To
assign staves to MIDI channels and instruments
- 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).
- 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.
- To change the MIDI channel for a staff independently, click the Instrument column
drop-down menu across from its name, and select New Instrument. Name your new instrument and assign it to a unique channel. See Instrument Definition dialog box. (Note that if you use an existing instrument name, when you return to the Instrument List, all other staves set to that channel will also update to use that instrument.)
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.
- 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.
