Hello Forum,

I was wondering how many of you Finale users utilize the program's human playback and what tweeks you use to improve the performance of the music?  When I started using VDL2 I didn't use human playback because my old computer performed better with human playback off.  Now that I have great machine, I am hoping that utilizing the human playback will ultimately be a time saver.  Finale users, what are your experiences in this area?

Hey Scott,

Unfortunately Human Playback was not really designed with rudimental percussion in mind, especially for battery percussion with a lot flams or diddle markings.  You'll still have to do some tweeking and shutting off of Human Playback for certain measures, but utilizing the Marching Band or Standard setting you can get some OK results.

Try this out:

1) Open Finale
2) Open a score/VDL template
3) Load your sounds
4) Click on the Playback Settings button on the Playback Controls (little icon that looks like a speaker)
5) Under Human Playback Style, select 'Custom'
6) Under Copy Settings From, choose 'Marching Band'
7) Under Rhythmic Accents, turn the slider down to maybe 5%
8) Press OK
9) Click HP Preferences in the Playback Settings dialog box
10) Choose the Ornaments & Tremolos category
11) Uncheck 'Humanize Rolls and Trills";
12) Click 'Save and Close'
13) Click on Playback/Record Options in the Playback Settings dialog box
14) Under Duration of Gracenotes, change the number from 128 to something like 16 (you might need to adjust this down some to like 4-8 depending on the tempo of your piece and how tight you like your flams)
15) Press OK and OK again

I found that by using those settings I avoided having to use the TGTools SmartPlayback Plugin as frequently (Plugin Menu -> TG Tools -> SmartPlayback) for measures that had a lot of flams and diddle markings.

Off and on I would suggest that plugin if things get a little skippy or spaced out (especially with tempos above 160), and the plugin will automatically turn HP on or off for the measures you apply it to.

Let us know if that works out a bit better for you!