You are here: Encyclopedia > M > MIDI > Assigning a staff to more than one MIDI channel
Finale normally allows you to route each
staff to a single MIDI channel. For some effects, however, you may want
the staff’s contents transmitted on more than one channel—for example,
if you want to mix the sounds from two different patches. To create this
arrangement, you have to create an expression (which can be invisible,
if you like) defined for playback. This marking’s playback definition
involves the creation of a MIDI data dump.
- Click the Expression tool ; click on, above, or
below the note at which the music should begin playing over additional
MIDI channels. The Expression Selection dialog box appears.
- Click Create. The Expression Designer
dialog box appears.
- Enter the text (if any) for your data dump
expression. To change the font, highlight the text, choose Text > Font. (You can leave the text box blank, if you wish.)
- Click the Playback tab. The playback
options appear.
- Choose Type > Dump. The Playback Data
Dump dialog box appears.
- In the Number of Units text box, enter 2 or
3 (depending on whether you want the staff’s playback routed to a total
of 2 or 3 additional MIDI channels). A staff can play over up to
three MIDI channels, including the primary MIDI channel you’ve established
for the staff.
- In the first Data box, enter $FF. This
code, including the dollar sign, is a special notation that tells your
MIDI Instrument to prepare to receive additional MIDI channel information.
- In the next Data text boxes, enter one or two
numbers, corresponding to the MIDI channels you want the staff’s playback
routed to minus one. In other words, if you want the staff to play
over channels 5 and 6 (in addition to its primary MIDI channel), enter
4 in the second Data box and 5 in the third. (Also be sure to delete the
default “$00” value from each text box before entering your MIDI channel
numbers.) When Finale plays your score and reaches the expression you’re
creating, it will reroute the playback to the MIDI channels you’ve just
specified.
- Click OK or Select or Assign in each
dialog box until you return to the document. You return
to the document.
Note. Here
are some other codes you may find useful if you plan to make extensive
use of the Data Dump feature. If, at some point in the staff, you want
to change only one of the additional two MIDI channels you’ve specified,
create another expression. Define this expression, too, to have a Data
Dump Playback Definition; however, in the Data text box that originally
displayed the MIDI channel that you don’t want to change at this point,
enter the code $FE. Example: Your first Data Dump expression added channels
5 and 6 to the staff’s playback; its Data boxes displayed $FF, 4, and
5. You want the additional channels now to be 5 and 12, so you create
a new Data Dump expression; its Data boxes should display $FF, $FE, and
11.
Finally, you can “turn off” any additional
MIDI channels you’ve specified with a Data Dump expression by entering
$FF in the appropriate Data box. Example: Your first Data Dump expression
added channels 5 and 6 to the staff’s playback; its Data boxes displayed
$FF, 4, and 5. You now want channel 5 to drop out, so you create a new
Data Dump expression; its Data boxes should display $FF, $FF, and $FE
(because $FE, remember, is the “don’t change this channel” command).