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Finale no match between exported audio and midi

Rob

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This thing is driving me crazy... I need to export audio and midi for later editing in cubase, but I can’t get a matching midi/audio file... human playback is doing something under the hood and unfortunately I need HP to be on. Tried in Dorico which has perfect midi/audio alignment but it misses strings harmonics, also necessary. Any advice very welcome, thank you!
 
I assume you have a recent version of Finale. I would try this on a copy of your score, just in case it does something weird.

Highlight your entire document, go to the Midi tool menu, at the bottom is "Apply Human Playback". Choose that. It should write to midi all if the things it does while interpreting your notation markings. AFter this is complete, try exporting this file again to midi, see if things sync better.

In older versions of Finale, this option is in the plugin menu.

Good luck.
 
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nada... the exported midi still is different than the audio. Furthermore, tempo is completely messed up with non existent rall. and rit. Gonna give up
 
Human playback adds tempo variations by default. I believe there is an option to turn this feature off somewhere within the human playback settings or preferences.
 
but shouldn't the midi reflect the audio tempo changes anyway?
I have all tempo variation fields in HP preferences unchecked btw
 
You can get string harmonics to play back in Dorico by adding a hidden playing technique to the notes to trigger the harmonic sound.
 
You can get string harmonics to play back in Dorico by adding a hidden playing technique to the notes to trigger the harmonic sound.
just tried that, I have created playing techniques for m3, M3, 4, 5, 8 harmonics. Thing is, they sometimes playback, sometimes no... I'm disappointed. If I can't get Finale to do it my last chance will be Sibelius.
 
Hi Rob,

In my experience the harmonics in Dorico play back pretty consistently if the playing techniques are set up properly. One thing though that you can run into is combinations of articulations - for instance, a harmonic with a slur or a harmonic with a tenuto or something like that. You have to define the articulation combinations as well (ex. Legato+Harmonic), otherwise with the slur and harmonic, the legato settings will override the harmonic settings and the harmonic will not be triggered.
 
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For playback of touch 4th artificial harmonics I had to add the two circled in red above. If I didn't add the "artificial harmonic + Legato" then the notes under the slurs would not play back as harmonics.

To add other harmonics you may have to use a technique that you would never use with strings (ex. "mouth wide open" or something like that) and use that playing technique to trigger the Major 3 harmonic, "mouth closed" for the P5 etc.
 
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but can't you create as many techniques as you want? Why use an existing and alien one?
thank you for explaining why one has to write pairs of techniques, I didn't know that
 
When it comes to triggering playback, there is a big list of predefined playback techniques in the software. There is no easy way of adding your own, you have to choose one of the existing ones, but the list of options is quite large. However there are only two Natural Harmonic playback techniques ("Natural Harmonic 1" and "Natural Harmonic 2") and only one Artificial Harmonic playback technique ("Artificial Harmonic") and since you can't add to the list you have to choose some other playback technique you would never use to sort of stand-in as a "Natural Harmonic 3" or "Artificial Harmonic 2" etc. since those are not options in the list.

You have to do similar things in Dorico if you use an instrument that it doesn't have in the lists - ex. pick another instrument as a "stand-in" for the one you want.
 
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For further clarification if you see above under the definition for the "Artificial Harmonic" playing technique I have "transpose" set to 24 to send it up 2 octaves (that is for the touch 4th artificial). With different intervals you would need additional ones.

Whether you need those with natural harmonics or not really depends on your notation - whether you are writing the actual audible pitch with a circle above or using just a single diamond notehead. If you are writing the audible pitch you can re-use an existing technique since you don't have to transpose the written note. Using the diamond of course is different since the transposition will differ depending on the interval formed with the open string, and that is where you need to use weird things like "mouth wide open" etc. You also don't have to worry about that printing out on the score since the playback technique names are separate from the playing technique text displayed in the score. Although it could be amusing to see a violin section suddenly open their mouths. :grin:
 
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:)
don't know if this is standard practice, but here's where I create new techniques:
PlaybaclT-create.PNG
in "Engrave", playback techniques
 
Yes that's correct. You showed me something new in the program actually, I never hit the "edit" button beside the list of playback playing techniques in the "Edit Playing Techniques" window and so I didn't realize you could add new playback playing techniques. I thought the list was fixed before. That is much better than having to use mouth open etc.
 
actually, you add new techniques in Engrave mode, Playback tech. hitting the "plus" sign...
 
actually, you add new techniques in Engrave mode, Playback tech. hitting the "plus" sign...
Yes, that's for playing techniques, I'm talking about playback playing techniques. I don't see a special option for playback playing techniques in engrave mode, only the Playing Techniques option.
 
yes...
anyway, I found a semi-fix for my issue, recording tap tempo in Finale.
It's not really a fix, as I'm working on a 2 hours ballet for orchestra and it's not realistic to tap all those measures... :) but for the time being...
 
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