Let me describe what I am using before I ask my question. I have a 2.0 ghz pentium mobile processor w/533 mhz fsb, 2 gigs of memory, 60 gig 7200 rpm hard drive, finale 2005.

When I playback the music through VDL2, it's always a little uneven, when the rhythms get more dense (i.e. rolls) it becomes very uneven (choppy playback). What can I do to help improve the performance of the playback?

I will try that after I see how performance changes after defragmenting the drive. On another note, Finale seems to use a lot of cpu when it plays back, even with just midi sounds. Anyone else experiance this?

Well I tried all of that and it didn't help. Would adding a creative audigy card to my laptop help? I found this on creative's website:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2zs_notebook/compatibility.asp

This looks slick and it's not external. It uses ASIO drivers too, like Jim talked about. I am tempted to buy it.

All I want right now now is to hear decent playback while writing my scores, I deal with recording the scores later.

I was thinking the same... maybe I'll pick that card up too...

Anyhow, make sure in your task manager that you're using ram when you load up... good luck.

You may also want to try saving your file as a .mid -- if you can play that back in something else cleanly, but not in Finale, it may say that it's Finale that's not putting the midi out well. I've found that Finale's midi output isn't all that accurate. At very least, the test will tell you where the problem might lie.

What do you use to playback midi that it channels it to VDL and not the sound card?

Any midi player will do. Just look for a freeware player that's not just a basic one (like WMP10).

Maybe the best thing is a demo - like Sonar4.

Soundcards won't affect how VDL2 ";sounds"; during playback.

It's quite possible (since you have 15 instruments) the music is arranged in a way that there are a lot of sustained instruments like vibes and bells overlapping, or perhaps a lot of very fast runs on many instruments that are exceeding the ";polyphony"; or number of simultaneous notes your computer is capable of playing. Your computer is good, but not ";high end"; so just keep that in mind. The Pentium M is a good chip, but it's definitely not in the ballpark of a dual G5 or Opteron system.

[b]You mentioned lowering the latency to 10- that will [i]definitely[/i] cause choppiness. [/b]

It also seems like Finale users have less luck with heavier loads too. There are so many factors that you should add one instrument at a time and see where the problems start, rather than load it all up. You have reached the limits of your computer and will need to break down your full score into sections, then use a multi-track program to bring it all together. Check out the hints forum for an example how.

I'm on board this ship as well.

XP, 1 gig ram, Finale 03, VD2, Audigy card, Maple midi. All processes are off exept finale and VDL. Downloaded DFD and set the settings per Jim's screen shot with small instruments. Loaded just VDL1 Snares and tried to play back a exercise written with Tap Space VDL1 finale 03 template.

Playback is way ";choppy."; 16th notes sound like doted 8th 16ths. Messed around with the Kontakt settings and no change. If I change the midi out within finale to use the Audigy card iwith VDL1 it plays back perfectly.

Any ideas??
Thanks much in advance!!

Ty

Fast stuff definitely does not playback well on my computer. Say for instance a fast roll in the Snares Tenors and Basses is choppy or a 16th note run in the keys will be choppy.

OK...I have all functions fuctioning harmoniously (sp?)!!!

I know that some folks have said lowering the latency output would definately cause ";choppyness"; but changing from 50 to 10 has worked beautifully.

Maybe this can help some of you too. Best of luck and keep tweaking your setups. It is most definately worth the time. Great product.

Ty

Hey Flam, just out of curiousity, what kind of processor do you have and how many voices do you have loaded into VDL2?

Thanks

P4 2.6Ghz Dell

I loaded all 8 channels.

Sn vdl1
Tn vdl1
BD vdl1
Vibes
Marimba
Xylo
Rack Combo
Latin Combo

I figured out you can use the layering tool with finale to utilize more instruments. They have to be from the same loaded combo. For example, I've got congas, shakere, guiro and timbals at the same time but taking up only one staff and one instrument.

I thought this was great but I may be late to the party on this one :)

Ty