I need some serious help

I just can't seem to figure out how to make diddles sound like REAL smooth diddles.  When I use AUTO Snare, they sound like unbalanced singles.  When I use Manual Snare, the right hand sounds REALLY heavy.

Can someone please explain how I can get the diddles to sound smooth and balanced?

I'm running:
Finale 2009
VDL 2.5.2
Mac OSX Leapord 10.6.3

Help!

Thanks in advance!

Make sure you have everything in Play > Performance set to ";Meccanico"; and try experimenting with the ";Live Velocity"; feature of Live Playback. Assigning values to notes using that feature will definitely help. This is all documented in your Sibelius Reference.

Good luck!

Well I'm using Finale 2009

Would these suggestions work on that platform as well?

Whoops - sorry I read through that a bit too quickly.

-You can set the grace note spacing in Document > Playback/Record Options by change the EDU value at the bottom of the box.
-You can get more consistent roll and diddle playback by:
1) Choose the MIDI Tool
2) Select the passage in question
3) Go to the MIDI Tool Menu at the top and make sure that Key Velocities is selected. It sould be by default.
4) Click ";Set To"; and experiment with different values until you're happy with it. Generally, most people will use something between60 and 90, depending on your preference.

For this to have any effect, you'll want to make sure  you have Human Playback turned off (MIDI/Audio > Human Playback > None), which means you'll have to use the TG Tools Smart Playback plugin (Select diddled notes > Click Plug Graphic on Menu > TG Tools > Smart Playback > Click the Trills, etc. tab and make sure the Trills/Diddles box is checked > Click Go).

You should Also set the HP to Marching Percussion, otherwise Finale interprets a diddle the way that a violin would sound. Violins use those slashes for the very same purpose, they just sound totally different in playback

Well I really appreciate everyones help and advice on this.  I have tried so many different ideas and NOONE of them work.  The rolls still sound terrible.  You name it, I've tried it.  Nothing is working.

I honestly have no idea what to do.  I need to be able to offer quality sounds and so far, I have NOTHING to offer because it sounds so terrible.

I'm convinced it's me because I hear great examples from so many people all the time.  But my work never seems to sound good.

Diddles and Flams just sound terrible with Virtual Drumline. 


HHHHHEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!

Not quite sure what you're doing at this point, generally following the steps given between this and your other thread you can achieve pretty good playback for marching percussion.

Can you post a file that shows the behavior after applying all of the suggestions here?

Yeah for sure

Should I post the Finale file or just an mp3?  Or both?

Oh, and to make matters worse.  The falms sound even worse then they did before.  Before they sounded VERY open.  Not they just sound like ruffs.

It's amazing how difficult it is to use Finale. 

Check out the files I posted

I have taken everyones advice.  NOTHING is helping.  I do appreciate everyone taking the time to help me out.  Casella, are you around??  Can you help?

I just can NOT get these rolls to sound like natural sounding rolls.  They sound unbalanced and I just refuse to give these mp3's to students or clients.

Someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

PLEASE

Thanks

This forum will not let me post the mp3 for some reason.  I didn't think I was exceeding the file size, but maybe I am.  I've attached the Finale file.  Someone please take a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I'm about ready to give up.

Hi Smiley,

I checked the file and looks like some of the custom settings suggested in your previous thread have not been applied.

I would suggest working through those from scratch then trying to play the file again.

-Justin

To follow up on Justin's comments,

I never use HP for diddles. Instead, using TG Tools Smart Playback works much better. It evenly spaces the notes and creates the subdivisions in Layer 4. You'll need to hide those notes when preparing files for printing, but the results are better than HP.

Understand that Finale is a notation program. It has playback capabilities and you can create audio files from the original Finale document. Only in very rare instances do I ever give a student an audio file directly from Finale. When creating audio files for listening, I will always save the document as a MIDI file then export to a dedicated audio program.

Hi Smileysnare,

Sorry to hear you're having problems. At one point you mentioned you think it may be something you're doing. I think you're probably right. Oftentimes, it's the driver and not the car. If this is the case, I hope you'll be patient as you become more proficient at using these tools. There are ways to manipulate all this stuff, but since both Finale and VDL each come with quite a bit of control and flexibility, you have to know what you're doing.

As Ted mentioned, Human Playback probably isn't going to give you the balanced result of decent sounding diddles and flams across the board. Using the TG Tools plugin in Finale seems to be more consistent in terms of playback. Its hidden notes in layer 4 aren't always convenient, especially if you're changing things a lot, but it sounds to me like you'd benefit from trying this method.

Finale comes with really good documentation. I would recommend you spend a little time wrapping your head around the MIDI tool, and understanding how to manually manipulate [b]velocities[/b]. Each sound in VDL is programmed with numerous recordings (samples) at different velocities. So if you're writing at FORTE, you'll be triggering completely different audio recordings than if you were writing at PIANO. If you're hearing some wobble in your diddles, the music may be playing at velocities that are on the cusp of two differing velocity layers. Oftentimes, bumping your velocities by a few clicks can give you completely different results.

Hey guys

Thanks for all the comments.  I'll be sure to give them a try.  I'm traveling for a few days so I won't be able to experiment until next week.  The most common advice I have gotten from users on this forum, either here or in personal email, is to just buy Sibelius.  That's all I hear from anyone I know personally as well!  So my business partner and I bit the bullet and bought Sibelius.  I shoudl be able to experiement with that as well next week.  Hopefully I won't have any issues.

Jim, thanks for taking the time to respond.  You mentioned Finale comes with documentation.  Unfortunately, I don't have ANY documentation.  I downloaded this using a school district product key.  So I don't have anything physical at all.  Where would you suggest I get some documentation that would help me?

Ted,, thanks for your comments as well.  I haven't gotten any advice on saving as a midi file and exporting into a dedicated audio program.  I will make sure to give that a try for sure.  What audio software do you typically use?  I'm pretty thin on that right now.  I really only have Garageband.  But I am typically only arranging Battery Percussion parts in Finale.  Maybe Garageband is enough?

Thanks guys!

Usually, you can access the full set of documentation from the '[i]Help[/i]' menu within Finale.