MIDI Channels, Garritan, and Kontakt
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of MIDI Channels and MIDI Instruments, and how they relate to Finale, consult the entry on MIDI Channels in the Finale User Manual before continuing. Also, remember that for new scores begun with the Setup Wizard, and all instruments added with Finale 2012's ScoreManager, Finale automatically chooses the best channel assignments for the instruments used in your score. It is strongly recommended that you use the Setup Wizard or ScoreManager when creating new scores. The information that follows is primarily of interest to people trying to set up existing scores, such as scores imported from earlier versions of Finale.
As explained under Setting Up Garritan Instruments for Playback in Existing Scores, the Garritan Aria Player supports a maximum of 128 simultaneous Garritan instruments assigned to 128 different MIDI channels, distributed across 8 Aria Player instances, with each instance hosting up to 16 Garritan instruments, each assigned to a different channel.
Finale supports a maximum of 8 banks, as you can see in the
The first (top) Aria Player instance is linked to Bank 1 (channels 1-16), the second is linked to Bank 2 (channels 17-32), and so on. Each Aria Player instance - which can be accessed by clicking the Edit button across from the appropriate bank - supports 16 simultaneous channels.
Changing the Channel Assignment
By default, the Aria slot assignment is the same as the channel number. For example, slot 1 = channel 1. However, it is possible to override those default channel assignments, if you so desire. In the Aria Player, the current Kontakt Player channel assignment is displayed on the lower left corner of the slot (in the gray rectangle).
The above instrument is assigned to MIDI channel 1. It can be modified by clicking on the number and selecting a different MIDI channel from the submenu:
You may choose any Aria Player Channel (from 1 to 16) for the selected instrument. Remember that if you change an instrument's channel assignment in the Aria Player, you must also change the corresponding staff's channel assignment in the ScoreManager.
Tip. As of Finale 2012, Finale stores two sets of channel assignments in the ScoreManager, one for MIDI playback and another for
The channel assignments for the first Aria Player instance (Bank 1) must correspond to the channel assignments in Finale's ScoreManager. For instance, if you have a Garritan flute assigned to Channel 1 in the first Aria Player instance, then the flute staff in Finale's ScoreManager must be assigned to Finale Channel 1:
Remember that for new scores created using the Setup Wizard, and instruments added with the ScoreManager, Finale automatically assigns the correct channel numbers in both the Aria Player and in the ScoreManager. It is only necessary to assign the channel numbers yourself if you are converting existing scores or templates.
Things become slightly more complicated if your score has more than sixteen instruments, because this requires the use of more than one Aria Player instance. See Garritan Aria Player Instruments and Channels.
For orchestral scores, it is common to combine multiple parts on the same staff — for instance, Flutes 1 & 2 often share a staff. You will get the best results from Garritan Instruments if you assign two different Garritan flutes to the same staff, one for the Flute 1 part, and one for the Flute 2 part — this mimics the effect of two individual players with individual sounds interpreting each part. This is especially important if you want unison (a2) passages to sound like they are being performed by two separate players. (See the entry on Player Variations for more details.)
This can be accomplished by using the ScoreManager to assign different layers of the same staff to different channels, then assigning different Garritan instruments to those channels.
For instance, let’s look at the ScoreManager for a score with a “Flute 1 & 2” staff:
If you click the triangle to the left of the Staff Name (circled above), you are presented with additional options:
Here, you can create a new Instrument (called “Flute 2”) and assign it to playback the notes in Layer 2 using Finale Channel 2:
Then, load two different Garritan flutes in the Bank 1 Aria Player and assign them to Aria Player Channel 1 and Channel 2:
In your score, enter the Flute 1 music in Layer 1 and the Flute 2 music in Layer 2. This solution also works for instrument doubling; for example, a part where the clarinet player is required to switch to bass clarinet for certain passages. Again, using the ScoreManager, you would create a new Instrument (Bass Clarinet) and assign it to Finale Channel 2:
Then, load a Garritan Bb Clarinet into Aria Player Bank 1, Channel 1, and the Garritan bass clarinet into Bank 1, Channel 2: In your score, enter the Bb Clarinet passages into Layer 1, and the Bass Clarinet passages into Layer 2. Apply the Bb Bass Clarinet transposition with a Staff Style. (Consult Staff Styles in the Finale User Manual if you are unsure how to do this.)
Note that keyswitching expressions (like “Pizz.” etc. — see the entry on Keyswitches) do not work reliably on multi-part staves. If this causes problems in your score, you may wish to explode these multi-part staves into separate staves before creating an audio demo of your score.
Aria (or Kontakt Player)/Finale Channel Equivalents
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