GPO

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GPO / Finale Tutorial

This tutorial will help you create orchestral scores using Finale 2007 and the full version of GarritanPersonal Orchestra by:

• showing you how to set up a simple string quartet to make noise with GPO Studio,

• showing you how to customize text expressions to play back dynamics and articulationscorrectly,

• expanding the string quartet to a full orchestra,

• mixing elements from Garritan Jazz and Big Band to complement the orchestra

Before we start

Since the Garritan family of products are free-standing and designed to work with any one of several products, the

following are some suggestions that I found to make their integration with Finale 2007 easier. This guide assumes

that you have a very good working knowledge of Finale and are a novice with Garritan (like me!).

This tutorial will start at square one and will first help you build a fully functional string quartet. Then, we will take

our knowledge of the quartet and expand it to include a full orchestra.

This tutorial was written for Windows XP. I expect that it’s not very different on other platforms, but make no attempt

to write it for them. Most Finale commands are at least similar on Mac, but the MIDI Setup is not. Sorry, you’re on

your own, Mac users!

Also, along the lines of a disclaimer: I put this tutorial here for you to use and learn from. It works for me. If it

doesn't work for you, my apologies. This tutorial has not been approved by either the fine people at Garritan or the

equally fine people at MakeMusic.

CHAPTER ONE: Set up a basic String Quartet

This tutorial starts at square one. If you already know how to set up GPO Studio to play a string quartet, skip this

chapter.

Garritan has to be up and running before you try to make it play, just like musicians that need to be in their seats

before the conductor can give them the downbeat. There are several different applications that ship with Garritan,

but the easiest to use with Finale is actually a freebie that’s available on their website. Once you’ve installed this,

open it up. You’ll see that the application window is divided into 8 sections. Each of these 8 “players” can handle up to

8 instruments (for a total of 64 instruments if you have a beefy processor).

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GPO STUDIO

Right-click on the first player (red circle above) and select “Garritan Personal Orchestra” from the list. This list will

include all of the GPO libraries that you have installed. On my system, I see these choices:

NONE

GARRITAN PERSONAL ORCHESTRA

JAZZ AND BIG BAND

Once the player opens, select the first slot (circled in green below). This is where our first violinist will sit. Open the

pull-down menu by clicking the big ‘LOAD’ button (circled in blue below). Select Solo Strings>Violin>Violin I Gagli KS

Solo. If you pick one of the other violins it won't make a difference but make sure you have the one with ‘KS’ in the

name. Before you can make much noise with this, you will need to manually set the modulation wheel (on the left,

circled in red below). It defaults to 0, which is silent. Drag the modulation wheel up about two-thirds of the way.

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ONE OF THE 8 PLAYERS in GPO STUDIO

Use the same method to load your second violinist in the second slot. Use Solo Strings>Violin>Violin 2 Strad KS Solofor this slot. Load Solo Strings>Viola>Viola KS Solo in slot three and Solo Strings>Cello>Cello KS Solo in slot four. If

you set the modulation wheel to two-thirds for each instrument, you should be able to hear each one as you play

lovely melodies on the keyboard. (To switch instruments, click on the instrument name, circled in red below.)

FIRST PLAYER in GPO STUDIO LOADED WITH STRING QUARTET

Now that your ensemble is ready to go, you can select an instrument at the top (red circle above). When you click on

one of the blue notes on the keyboard, you should hear sound through your speakers. I know it's tempting, but don't

click on those orange notes yet. The white notes don't do anything. If you don't hear any sound, make certain that

the modulation wheel is set for each instrument. If it is, you might need to check your sound card configuration (As

in, you're on your own now!).

GPO Studio comes with something called ‘ambience’ that adds reverb and simulates different concert halls. For those

of us who are still working on mastering the mechanics of GPO, it’s best to turn this off. Right-click on the ambience

mixer in the lower-right corner of the GPO Studio window and select None. Also, if your processor is a little light this

will save a lot of CPU overhead. Once you have all four instruments loaded and the ambience turned off, we’re ready

to launch Finale.

I know it seems like a pain to set all of this up. The good news is that GPO Studio will let you save these ensembles

to your computer. I have one for band, one for orchestra, one for string quartet, etc.

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CHAPTER TWO: Making Finale talk to GPO Studio

This tutorial started at square one. This chapter is square two. If you already know how to set up

Finale to talk to GPO Studio, skip this chapter.

Open Finale. This tutorial assumes that you are using Finale 2007. If not, best of luck to you!

I would recommend that you resist the temptation to open a pre-made template file. Finale 2007

comes with Native Instruments fully integrated, but we need to use a different setup in order tohave full control over the instrumentation. So when the Launch Window appears in Finale, just

create a new default document. Use CTRL+E to switch to scroll view, and add three more staves. Set

the alto clef for the viola and the bass clef for the ‘cello. (There are a bazillion tutorials on Finale, so

I’m glossing over the details here). The idea is that you need your four string quartet staves. Next

we need to set up MIDI to communicate with GPO. Select MIDI>MIDI Setup... from the MIDI menu.

When the window pops up, click on the Show Advanced tab. On the right is where the outputs are

sent. For now, don’t think too hard. Just adjust the pull-down menus to make it look like this.

Basically, all we are doing is telling Finale to send the first 8 of our 64 channels to the first player,

channels 9-16 to the second player, etc.

MIDI SETUP in FINALE 2007

If you use a MIDI keyboard in your setup to play notes into Finale, you'll want to do this, too. Select

MIDI>MIDI Thru... and set it like so:

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MIDI THRU in FINALE 2007

In a little while, we'll set up a player in GPO Studio to play back the notes from your keyboard using

the piano sound.

We’re just a few steps away from making noise. Select Window>Instrument List from the menu bar.

I like to start with a clean slate so that none of the default values will mess up our new stuff. Click

the button at the bottom (red circle below) that lets you view it by instruments, and delete them all

(I used the blue button below). When your instrument list is empty, you are ready to continue.

ALL INSTRUMENTS have been DELETED

Now, go back to viewing the instruments by staves (red circle below). For the First Violin, create a

new instrument. Set its channel to 1 and don’t worry about anything else. Create new instruments

for the other three staves. The names of the instruments don’t really matter, but make sure that

the channels are correct. If you want to get really fancy, you can tweak the pan setting so that your

players are set apart in stereo. Showoff.

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NEW INSTRUMENTS for our STRING QUARTET

So here (above) is the final instrument list. Make sure that when you view it by staff each

instrument has been assigned to the right staff. Click where the red circle is in the picture above todouble-check the assignments.

Just like before, don't worry if this sounds like a lot of work. We'll be saving all of this in templates

so that you can get going very quickly when inspiration strikes (or, if you're like me, when someone

needs a copyist).

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CHAPTER THREE: Volume and Dynamics

Before we can start creating our string quartet, a word about volume, dynamics, Finale’s mixer, the volume control

knob in GPO, the modulation wheel, and key velocity: The first time I tried to use GPO, all of these things baffled me

to no end. Let’s see if I can dispel some myths.

First of all, even though there are six items listed above, we’re really only talking about a few things. Keep in mind

that you are taking on several roles at once here: you are now the composer, conductor, and sound engineer at the

debut (congratulations). Many of these things will affect how loud the instrument sounds through your speakers.

The Modulation Wheel (MIDI Controller 01) controls how loud the instrument is played. That means, if your

violinist is sustaining a D you can use this control to gradually crescendo until the end of the measure. The tricky part

of this is that modulation wheel is considered continuous data. That means that the whole time your song is playing,

continuous data is being sent to the GPO Studio by Finale. Even if you haven’t set it, and even when the first violinist

isn’t playing. As a default, this is set to 0. the maximum setting is 127. When we manually set the modulation wheel

in Chapter One, we were setting the modulation wheel.

The Key Velocity of a note controls how hard the beginning of the note is attacked. Unlike the Modulation

Wheel, the key velocity is not continuous data. Each note that is sent to the GPO Studio has data for key velocity, but

it’s only one number. By default, this is 64. It can be anywhere from 0 to 127. Key velocity, since it is not continuous

data, is only sent to the GPO Studio at the beginning of a note. Once the note has started, key velocity has no more

function. (Unlike the modulation wheel, which can be used to modify the note after it has started.)

The Volume control (MIDI Controller 07) sets the overall volume of each instrument. This can be confusingat first. Think of volume as the setting on the sound engineer’s mixer. The performers (assuming they’re using mics,

which a string quartet doesn’t but bear with me!) will have the volume of these set at sound-check, but will not have

access to the controls while playing. Likewise, once you set the volume control, it’s best to leave it alone.

As a default, Finale sets the volume of each instrument at 101. You can see this in the Instrument List. I have found

this to be too loud for most ensembles. For now, set this to 64 in the instrument list. You will be able to tell that the

instruments' total volume is too much if you hear crackling (also called peaking). The more instruments are playing,

the lower each of their volumes needs to be set to make it sound right. For chamber music, start at 64. For band an

orchestra, I start around 40. More on this later. In any case, here's what the instrument list should look like now.

INSTRUMENT LIST in FINALE 2007

Finale’s Mixer view looks at first like it would be really handy, but I don’t ever use it. First of all, it has crashed twice

on me when I did something unexpected like scrolling the mouse wheel. Second, we’re going to create a very detailed

list of expressions that will take care of all these functions for us. They will be much easier to use. How many

composers do you know who also specify mixer settings in their scores?

To further confuse things, the GPO Studio includes a volume knob. Open up the player that we fil led with out quartet,

and find the knob on the right (circled in red below). This know controls the volume of the instrument, the very same

controller that we just set in the instrument list. And yes, the Mixer in Finale controls this as well. I told you this was

confusing -- three places for the same control.

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VOLUME CONTROL in PLAYER

This knob controls the volume, just like the Mixer and Instrument List in Finale. What you need to know is this:Finale will always override this setting as soon as it starts playing. So, don’t waste an hour (like I did) trying to figure

out why GPO keeps resetting the volume so loud. Even if you haven’t touched the volume in the Instrument List or

Finale’s Mixer, your GPO Studio volume will always be overridden by Finale. For this reason, I wouldn’t touch this

knob either. To avoid running into trouble, we’ll set a good volume for everyone (64) in the Instrument list and forget

about it. ONLY SET VOLUME IN THE INSTRUMENT LIST

PLAYBACK SETTINGS ICON in FINALE 2007

Using the icon above, adjust the Playback Settings. Set Human Playback to NONE. We'll do it ourselves.

Next, we need to set up our dynamics. Get the expression tool, double-click on the page, and delete everything but

the dynamic markings. Select the first dynamic in the list, fff, and click Edit... Now, select the Playback tab and set it

like so:

PLAYBACK of FFF DYNAMIC in FINALE 2007

Then, we'll use the very handy hidden font in Finale. Select the Text tab. Use the font tab to give you a small,

non-serif font like Verdana. I used 9 pt. for my size. Type MW111right after the fff. You'll see why in a minute. This

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(below) is how your expression should look now. (You can also set the description field like I did, but it doesn't do

anything.

TEXT of DYNAMIC in FINALE 2007

Go ahead now and fix the rest of the dynamic expressions. Finale also includes ffff and pppp but I have never found

cause to use these, so I just delete them. (In fact, I hardly ever use fff or ppp.) You can use my settings or your own:

Dynamic * Mod. Wheel Setting

fff 111

ff 97

f 83

mf 69

mp 55

p 41

pp 27

ppp 13

If you’ve never used Metatools before, I recommend that you take a minute to give them a try. They are quickly

learned and will really speed up your entry time. To use a metatool, you just hold down one key and click on a note

with the expression tool. Waabo, a f appears under the note, just where you need it. Choose a key like ‘F’ to

represent forte. Hold down Shift and then hit F. The Expression window pops up. Double-click on our new f (not the

old one!) and you are set. Now set up the rest. When I use metatools, I start my dynamics in a row with fff on the Skey and ff on the D key. We’ve already set f for the F key. Keep on going down the line and ppp will end up on L.

Dynamic * Metatool Key

fff S

ff D

f F

mf G

mp H

p J

pp K

ppp L

With all this done, we can (finally!) start to make some nosie in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER FOUR: Making Some Much-Deserved Noise

Use any method you want to enter some notes in all four staves. Use your metatools to assign dynamics to them.

You should be able to hear the difference as you play it back. You should be able to use any of your dynamics and

hear the difference. As a rule, I don't monkey around with the Volume at all once I've began. The fine people at

Garritan have done a very decent job balancing the volume of the individual instruments.

MY LOUSY QUARTET

Be absolutely certain that your expressions for dynamics are assigned to notes, not measures. They should

appear RED in the score. When you are using the Expression tool, select Expression>Metatools: Note Attached

from the menu bar. If you don't, your dynamics won't look right or play back right.

If you didn't hear your lovely quartet, check these things:

- Is the MIDI Setup correct, so that the sending channels on the right are set to GPO Studio Player 1-8?

- Is the channel of each instrument in the Instrument List right? (Violin I>1, Violin II>2, Viola>3, Cello>4)?

- Are the dynamics you created adjusting modulation wheel settings?

- Is the volume of each staff in the Instrument List set to 64?- Are any staves muted or soloed (Look in the Instrument List, make sure that the ‘M’ and ‘S’ column are empty

the whole way down.)

- Did you start the GPO Studio applicaton BEFORE you launched Finale?

- Is your soundcard fast enough and configured correctly?

Now, it will be important for us to save our work so that we don't duplicate our work next time. I created a

Templates folder in My Documents where I store a Finale file for each ensemble that I work with. This way, if I

ever need to write a string quartet again, I know it will be all set up. (Don't bother saving the Finale file as a

template, just open the template file and use SAVE AS... to make a new one).

I also save each of the setups that I create in GPO Studio. Go ahead now and save both your string quartet

template and you GPO Studio session to somewhere that you will be able to find them.

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CHAPTER FIVE: Crescendo, Descrescendo, Intensity, and NoteAttacks

By now you should be able to create a decent-sounding quartet with your dynamic markings

interpreted by GPO correctly. I'm sure that soon you'll come to the realization that without a

crescendo or a decrescendo, your quartet will sound decidedly dull. This chapter will guide you

through that process.

Enter some more notes in a quartet, and include a crescendo this time. You'll no doubt notice that

the crescendo created with the Smart Shape doesn't have any effect on the playback - we need to

do this ourselves. The good news is that this is very easily accomplished. Remember when we

created our set of dynamic expressions, and we added in little letters MW55 after them? Here is

where they come in useful. Let's say that you have a viola part that needs to crescendo from mp to

mf . All we need to do is gradually scale the modulation wheel data from the mezzo-piano level (55)

to the mezzo-forte level (69). First, click on the MIDI Tool. Then, select MIDI Tool>Edit Continous

Data... and make it look like this:

MIDI TOOL>Edit Continuous Data...

Now, we can use any of the tools in this menu to edit the MIDI Data. Still using the MIDI Tool,

highlight each beat of the viola part that is within the crescendo. Don't include the note marked mf .

Just a reminder: make sure that your dynamics are always entered as note-attached expressions.

They should be red. If they appear in green, they are attached to the measures and won't work

right. Anyways, use the MIDI Tool and select like so:

VIOLA PART SELECTED for MIDI EDITING

One selected, go back to the MIDI Tool menu and select MIDI Tool>Scale MIDI Data... Assuming that

we will be going from mp to mf , enter this in the dialog box:

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MIDI Tool>Scale MIDI DATA

Decrescendos will work the very same way, but you'll be scaling from a larger to a smaller number.

Remember that you shouldn't include the first note in the new dynamic when you select the

measures to scale. This note (the first in the new dynamic), will have its modulation wheel set tothat dynamic -- 69 in the case of mf . You don't have to worry about remembering what number

corresponds to each dynamic level, since it displays right next to the dynamic. Assuming you used

the hidden font like I showed you, it won't appear on printouts.

The MIDI Tool can be used to copy MIDI data from one measure to the next, and this seems to work

pretty reliably. One rather annoying undocumented featurein Finale is that if you select the entire

quartet and apply MIDI data, it will only apply this to the top staff. You then need to copy the MIDI

data from the first violin to the second, viola, and 'cello. I don't know why this is and it drives me

crazy.

One last note: keep in mind that the modulation wheel controller doesn't just control loudness

(though this is its primar function). The intensity of the sound increases with the loudness. I willoften scale up the modulation wheel with the rise of a phrase, and scale it back down again as it

recedes. Keep it within the level of the previous and next dynamics for continuity. For example, if

you choose to scale the modulation wheel within a mf phrase, keep your settings above 55 (mezzo-

piano) and below 87 (mezzo-forte).

One more one last note: remember that the modulation wheel data will stick where you leave it at

the end of a piece. If you've just been working on a really loud part, and then you decide to play it

from the opening where it's a pp viola solo, it will come in VERY loud unless you make sure that the

first note in each part is given a dynamic marking.

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CHAPTER SIX: Bowings and Pedals

I won't pretend to be an expert on orchestral bowings. Even composers with far more experience than

I don't usually meddle in the affairs of violinists and teir methods. The furthest most composers will go

is to provide an indication with the slur mark of which notes are to be bowed separately and which areto be taken on one bow. GPO has a handy function that will play back slurred notes as well as

separated notes. In the hopes of being clear, I'll use the term slur to indicate notes that are plaed on

the same up- or down-bow. I'll use the term separated to indicate the opposite, notes that are played

each on their own bow-stroke.

To put this into action, we will need to create some notes. To hear the differences, enter a

four-measure phrase in a moderate tempo in the violin part. Copy and paste this to the next four bars.

We'll leave one part alone and modify the bowing style on the second one. Here's my lovely phrase:

MY LOVELY PHRASE, TWICE

Before we can do much of anything with this, check a setting in our instance of GPO Studio. Click the

Options button (circled in red below).

GPO OPTIONS BUTTON

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GPO OPTIONS BUTTON

I'll explain this in greater detail later, but make sure that SUSTAIN / SOSTENUTO PEDAL MODE is set

to MIDI CC (like you see above). The rest of this chapter won't work unless it's set on this.

To control slurs and separated notes, we'll need two new expressions. Create the first one. Use a small

font like this, and make sure to click the hidden font button. This expression will be literally all over

our score, and we defintely don't want it to print out. For the text of the expression, I use sl.

CREATING THE SLURRED EXPRESSION

Under the playback tab, enter this information:

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THE SLURRED EXPRESSION's PLAYBACK TAB

We'll be adjusting the MIDI Controller 64. Users of General MIDI will recall that this is the sustain

pedal controller. To slur notes, we need to set this controller to ON, or 127. The only difficulty is, once

this controller is set it will stay there until something changes it. Enter our second expression:

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THE SEPARATED EXPRESSION (both the TEXT and the PLAYBACK tab)

This expression will undo the previous one by setting MIDI Controller 64 to its OFF position, 0. The

'pedal' will remian off until the first expression (sl) turns it back on. Since these two expressions will

be our most commonly used, set them to easy metatools. I use 'A' for slurred and 'Z' for separated.

Before we begin monkeying with this, go back to the beginning of our quartet. No matter what the

style of our piece is, the first note in each part must begin with a separated attack. Use the metatool

now to assign the expression 'se' to the first note in each part.

Now let's put it into action. Return to our four-measure phrase. Using the Smart Shape tool, create

the slur marking and put it over some of the notes in the repeated phrase.

MY LOVELY PHRASE, with SLURS

To make this play back accurately, enter the expressions as shown below. The first note in the phrase

needs to start with an 'se' expression -- even if it's slurred. Remember, the first note is always given

this attack. Beginning with the second note under the slur, we need to assign the 'sl' expression. The

second, third, fourth, (etc.) will all begin as written, but the attack will be modified and each note will

'touch' the one that came before. All is well until we finish the notes under the slur. You need to

remember now that the 'pedal' is ON -- and will be until you turn it off. The next note you play (even

if it starts a new slur) needs to be assigned an 'se' expression.

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MY LOVELY PHASE, with EXPRESSIONS to CONTROL PLAYBACK

Notice how, in the section where there are two notes bowed together, the 'se' and 'sl' expressions

alternate. This makes sense, since you would notice a violinist attacking hte first note and slurring the

second note. If you play this back, you will hear the difference.

Look back near the beginning of this chapter, where I told you to set the Option for Sustain Pedal to

MIDI CC. This spells a problem for us later. By setting this to MIDI CC and not to its default, Normal

Sustain, keyboard instruments that actually would use a sustain pedal can not. Unfortunately, when

this option is set in one of the players, it will be set the SAME WAY in all the players. Unless you also

purchased the Jazz and Big Band library, in which case you get a free pass. If you plan to use a piano

(either playing it through your computer to hear voicings or as an instrument in a later piece), set the

last (8th) player to be a Jazz and Big Band player (see chapter 1 for how to do this). In this player's

first slot, load up the steinway name?. If you set the options of this player to treat the sustain pedal

as Normal Sustain, the Jazz and Big Band instruments -- namely your piano -- will use the sustain

pedal in the normal manner. If you don't have JABB, there are many other solutions out there but I

haven't tried any of them out.

By this time your quartet is really coming alive. You have dynamics, crescendos, and even slurred and

separated articulations. In the next chapter, we'll explore some of the other playing articulations

available -- including the inevitable pizzicato.

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CHAPTER SEVEN: The Inevitable Pizzicato

Think back to when we first set up our GPO Studio in Chapter One. Remember those orange notes that I told you not

to touch? Well, here's where they come into use. The orange notes are known as keyswitches, and they provide a

convenient method for sending instructions to GPO Studio in real-time. Their operation is actually very simple. Finale

simply 'plays' these orange notes. When it does, GPO Studio responds by changing the sound you hear. For example,click on this note in GPO:

KEYSWITCHING IT UP

Once you've hit this note, any of the blue notes you play will come out sounding like a pizzicato, not a bowed

articulation. To go back to the bow, click the C below (the lowest orange note), and we're back to normal.

Unfortunately for us, Finale does not have a very convenient interface for setting the keyswitches. The good news is

that we can save our expressions in a library so they are ready when we need them.

First, we will need to create two expressions. For the text part of them, use pizz. and arco. I'll let you do this on your

own. We'll start with the pizz. expression. The playback portion is the hairy part. First, select Dump... form the list.

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PLAYBACK of PIZZICATO. START with DATA DUMP

And then, just bear with me here. We need to adjust these settings to hit the right orange keyswitch when we need

it. For now, just make the dialog that pops up look like this: (and yes, those are dollar signs. In case the image is

fuzzy or lost,

Number of Units: 3

Data: $90

$29

$7F

PIZZICATO DUMP... for VIOLIN and VIOLA

[If you're interested in all the gory details, we just entered the hexadecimal number that corresponds to thekeyswitch that we needed.]

For the arco expression, set the Data Dump like this:

ARCO DUMP... for VIOLIN and VIOLA

Once again, in case the image gets garbled, the dialog for violin and viola acro is:

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Number of Units: 3

Data: $90

$24

$7F

In this life, nothing is ever simple. When you click on the Cello in your GPO Studio, you should see that the orange

notes now appear one octave lower. This means that the keyswitches we set up for violin and viola will not work for

the 'cello. Not to fear! In the Expression dialog box, create a copy of the arco and pizzicato expressions. The only

thing that needs to change for these is that wild and wacky Data Dump settings. Before you do this, though, you will

want to add a description. In the description field, add a note like this in each part.

CELLO PIZZ./ARCO DESCRIPTIONS

Now, we're ready to alter the Data Dump settings. Make the 'Cello's Data Dump look like these:

CELLO SETTINGS

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Cello pizzicato Number of Units: 3

Data: $90

$1D

$7F

Cello arco Number of Units: 3

Data: $90

$18

$7F

Sorry that was kind of a pain. It works though - well, almost. If you play around with this in your piece, you'll notice

a few problems. First of all, the dynamics don't seem to do anything. Second, if your piece ends playing back pizzicatobut the beginning is supposed to be arco, it will often start plucking instead of bowing. Not to worry!

Let's take this one at a time. First of all, the issue of dynamics. The designers at Garritan determined that there was

really no reason to use a continuous data controller like the modulation wheel for a very short sound like pizzicato.

The key velocity controller is a much more logical choice. To do this right, we will need to create a new set of

expressions that set the key velocity. In the expression window, make a copy of each of the dynamic marking that we

used for the modulation wheel. It would be wise to set the description and little hidden text as 'KV112,' etc. Here's an

example of how the text tab should look:

KEY VELOCITY Text Tab

I set the key velocities for each dynamic level like so: I find that these dynamics are 'shaped' a little differently and

need to be increased at the high end and babied at the low end. Use these, or your own.

fff - 124

ff - 110

f - 97

mf - 85

mp - 74

p - 64

pp - 55

ppp - 47

When all is said and done, this is what my Expressions window looks like. See how I have labelled the function of

each expression. Trust me, if you don't, you'll forget which one of your mf 's is for KV and which is for MW.

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KEY VELOCITY and MODULATION WHEEL TEXT EXPRESSIONS

These dynamic expressions [the key velocity ones] will be used to control the loudness of our pizzicato attacks. Try

them out in practice. Here's an example. Also note: Make sure that each pizzicato section is given the 'se' and

not the 'sl' expression; otherwise it will not play!

PIZZICATO, ARCO, SLURRING, and DYNAMICS in ACTION

Notice above that the proper dynamic expression for each note is used. It may look at first like a pain to do this, but

if you set up your metatools correctly it becomes rather fluent. I use the top row of the letters on the keyboard, with

fff placed on 'E' and ppp placed on 'P.'

For more on how to set up metatools, visit the Appendix.

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CHAPTER EIGHT: Trills and Termelos

This chapter is where the GPO really comes to life. In it, we'll learn how to use invisible layers to customize trills and tremelos. Take for example, this lovely little

melody here:

PRETTY, NO?

It's OK, but it lacks something. Notice the trills in the first violin part. These should definitely be audible. Also, each part in measures 9 and 10 has some unmeasured

tremelos. We really need those to get the full effect of the ff dynamic that the composer wants.

First, the trill s. Believe it or not, the easiest, most customizable, and most reliable way to do this is by entering in every single note in the tr ill ourself. I imagine that

trill to look and sound like this:

We could just enter those 32nd notes into the score and we'd be all set -- until it's time to print. Then, the first violinist will see all those black notes and he or she will

faint. (Could be worse - imagine if there were 32nd notes in the VIOLA part!). The point is that the notation notes need to be different than the playback notes. We

need to include duplicate entries: one set that is played back but not seen, and another set that i s seen but not played back. It's easier than it sounds.

First, we'll set up one layer of our violin staff to be silent at all times, even if there are notes in it. We do this in the instrument list. We'll just take away the instrument

from that layer:

INSTRUMENT LIST

Next, we'll copy our notation set over. From now on, any notes in Layer 4 will be used only for notation. Start by deleting all the expressions and smart shapes in the

measure (se, sl, and the trill marking). Using the Mass Mover Tool, copy the notes in Layer 1 to Layer 4. Then, input the notes of the trill as above in Layer 1. Finally,

make SURE you're editing layer 1. In layer 1, input the 'se' and 'sl' markings. You'll need to add a 'sl' on the second note of the trill and an 'se' on the C after it. Then,

in layer 4 you'll need to add the trill sign. It should look like this:

23



TWO LAYERS

We're almost there. It still looks ugly, doesn't it. Our next job is to fix that. Create a new Staff Style, and set it up l ike so: Call it 'Layer1Blank' and click Alternate

Notation... When the dialog box comes up, click Blank Notation. Click OK here, then OK in the Staff Styles box.

STAFF STYLE

Finally, apply this Staff Style to the whole measure. Your measure will look like this mess:

UGLY MEASURE

The gray notes above are invisible to the printer. The only problem now is that they are still taking up space. If you have selected Automatic Music Spacing, all you

need to do now is click the measure with the eraser tool (don't erase any notes! Click in a safe spot!) and it will snap back to the right size, ignoring all the invisible

layer 1 notes.

UGLY MEASURE, SNAPPED TO SIZE

To prove it, here is what a printout of this measure looks like -- all pretty.

PRETTY MEASURE

We will do a similar thing with the trill in the eighth measure. Here is the final on-screen look and sound of this passage.

24



25



CHAPTER EIGHT: Trills and Termelos

In our last chapter, we were working with this melody. We got it to sound pretty good with trills, but the tremolos at the end are in need of some special

attention.

PRETTY, NO?

In the same way that we 'customized' our trills with an invisible layer we will customize our tremolos. A tremolo is really just one note repeated very quickly.

We could just write a bunch of 16th notes in our playback layer (layer 1). But that isn't what the composer intended. He wanted unmeasured tremolos. If we

did anything that divides the beat into 4, 6, 8, 16, etc., it would sound like 16th or 32nd notes. So think about the quartet playing this. They probably won't

play straight 32nd notes. Most of all, they definitely won't all play the same thing. I used tuplets to make Finale play this for the tremolos. As a general rule, I

have the 'higher' instruments playing the fastest notes.

TREMELISCIOUS

Not great by any stretch of the imagination. The notes played simply aren't fast enough. We could enter a bunch of 32nd notes, but that sounds suspiciously

like lots of work. There is a very useful keyswitch in GPO for tremolos. Once activated, the note is repeated as soon as it stops. If we applied it to this

situation, the first violin would play 60 notes instead of 30. To do this, we need another expression or two. I'm not going to go into great detail on how to

make expressions for keyswitches. If you need a review of the process, look in Chapter Seven. Here's what you need to know:

Create these four Dump... expressions. Two of them will set the instruments to tremolo mode, and two will return them to normal. [NOTE: The 'normal' ones

that you create will serve exactly the same playback function as the 'arco' expressions we created in Chapter Seven. We need these duplicates so that they are

invisible (more on this later).]

26



TREMOLO, NORMAL DUMPS

In the Expressions window, they look like this: All of these are to be created with the hidden font. Notice the metatools.

NEW EXPRESSIONS

Before we put our new expressions to much use, here's a good habit to get into. At the beginning of each string part I always include the 'normal' patch. This

way, if there is a tremolo or pizzicato part going on when I stop, I will always hear the correct sound at the beginning of the piece. Be sure to assign the violin

and viola keyswitches to violins and viola, and the cello keyswitch to the cello.

NEW EXPRESSIONS RESET TO NORMAL IN FIRST MEASURE

Now, back to our tremolo part. [NOTE: I'm assuming that you will be able to use Layer 4 to create a pretty notation layer all by yourself now, so I've left that

part out of this chapter. If you need a review, reread the previous chapter.] We could just do this:

27



NEW EXPRESSIONS ASSIGN TREMOLOS

The playback of this leaves much to be desired. In fact, it makes very little difference at all. The reason for this is that the notes you see above take up their

full duration. There's no 'space' between them for GPO to repeat the notes. We'll immediately hear the effect, though, if we use the MIDI Tool to reduce the

note length:

REDUCING NOTE LENGTH

You can see the difference here. The red line at the top is what a 'normal' note length would be.

28



NOTE LENGTHS

The completed tremolo.

Finally, consider the following double-stop for violin:

NOTE LENGTHs

If you think about hte mechanics of the instrument, and the fact that the strings are not on the same plane, you know that it is impossible for a violinist to

play three strings at exactly the same instant. They can get close, but that's about i t. See the crude drawing below.

NOTE LENGTHs

So, while it is rather convenient that Finale and GPO can play double- and triple-stops instantaneously, don't leave you recordings like that! Compare the

difference in sound between the two examples on this recording. The one where the notes are staggered sounds much more realistic. It only takes a second or

two to use the MIDI Tool to delay the start of certain notes, thus making the double- and triple-stops sound much more lifelike.

29



CHAPTER TEN: CODA Variability, Tempo, Individual Expression

In this last chapter on the string quartet, we will explore a few ways to add a little 'shimmer' to your recordings. I must say one word of caution right at the beginning:

USE THESE IDEAS SPARINGLY! When overused, they will distract the listener from your product! But enough of that. To demonstrate my point, I'm going to share with

you two versions of a famous string quartet.

30



Overall, I 'sweetened' the sound with a few different tools. I used the Ambience in GPO Studio to add a very small amount of reverb. A lot of the Ambience presets arevery 'wet.' I started with the 'dryest' of them, then took out most of the reverb.

Then, I adjusted the pan of each instrument in the Instrument List. Now the players are separated spatially as you listen.

Intonation is another area of importance. No player will play each pitch with 100 percent accuracy. As a default, I increased Controller 22 to about 5 percent. This means

that each note played will be correct within 5 cents of a semitone. I wouldn't go any higher than this as a general rule.

Another controller that I edited overall was controller 23. This introduces subtle variations in note attack and timbre. Once again, not more than 5 percent under most

circumstances. Easily overdone. This is most useful in sections where one note is repeated in an ostinato. It prevents the 'machine gun' effect.

As you see below, I made several other edits in a few spots. The famous opening was worthy of more detail. Here, it has a little more personality. I did this by using

slightly different numbers in the scaling of MW data for each instrument. You'll hear the difference: there's a definite ebb and flow with Beethoven's overlapping phrases.

In the violin run leading up to the allegro, I fiddled with the tempo, intonation, key velocity, modulation wheel, and timbral variations. Solo lines like this should really

sound individual.

I used the same techniques in many other places, as you'll see below. Scroll all the way down to hear it.

31



32



Of course, no computer will ever replace a real musician, no program can be human, et cetera et cetera. These tips will help your piece sound a little more lifelike,

though. Enjoy.

Now would be a good time to save a copy of this stuff. You can save this Finale file as a template and also save the GPO Studio file. Next time you feel the urge to qrite a

string quartet, you can start with these files all ready to go.

33



CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Orchestra

This part will help you convert your string quartet into a full orchestra. First, we need to build our string section. Start by opening up your string quartet files in the GPO

Studio and Finale. The first thing we'll need to do is add a Contrabass part to our quartet. Do this in Finale now. Don't forget that the staff for the bass needs to transpose

the notes up one octave (so that they will sound an octave lower than they are written.

Our next step involves the GPO Studio. We need to change which instruments are assigned so that our orchestra doesn't sound like a string quintet. To do this, make the

following selections for each of the first five slots in the first player:

SLOT 1: Section Strings>Violins 1>Vlns 1 KS

SLOT 2: Section Strings>Violins 2>Vlns 2 KS

SLOT 3: Section Strings>Violas>Violas KS

SLOT 4: Section Strings>Cellos>Cellos KS

SLOT 5: Section Strings>Basses>Basses KS

It should look like this:

GPO Studio with STRING ORCHESTRA

Our instrument list will need a little work, too. We need to tell Finale where to send the notes on the contrabass staff:

STRING ORCHESTRA INSTRUMENT LIST

Notice that I already went ahead and removed the instrument from Layer 4. Look back at Chapter Ten to read about how layer 4 is sometimes used as a 'notation only'

layer.

MOZART

34



Now, this is fine. There are some more things we need to do, though. First of all, there is a trill in the viola part in the third full measure that we need to deal with. But

don't bother creating a notation layer just yet. With the string section patches, we have a shortcut for trills and tremolos. Since the performance of a trill is a very

personal matter on one violin, and its usually dictated by the genre of piece, there is no generic 'trill' keyswitch in GPO. However, the sound of an entire section of violins

trilling rapidly is not personal at all. That's why the people at Garritan have included these patches for us to use with any of the string section sounds: (this isn't a

complete listing, just the ones that I use most often.)

'normal' sustained string sound

'short' aggressive attack, alternates up- and down-bows

pizzicato

tremolo

half-step trill

whole-step trill

PATCH CHANGE EXPRESSIONS

These are the values to use in the Data Dump... dialog box.

DATA DUMP...

Notice that we are only changing third value in the dump. The others always stay the same. Here are the values to insert: So, using the method outlined in Chapter

Seven, go ahead now and create this list of expressions. We will be keeping our tremolo and normal keyswitch expressions from the string quartet and adding in those

new ones needed for the string orchestra.

VIOLIN and VIOLA

normal and arco ::: $24

pizzicato ::: $29

short aggresive ::: $26

tremolo ::: $2b

half-step trills ::: $2d

whole-step trills ::: $2f

CELLO

normal and arco ::: $18

pizzicato ::: $1d

short aggresive ::: $1a

tremolo ::: $1F

half-step trills ::: $21

whole-step trills ::: $23

BASS

normal and arco ::: $0c

pizzicato ::: $11

short aggresive ::: $0e

tremolo ::: $13

trills ::: [none]

[NOTE: each entry is the dollar-sign $, followed by two characters. ALL LETTERS are lowercase (the 0's are ZEROS and not O's!).]

With these expressions added, you should have all you need to work with your string orchestra. Trills and tremolos are much easier to use with the section sounds. Here's

all it takes to get our viola trill from above:

35



Above, notice how we did this. On the trilled D we assigned the half-step trill (since E-flat is the next note up...). On the first of the grace notes we assign the normal

patch. What could be easier?

Before we finish this chapter, bear in mind a few things about these various patches. Some of handle volume and intensity with the Modulation Wheel, and some with Key

Velocity. Essentially any sustained sound will use the MW and any short or percussive sound will use the KV.

KEY VELOCITY

short, aggresive

pizzicato

MODULATION WHEEL

normal

trills

tremolo

Here's an example that puts all of that to use:

DVORAK

36



CHAPTER TWELVE: The Rest of the Orchestra

You'll definitely notice that I'll be spending much less time detailing where to click and how to create simple Finale

tools. Review the first part if needed. In this chapter we will add dozens of instruments to our orchestra. I'm not

going to tell you which slots to put them in or how to add them to the instrument list. If you've gone through every

chapter of the tutorial so far, you'll have no trouble. IF you need a review, check the Table of Contents for whatyou're missing.

Another note about memory here. I run Finale and GPO on a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB Ram. It's not very

old but it was the top-of-the-line when I bought it. It has almost enough memory to do everything I need. If I'm

playing back something really complex like a Stravinsky score where there are a bill ion harp glissando notes and lots

of staves, I can crank the GPO memory up to about 75 percent of its allotment. If you hear crackling, make sure your

soundcard buffer size is at least 512. Then, try increasing the latency (it's in Settings>Preferences>Audio Control

Panel). It will drive you nuts if you'd like to play the keyboard along with your playback. Changing the latency from

the default to something like 20 or 30 msec will give your soundcard more time to process what it's sent before it has

to play it out of the speakers. Increase it too much, though, and faster notes like 16ths and 32nds will swing like a

rusty gate. It's a delicate balance that I find myself tweaking for nrealy every project. Also, if you're having memory

problems at playback remember to turn off the Ambience too.

On to the orchestra! Start with your String Orchestra file in the Studio and in Finale. Now, add enough staves foryour orchestra. This is what I use for my 'basic' orchestra. It should have everything we need. These are the 'main'

staves, in a bit we'll add the woodind doublings to fill it out.

Flute I

Flute II

Oboe I

Oboe II

Clarinet I

Clarinet II

Bassoon I

Bassoon II

Horn I

Horn IIHorn III

Horn IV

Trumpet I

Trumpet II

Trumpet III

Trombone I

Trombone II

Bass Trombone

Tuba

Timpani

Percussion I

Percussion II

Harp I

Harp II (optional unless you like Stravinsky!)[Strings, as we had them before]

Now, go ahead and add all the instruments to the GPO Studio: Note that I have included Piccolo and other things that

aren't in our staff list above. Not to worry, it will be explained later!

37



38



39



GPO SETUP for FULL ORCHESTRA

Player 1

All is self-explanatory here: Strings plus timpani, basic percussion, and percussion 'toys.'

Player 2

All is self-explanatory here as well: Some of our woodwinds.

Player 2All is self-explanatory here as well: Some of our woodwinds.

Player 3

The rest of our woodwinds, crotales, and both harps (NOTE: Harps have a complex system of pedals that I won't

bother going into here. Just make sure you use the 'chromatic' harps.)

Player 4

The start of our brass: Horns, Trumpets and Tuba. Use players 1-3 for the first four horns. You'll need to use Horn 2

Player 1 for the fourth horn. There will be more on getting the most out of your horns later.

Player 5

The rest of our brass and some misc. stuff here.

Player 5The rest of our brass and some misc. stuff here.

Player 6

There's quite a bit going on here. We'll talk about the Overlays later, just trust me for now. The string solos you see

are also there for a reason, again bear with me.

40



Player 7

[not used]

Player 8

The first thing to notice here is that the piano has been manually set to channel 9 of player 8 (Finale knows this

channel as '64'). I've then added an instrument that I can't find in the GPO: timbales. The piano and vibraphone are

here because there is a sustain pedal conflict. Now, our piano and vibraphone can use the sustain pedal for their

normal purpose and the rest of the orcehstra can use it for slurred/separate attacks.

41



CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Writing for Full Orchestra

This chapter will be pretty painless. We'll spend most of our time in the Instrument List. Start by

creating a new Instrument for each staff. As you set it up, do the following things. If you take the

time to set it up right now, you won't need to break from composing to set it up later!

INSTRUMENT LIST

In the above example, I first created the Instrument for Flute 2. Then, I set its channel (green

circle). Make sure to set the volume to around 40 (blue circle). Now, make sure you've set the

VOLUME not the PAN -- they're right next to each other. With that done, click the (brown circle)

arrow to expand the list. Set layer 4 to 'None,' as this will be our 'notation only' layer (red box).

Do this for everybody, but skip the percussion for now, it's a doozy. Remember that Finale will send

the first 8 channels to Player 1, the second 8 to Player 2, etc. Use this chart:

GPO Player 1, Slots 1-8 ::: Finale Channels 1-8


GPO Player 3, Slots 1-8 ::: Finale Channels 17-24GPO Player 4, Slots 1-8 ::: Finale Channels 25-32





That's really all there is to setting up the orchestra. You can now use your expressions in all staves.

Note that the harps will always use Key Velocity for dynamics, not the Modulation Wheel. Also, most

of the percussion operates this way.Good news! The brass and woodwinds also use the 'sl' and 'se'

expressions to control their articualtion. Treat slurs in these parts exactly as you would treat

bowings in the string parts. Finally, a word about balance. I have found that if every instrument is

set to 40 in the Instrument List, a few need adjustment to mirror a real orchestra. Most notably, thetrumpets and trombones need a little punch. Look at Appendix E for more information on volume

settings. Do get the feel for it, enter a composition that you know well into Finale. I used

Stravinsky's Fireworks. Compare your playback with several recordings.

42



CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Doublings: Piccolo, English Horn, E-flatClarinet, Solo Strings

This chapter will also be pretty painless. It is common in most orchestral scores to have some

doublings. By this I mean that the Oboe player might switch to English Horn or the Flute player to

Piccolo in the course of the piece. I also include in this those times where a string part is marked as

a solo instead of a section sound. We need to have our Finale file set up to be able to handle these

situations easily when the time comes. To do this, a few things are necessary. First, the Instrument

List will need to be adjusted. Then, we'll need a set of expressions to tell Finale to send certain

staves to another channel. Finally, a few of these doublings will require a different 'look' to the staff,

which we'll accomplish with Staff Styles.

One thing at a time. Let's do the Piccolo/Flute doubling, since it's probably the most common of all.

In the Instrument List, create a new instrument for the Piccolo and assign it to Layer 3. Remember

that Layer 4 will already have been set to 'None.'

INSTRUMENT LIST

Make sure that you set the volume to 40 when you do this. This is REALLY IMPORTANT. If you

don't do this, when you change to piccolo in the piece, its default volume will be 101. As a point of

reference: if you are like me when you work: headphones on to not wake the whole house in the

middle of the night, this volume level will lift the headphones right off your head and make you

jump clean out of your seat. It will also scare the cats. (Ask me how I know.) Anyways, just make

sure you do this. You've never heard a piccolo that loud.

If you've set up your GPO like mine, the first flute will be channel 10 and the picc. will be channel 9.

Go ahead now and replicate this process for the following instruments:

Oboe 2 ::: add English Horn

Clarinet 1 ::: add E-flat Clarinet

Clarinet 2 ::: add Bass Clarinet

43



Violin I ::: add Solo Violin

Viola ::: add Solo Viola

Cello ::: add Solo Cello

Once again, may I remind you to set the volume for each and every one of these new instruments

to 40. I'm sparing you early hearing loss here.

Now for our second step. We need the expressions to tell Finale what to do. We'll do the first one

together, then you are on your own.

OBOE to ENGLISH HORN

This expression does double duty. It will appear in the score, indicating to the performer to switch to

the English Horn. It also tells Finale to send all notes and MIDI Data to the English Horn channel

(14) instead of the Oboe channel. The notes for English Horn do not have to be in Layer 3,

even though we 'set it up' that way in the instrument list. In fact, if it weren't for that volume

problem above (resets to 101 instead of 40), we wouldn't need the E.H. in the Instrument List at all.

Remember that the E.H. will default to its modulation wheel setting of 0, so be sure you include aninitial dynamic marking with its entrance.

44



STAFF STYLE

Finally, the staff style. When you create the staff style, check the box for Abbr. Staff Name and

enter 'E.H' in the dialog (blue). Now, whenever the first measure on the page starts with this staff

style, the Staff Name will reflect that. When you select the transposition, choose the key of F in the

dialog box (green). Notice that once this is set up, the new key signature will appear on the staff (in

this case going from C/a to G/e).

And that's really all there is to it. Go ahead now and create expressions and staff styles for E-flat

Cl., Picc., Bs. Cl., and solo strings. Of course, you won't need a transposition for the solo strings. You

might want to use a staff style anyways to change the Staff Name. Don't forget to create an

expression to get back, too (ie. an expression to return the Oboe II player to Oboe after playing the

English Horn).

In some more modern scores, there is no key signature. Transposing instruments will still transpose,

but everything will look to be 'in C.' To accomplish this, I make a separate set of Staff Styles which

transpose chromatically.

45



CHROMATIC STAFF STYLES

After you've chosen a key, click the button for Chromatic and the key will stay the same but the

notes will transpose. This is also useful for older Horn parts which are written with no key signature

but transpose (ie. 'Horn in E').

46



CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Brass Overlays, Mutes

Any user of the 'old' Finale with General MIDI will easily recall the wonderful cross between the

Aflac duck and an old church organ that the brass instruments made. NO MORE! The brass samples

in GPO, especially the horn, are excellent. Added to the basic sound are a variety of 'overlays.' Goahead now and create new instruments in the Instrument List for the horn, trumpet, and trombone

overlays that we loaded into the GPO Studio a few chapters ago. Do I really need to remind you

to make absolutely certain that that volume is set to 40, not 101? That mistake would be

even louder than the piccolo! The overlays work in an interesting way. By themselves they don't

sound too great. They need to be added to an existing sound sample. I like to use the horn overlays

like so: If there is a spot with a few horns playing a powerful unison line, I assign the fourth horn to

play on the overlay channel instead of the regular channel. We don't really miss the fourth horn,

and the overlay adds a lot of brilliance and 'grit' to the sound. Play around with them, there's an f , aff , and an f aggresive to choose from. Their use is very simple. Create an expression like we did for

the English Horn/Oboe doubling that is invisible and switches over to the Horn Overlay channel.

Make another to switch back to the Horn IV channel. You can adjust the strength of each note in the

overlay staff with the MIDI Tool: Edit the modulation wheel data with the Percent Alter... feature.Don't overuse it, but the overlays can really bring out important brass lines. I use the same

technique for the trumpets and trombones. For some reason I never end up needing the Tuba

overlay. Next, create a visible text expression 'mute' for the trumpets. Put 'tpt' in the description so

that you'll be able to tell it apart from the trombone mutes. Mutes are activated by keyswitches, so

this expression will need to be a Data Dump...

DATA DUMP... for MUTES

Trumpets to mute ::: $32

Trumpets to open ::: $30

Trombones to mute ::: $26

Trombones to open ::: $24

47



CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Setting up the Percussion Section

Percussion, in Finale, is a royal pain. I've read a lot about it, and every solution seems more like a user-created workaround than an actual

programming solution. I've divided the Percussion into two chapters to keep it simple (but it's not simple). Anyways, here's what needs to

happen: Each of the instruments that we added to our GPO Studio needs to appear in the Instrument List so its volume can be reliably set. The

problem is that there are so many (!) instruments. I can just barely fit all of them in the list. Were there just one more, we'd be in trouble.

Anyways, here are the percussion instruments in my list. Notice that each one has i ts volume set to 40 (save for the timbales, which are really

soft in JABB. I jacked that up to 64). I used every available slot for the instruments: Four layers, Chords, and Expressions. Trust me.

PERCUSSION in INSTRUMENT LIST

Now, get out your Orchestration textbook -- you're going to need it. Create (like we did for the English Horn) some Staff Styles. We'll do this for

every Instrument except BASIC PERCUSSION and PERCUSSION TOYS (which use maps -- scroll down). Make sure that you get the right clef and

transposition. Also, for pitches instruments, make sure you change the Notation Stlye from 'Percussion' to 'Standard.' Otherwise, sharps, flats,

and whole notes will display incorrectly.

Next, create a set of text expressions (visible ones) that change channel: one for each instrument. Once again, skip the BASIC PERCUSSION and

PERCUSSION TOYS. Here's what mine look like:

PERCUSSION in EXPRESSIONS

48



As far as the BASIC PERCUSSION and PERCUSSION TOYS go, you'll need to create this devlish litte device called a Percussion Map. Finale user

tremble in fear at the sound of those two words. Create one map for the BASIC instruments like drums and cymabls and one for the TOYS like the

tambourine, castanets, and wind chimes. I include the Timbales on this percussion map as well. To see my Percussion Maps, visit Appendix D.

Setting up Percussion Maps is a topic for another tutorial .

I also went ahead and created channel switching Expressions for the BASIC and TOY instruments that I use often. Notice that there are several in

a row that do the same thing (change to channel 7). These function mostly as a note to performers for what to play.

MORE PERCUSSION in EXPRESSIONS

You will also need a Staff Style to apply your Percussion Maps, like this:

PERCUSSION MAP STAFF STYLE

To recap, this is the basic idea. Put everybody in the Instrument List to set the volume. Use a Staff Style to make it look right and transpose

right. Use a text expression to tell the performer what to play and to tell Finale where to send the playback data. Easy, right? Sure. Whatever.

49



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Actually Using the Percussion section: Dynamics

Dyanmics are a li ttle tricky in percussion. Let's start with the Snare Drum, something we all know and love. There are two

different keys that play the snare drum, a C and a C#. The C is for whacking it, and the C# is for rolling it. As you might

expect, the dynamic for hitting the drum is controlled by key velocity and the dynamic for rolling is controlled by the

modulaton wheel.

PERCUSSION in INSTRUMENT LIST

Now, get out your Orchestration textbook -- you're going to need it. Create (like we did for the English Horn) some Staff

Styles. We'll do this for every Instrument except BASIC PERCUSSION and PERCUSSION TOYS (which use maps -- scroll

down). Make sure that you get the right clef and transposition. Also, for pitches instruments, make sure you change the

Notation Stlye from 'Percussion' to 'Standard.' Otherwise, sharps, flats, and whole notes will display incorrectly.

Next, create a set of text expressions (visible ones) that change channel: one for each instrument. Once again, skip the

BASIC PERCUSSION and PERCUSSION TOYS. Here's what mine look like:

50



PERCUSSION in EXPRESSIONS

As far as the BASIC PERCUSSION and PERCUSSION TOYS go, you'll need to create this devlish l itte device called a

Percussion Map. Finale user tremble in fear at the sound of those two words. Create one map for the BASIC instruments

like drums and cymabls and one for the TOYS like the tambourine, castanets, and wind chimes. I include the Timbales on

this percussion map as well. To see my Percussion Maps, visit Appendix D. Setting up Percussion Maps is a topic for another

tutorial.

I also went ahead and created channel switching Expressions for the BASIC and TOY instruments that I use often. Noticethat there are several in a row that do the same thing (change to channel 7). These function mostly as a note to

performers for what to play.

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MORE PERCUSSION in EXPRESSIONS

You will also need a Staff Style to apply your Percussion Maps, like this:

PERCUSSION MAP STAFF STYLE

To recap, this is the basic idea. Put everybody in the Instrument List to set the volume. Use a Staff Style to make it look

right and transpose right. Use a text expression to tell the performer what to play and to tell Finale where to send the

playback data. Easy, right? Sure. Whatever.

PERCUSSION STAFF STYLES in USE

The is only one snag. You've probably heard that the percussion section has a much broader dynamic range than any othersection. Well, it's true. For us, that means that the MW expressions we use for the rest of the orchestra won't work for

the percussion section. The soft won't be soft enough, and the loud won't be loud enough. So, as tempting as it seems to

just use the MW expressions for rolls, we can't. Use these levels instead:

DYNAMICS for PERCUSSION SECTION ROLLS

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ppp ::: MW = 4

pp ::: MW = 8

p ::: MW = 18

mp ::: MW = 30

mf ::: MW = 48

f ::: MW = 64

ff ::: MW = 90

fff ::: MW = 127

When you need to do a roll, you will need to do all your volume control with the MIDI Tool. If the performer needs a

dynamic marking during one of these parts, DON'T use the MW expressions. Use a KV expression. It won't have any effect,

so it won't mess up our playback. Here's an example.

DYNAMICS in a SNARE DRUM PART

Congratulations! You've nearly reached the end! You can now set up a full orchestra, including percussion, powerful brass,

doubling woodwinds, meticulously articulated strings, and it even sounds good. To avoid having to re-do any of this work,

please continue ahead to the final lesson where you will learn some very handy tips at automating the process using

libraries, batch files, and templates.

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CHAPTER EIGHTTEEN: Automation: Batch files, templates, and'PLUG and PLAY' with the GPO and Finale

Imagine having the inspiration to write an orchestra piece. You clear off the desk, fire up the old PC,

and put on a pot of coffee. You double-click on an icon -- ONE ICON, and BOOM! GPO Studio loads

up your orchestra setup. Fifty-some patches all in the right slots. Finale loads up your orchestra

template. Everything set to go. Your ready to go -- with just one icon. Sound too good to be true?

It's not, just enter your credit card information below and... Nope, this is free advice!

Next, I'll show you how to create a very simple little program that can launch everything we need

for our orchestra.

First, you'll need to save your GPO Studio setup. Mine's called Orchestra.studio -- orignial, no?

Then, make sure you have saved the Finale file we've been set up. Mine's called -- you guessed it:

Orchestra.mus. I put each of these files in folders in My Documents Folder. The .studio files go in a

folder called GPO Ensembles, and the .mus files go in a folder called GPO Templates. Once these are

saved, create a new text (Notepad, not Word) file. Enter this, exactly as you see it. The only

possible change is if your path to the files is different.

ECHO OFF

CD C:\

CD DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

CD ADMINISTRATOR

CD MY DOCUMENTS

CD GPO ENSEMBLES

START ORCHESTRA.STUDIO

CD ..CD GPO TEMPLATES

START ORCHESTRA.MUS

Then, select Save As... from the menu. Save the file as Orchestra.BAT -- when your computer tells

you that changing the extention might make it unusable, that's OK. In fact, it won't work UNLESS

you click OK. If you've done this right, the icon should change to this:

BATCH FILE

.BAT stands for BATCH FILE. Your computer will do each 'command' that we typed, in order. First, it

will change to the root directory. It will follow the path you give it, using CD to change directory

until it finds the GPO Ensembles directory. Then, the START command tells it to launch GPO Studio

and load your orchestra. The CD .. command tells it to go back to the Documents folder and then we

do the same thing to get to the Finale file.

Another way to automate the system is to use Finale's libraries. You might want to take a minute to

do this. Save several libraries of expressions for use in other templates. Let's say that you want to

make a template for Concert Band. If you had already saved your two sets of dynamics expressions,

percussion maps, and percussion instruments into libraries the process would be much faster.

The important consideration here is your time. It does seem like a tremendous amount of work to

set up a template like I have done. It pays big dividends down the road, though. Every time I start a

piece for a different ensemble, I create a template and studio file. Even if it's a very unique

ensemble, the day might come when you need to write with the same or a similar group. Think of

the time you'll save.54



A PPEND I X A - K e y b o a r d M a p

I use a lot of metatools within Finale. A metatool is a user-programmed (that's you!) keyboard

shortcut. To set a metatool, click on the Expression Tool in Finale. Simply hold down the SHIFT keyand hit any number or letter on the keyboard. When the Expression window pops up, double-click

any expression. From now on, every time you hold down that key (without holding down SHIFT)and click a note, the expression that you chose will be placed there.

Be sure that you have a checkmark next to Expressions>Metatools: Note Attached in the

Expressions menu. This will add the expressions to the notes, not the measures.

METATOOLS

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APPEND I X B - W i sh L i st f o r G a r r i t a n P r o d u c t s

These are some fairly common items found in a modern orchestra that are unfortunately not

included in GPO. If you come up with a workaround for any of these, please send an email to infoat

kenmoreStudios.com. The more important suggestions are at the top of the list.

* String Harmonics * These are very common in many Romantic scores. I've experimented with using a

vey soft string sound on a separate channel with little success. The closest I have come is to put the

written notes into the 'notation only' channel and have GPO play only the actual pitch of the harmonic

sounded. Of course, this is far too loud and lacks the 'thin-ness' of the harmonic. The harps have it, why

can't the strings?

* Horn 4 * The three horn samples included in Garritan are wonderful, but many scores have four

players.

* Concert Band * I purchased the GPO and the Jazz and Big Band set in order to get samples for

Concert Band literature (specifically the saxophones). I hope I wouldn't need to buy another package

(like Marching Band) just to get Euphoniums or a Tuba section sound. The point here is that there areonly a limited number of 'section' patches in the orchestra set. Where the orchestra is fine with one tuba,

a band may have several in unision -- a much rounder sound. Oh well.

* Clarinets in A * Although these are mostly used as a courtesy to ease transpositions in sharp keys

with B-flat clarinets, some scores call for the A clarinet's lowest written E, a concert C#. This is too low

for the B-falt clarinet range. Additionally, there are some (and I am not anmong them) who insist that

they can tell the difference in darkness of tone between the two.

* Timbales * I was glad to find these available in the Jazz and Big Band library, but they should

probably be in the Orchestra library as well.

* Brake Drum * Not a sophisticated instrument by any means, this orchestral percussion instrument is

quite simply the brake drum of a car, hit with a big metal beater. A lot of scores in the more modern vein

call for it, and the cowbell isn't a very good substitue!

* Cannons * For the 1812 Overture.

METATOOLS

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APPEND I X C - Ex p r e s s i o n s i n O r c h e s t r a Tem p l a t e

This is a listing of all the Expressions I use in my template. In the Expression menu, Iput the expressions with metatools at the bottom of the list, since I never need toaccess this menu to use them. At the top of the list is where I put the mostfrequently used expressions. In my case I find it handy to keep everything in thisorder:

These expressions are used to tell the performer which instrument to play. They alsochange the channel for percussion playback.

PERCUSSION

These expressions are used to tell the performer to insert or remove a mute. They also send a

keyswitch signal to GPO.

BRASS MUTES

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These expressions are used to tell the performer to switch to a different instrument.They also change the channel for playback.

WOODWIND DOUBLES

These expressions change the bowing style and sound of the string sections. Someof the expressions, like pizz. and arco are also notes to performers. The rest of the

expressions are invisible. more

STRING PATCHES

These expressions tell performers that a passage is to be taken as a solo, not asection. They change the channel for playback.

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STRING SOLOS

These expressions, all invisible, apply an overlay to enhance the sound of the brasssection during loud passages. They change the channel.

BRASS OVERLAYS

These dynamic expressions control the volume of all sustaining instruments(woodwinds, brass, long string sounds, and percussion rolls). They control theContinuous Data called the Modulation Wheel.

MW DYNAMICS

These dynamic expressions control the volume of all non-sustaining instruments(pizzicato strings, short strings, non-sustaining percussion).

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KV DYNAMICS

These two expressions control whether a note is attacked by itself, or part of notesthat are slurred together.

ARTICULATIONS

These two expressions control the pedal of the piano and vibraphone.

PIANO and VIBRAPHONE PEDALS

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APPEND I X D - P e r c u s s i o n M a p s

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APPEND I X E - V o l um e Se t t i g s

Here is a chart showing what values need to be entered in Finale's Instrument List toachieve a certain volume level in decibels in GPO Studio.

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