Hey guys!

I have not had any issues with VDL:2, until yesterday. I have started to write for more advanced groups and I was entering some fast 16th note rolls and some hybrid rudiments. I was having a very hard time getting the playback to soud accurate. The rolls, for a lack of a better term, sounded very dirty. Also, cheese rudiments did not play back at all. I am using Finale 2006 and I have found a work around for the cheeses....however, does anyone have any idea on the fast rolls? I have written them out using straight 32nd notes and using the slash notataion.

I thought about changing the latency in VDL:2, however the VDL:2 NI window in Finale 2006 does not include the ";File"; menus so I can reach the setup. Changing the setup elsewhere does not correct the problem. I have a GREAT CPU and 2 Gigs of RAM. Also, I have an Audigy 2 soundcard. Again, I have never had any trouble before and assume it is something I am doing wrong.

The tempo was 168 and I was using 16th note rolls with slash notation and also writting it out using 32nd notes as well.

I would love some suggesions!

Hi Luke!

I'm not yet aware if Finale has a way to control latency of its hosted NI plugins. You may however be able to set the default latency of your Audigy soundcard with its included software. I think this is sometimes referred to as the ";buffer size";, so perhaps fiddling with that might give you some control. It's hard to know if that's what's causing the problem.

One thing you should probably try however, is playing with your velocity levels during such fast passages. For example, if Finale is playing a fast roll like this at a ";forte"; dynamic (velocity), it will probably be sending messages to VDL2 that are higher than the average human drumline would play such passages. By lowering velocities on faster notes like this (try around a value of 66) VDL2 will be using velocities which are much more appropriate for such fast rhythms, resulting in a more lifelike rendition. If you haven't messed with altering midi velocities before, it's a very powerful way to achieve much more realism. Finale's MIDI tool has a tool within it that allows you to set velocities for individual notes, spans of notes, or you can scale velocities over the span of a selected phrase to get dynamic effects.

Let us know if that has any affect on your results.