# String articulations won't change in Finale, please help



## nagual (May 22, 2021)

I need your help guys. I am using one of the latest versions of Finale for windows.
while wrting for string, when I want to assign an expression, I click on the expression tools on the top






then I will double click on the note and this expression box pops op from which you can chose dynamics and techniques and whatnot.






see there is usually no problem. when you double click on a note and assign a technique like pizzicato, every thing will be played in that manner until you double click on a note later on and assign the Arco technique. so you can change between articulations as you are writing the score it will be played the way you have written with the specific articulation. 

now here is my problem, sometimes for no logical reason this doesn't work, I want to switch a violin part expression to spicatto, I will do the exact thing that I told you, assign the expression to it on a given note, but it does not work! while playing back, it keeps going as pizzicato.
Even though I have change the articulation from Arco to spicatto and pizzicato back an forth many times within the score, at this point it does not change to spicatto, It will change to Arco but not spicatto! looks like at this point the software decides to just play in either pizzicato or arco.

the music is being played back through VSTs that came with the software I think. when I click on Midi/Audio tab, the Play through VST is ticked and if I tick play through MIDI nothing will be played. if I click on VST bank and effects this comes up. which I assume is the representation of VSTs that are being used by the software.





please help me guys, I need to finish this project very soon and I need to here the part in spiccato to know if it sounds like what I want, also I need to export this as a midi file and attach good VSTs to it in Ableton, and if the midi is not acting as spicatto in this part, I would have the same problem in Ableton.


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## JT (May 23, 2021)

You're using the softsynth for playback. Spiccato isn't a string technique that the softsynth can play. I'm going to guess that all it can play is arco, pizz and tremolo.

Even if you switch to the included Garritan sounds, I don't think those have spicc. either.


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## JJP (May 23, 2021)

Also be aware that "spiccato" isn't something that people commonly put in scores unless they want a very specific kind of bowing. Even the term "spiccato" can be interpreted differently by different schools of players. I usually only see the term from people who compose in a DAW and have it as the name of a sample type.

Usually it's best to say "off the string" and leave it to the player to decide the best way to perform it (spiccato, saltando, jeté) based on the tempo and situation. In most cases, standard articulations provide all the needed information -- accents (>), staccato (.) , tenuto (-), slurs, etc.


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## cygnusdei (May 24, 2021)

I'd choose separate tracks over keyswitches any day of the week. Your approach makes sense for engraving, and similarly keyswitches make sense if you play live on the midi controller. But for the purpose of mock-up having a separate track/staff for each articulation gives you all around better access, flexibility, and organization. You can even have multiple articulations play simultaneously when situations call for it, something you can't do with the keyswitch approach.


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## nagual (May 26, 2021)

cygnusdei said:


> I'd choose separate tracks over keyswitches any day of the week. Your approach makes sense for engraving, and similarly keyswitches make sense if you play live on the midi controller. But for the purpose of mock-up having a separate track/staff for each articulation gives you all around better access, flexibility, and organization. You can even have multiple articulations play simultaneously when situations call for it, something you can't do with the keyswitch approach.


would you be kind enough and explain to me or provide a link to me as to what is the difference between separate tracks and key switch. 
These terms keep coming up when I look at forums for answer to my problems but I have no idea what they mean. 
If I assume correctly, keyswtich would be when you assign a particular key to your midi keyboard to change the articulation? If that is the case why would any one do that while writing in Finale? isn't that for live playing/recording?
Then what is the separate track approach?
what I do (which I assume is what you call engraving ), is that I write in Finale with articulations assigned to notes as they are being written.


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## nagual (May 26, 2021)

JT said:


> You're using the softsynth for playback. Spiccato isn't a string technique that the softsynth can play. I'm going to guess that all it can play is arco, pizz and tremolo.
> 
> Even if you switch to the included Garritan sounds, I don't think those have spicc. either.


you are correct, I was mistaken to think that Spiccato can be played back by Finale, It was actually very fast notes at some bars in my writings that I assumed are being played in a spicatto manner, and I thought that is not happening to other note. 

Is Garriton Sounds another VST library? does it come with Finale for windows like Softsynth? can I switch to it in VST banks and effects?


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## cygnusdei (May 27, 2021)

nagual said:


> would you be kind enough and explain to me or provide a link to me as to what is the difference between separate tracks and key switch.
> These terms keep coming up when I look at forums for answer to my problems but I have no idea what they mean.
> If I assume correctly, keyswtich would be when you assign a particular key to your midi keyboard to change the articulation? If that is the case why would any one do that while writing in Finale? isn't that for live playing/recording?
> Then what is the separate track approach?
> what I do (which I assume is what you call engraving ), is that I write in Finale with articulations assigned to notes as they are being written.


Separate tracks mean separate staves each assigned its own midi track. So instead of "switching" articulation there would be a staff that only plays the sustain notes, another that plays only the short/spiccato notes, and another that plays only the pizzicato notes, for example.

PS: you're correct re: keyswitches


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## DavidGaines (May 31, 2021)

nagual said:


> you are correct, I was mistaken to think that Spiccato can be played back by Finale, It was actually very fast notes at some bars in my writings that I assumed are being played in a spicatto manner, and I thought that is not happening to other note.
> 
> Is Garriton Sounds another VST library? does it come with Finale for windows like Softsynth? can I switch to it in VST banks and effects?


Garritan is a company (now owned by the same company, MakeMusic, that owns Finale) that makes a variety of VST libraries that are designed to integrate well with Finale: Garritan Personal Orchestra (GPO), Garritan Concert & Marching Band, Garritan Jazz & Big Band, Garritan World Instruments, Garritan Harps, and several high quality sampled pianos.

Yes, there is a free subset of GPO that comes with Finale called Garritan Instruments For Finale (GIFF). You can think of it as "GPO Lite" - it contains most of the instruments and most of the articulations found in the full GPO library, but not all of them - just the basics. Yes, you use these instruments by loading them into the Aria player that is also installed for free along with Finale via the VST Banks & Effects dialogue box as you mentioned.

If you set up Human Playback and your Garritan instruments carefully (make sure to use the Score Manager to set up your instruments), you should have no problem accessing the basic articulations available in the GIFF library automatically via keyswitching using the GIFF instruments labeled with "KS" in their name (KS = keyswitching), e.g. "Violins I KS."

Many people prefer putting a separate instrument for each articulation in a separate track and MIDI channel, but although this can work well inside a DAW, it is VERY cumbersome inside a notation score (it also eats up system resources). If you need to, you can use hidden additional layers and/or text expressions/data dumps on the same staff to trigger other MIDI channels.

All the info you need to get going with using Garritan instruments and keyswitching is available inside the Finale online manual. Here are the relevant links:

Garritan Instruments For Finale (GIFF) summary

GIFF Instrument Details

Garritan & Human Playback tutorial (make sure you click Next at the bottom right of each section until you've finished the whole tutorial)

Percussion MIDI Maps: Garritan Instruments For Finale (important to understand for setting up non-pitched percussion like snare drum, cymbals, etc.)

Human Playback Dictionary (all of the terms and expressions that Human Playback will interpret automatically from your score in order to trigger keyswitches to change articulations)

Aria player online manual

*Good luck!*


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