I know there is a way to turn the AutoRL feature off for battery instruments, but is there a similar option for keyboard instruments? I do not like the way autoRL sounds on keyboards at all - it makes my pieces sound like they are being played by sixth graders.

No. There is no library available anywhere that has the function you are asking about. It's just not a practical feature that people would want. Maybe there are some other tweaks you can make to make your files sound more professional. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the comment that your piece sounds like it's being played by sixth graders. Can you elaborate?

Chances are, Human Playback might be the culprit, at least partically.

I'm presuming that your comment about it sounding like sixth graders are playing has to do with unevenness of volume from note to note. In both Finale and Sibelius, there are ways of adjusting your playback to add inflection, both in terms of note velocities and tempo fluctuation. You might want to take a look at your Human Playback settings - assuming you have it turned on - and try adjusting it so that there won't be as much variation in note velocities.

I know that when I work in both Finale and Sibelius I spend very little time having to dial in the evenness of sound with the mallet instruments, so I can assure you that it's not a problem that is specific to VDL. Are there any particular VDL ";Instruments"; that are giving you issues e.g. Marimba Rosewood Hard Lite, etc.? The more specific you can be the better. Given that there are well over 50 different mallet instrument patches in the library, the more detail you can give the better.

There aren't specific ";AutoRL"; versions of keyboard instruments. AutoRL is an option with other instruments where people may be more particular about the specific stickings they're playing - and when they're not, AutoRL is a nice option. With mallet instruments, it's certainly not uncommon to want to specify stickings, but to a lesser degree.

As the others mentioned, maybe take a look at what dynamic levels you hear this. I'd be surprised if it was at every dynamic and on every note. If you discover any specific areas where there's a consistent problem, let us know specifically where you hear it so we can look into a fix.

If you don't like how the notes alternate, you'd probably be amazed at how mechanical it sounds without the AutoRL. If that's the sound you're going for, there may be some out there that just use one sample each time the note is struck. Maybe try using the General Midi sounds built into your computer.

Yes, it turns out it is largely a HP issue. And Mr. Casella is also right - with it turned off, it does sound very mechanical (particularly with the harder series on pretty much all instruments). But there doesn't seem to be any middle ground - my rhythmic accents and feel were set to 5% when I had the autoRL issue, so that may cross over into the Finale end of things. I'll keep messing with it. Thanks!

As a fellow Finale 2010b user, I always set HP to none for my VDL compositions, I haven't really noticed issues with the keyboards as much as the distortions it causes with the bettery instruments.  Its particularly brutal with flams!  And if I need to use certain HP techniques (hairpins for example) the HP plug-in is perfect for selecting particular attributes for targeted pieces of a score or instrument.

Todd