Attention Mac Users
Apple will release macOS 15 (Sequoia) on Monday, September 16, 2024.
Finale v27 is not compatible with Sequoia and will not be updated.

For more information:
macOS 15 Sequoia and Finale Notation Products
Disabling Automatic macOS Updates

Spitfire virtual instrument libraries such as BBC Symphony Orchestra use the Spitfire player, which is not multi-timbral. This means that each instance of the player can only have one channel, as in one instrument patch per bank. This is different than working with Finale's ARIA Player, which is multi-timbral, and can use 16 channels at once.

For those writing multi-staff scores in Finale, the Spitfire player will need to be separated into different banks per staff. Finale has only 8 banks, meaning you can only assign Spitfire to 8 different staves at once.

 

Separating Spitfire Player into Different Banks

  1. Create your score and instrumentation in Finale.
  2. From the MIDI/Audio menu, select VST Banks & Effects (Windows) / Audio Units Banks & Effects (Mac).
  3. On the left, there are 8 dropdown menus for each bank. Choose the Spitfire Player (e.g. BBC Symphony Orchestra). Repeat for however many staves you're using, (maximum 8 staves).
  4. Set the volume slider for each bank used to the desired volume.
  5. Close this window.
  6. Open the ScoreManager (CTRL/COMMAND+K or from the Window menu) and navigate to the Instrument List tab.
  7. Scroll right to view the Bank column for every instrument. Click under this column in each row to change the bank for each instrument (besides the one listed first) to Next Available. Afterwards, each instrument should have a different bank listed.
  8. Click Edit Player to load the Spitfire player and load the desired sound. Repeat on each instrument.

If you have more than eight staves and want to use Spitfire Libraries

The extra steps required to use Spitfire's libraries with notation software like Finale is a product of the fact that they are geared toward use with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Spitfire has written up some articles about using their products with some other notation software, and though Finale is missing from this list, the reasoning is largely the same. 

The best way to achieve their listed workarounds with Finale is to export your Finale file to MusicXML (File > Export > MusicXML) or to MIDI (File > Export > MIDI File) and import it into a DAW that's set up with Spitfire.