> I am wondering if this very annoying thing happens to anyone else: > namely that after pressing play, the playback bar starts moving as per > expected but the MIDI doesn't actually come out until 5 seconds or so > later. There will be a sudden rush of notes and then it's all OK. > > Every time I press play this happens. > > I am not using Garritan etc., and am using human playback. When human > playback is turned off, everything's as it should be. (Finale 2007) > > Even better would be if someone has a solution (other than turning HP > off)... it's extremely frustrating. > > Matthew
A similar thing happens to me under certain circumstances. I'm on FinWin2k4 and don't use HP, but I do use an external MIDI device. The effect you describe happens when I start playback far enough into a large score. What's happening is that when you start playback in the middle of a piece, all the MIDI data for patch changes and controller changes from the beginning of the piece have to be sent to the output device before the notes and other MIDI data for the starting playback position. All this preliminary MIDI data is sent by Finale to the MIDI output device at maximum speed, and depending on how much data there is, the output device may not have enough time to process these MIDI messages before the "note ons" start coming. When the MIDI output device finally catches up with the current playback data, a number of note on messages may be stacked up waiting in its queue, which results in a sudden vomitous hail of simultaneous notes before normal playback resumes. As I said, for me this happens only when I start playback after some point in a large score, never near the beginning. I have several suggestions, which may or may not help. 1) Start playback a measure or two before the spot you're interested in hearing. 2) After initiating playback, click somewhere on the Finale window frame (i.e., outside the music area). This works on some of my files and not on others, and I have no idea why. But I can tell from the blinking light on my external MIDI device that the rate that Finale feeds it MIDI data slows down after I click on the frame (or also completely outside the window, but then Finale loses focus). 3) In Playback Options, change Dynamics and Markings from "Chase from First Measure" to "Use Current Settings". This may have undesirable side effects, depending on how you use playback. It may cause patch changes, volume, and other MIDI controller settings to be missed, but I never get the stacked-up notes syndrome this way (and playback start instantly, which is nice in a long score). Another anomaly I'll mention, which may be particular to my setup, is that when I start playback in the middle of a piece using the playback controls, it ignores all program changes and sets each channel to the default patch, even if I have "Chase from First Measure" set in Playback Options. When I use the hold-space-bar-and-shift-click-measure method for playback, that never happens (i.e., the proper program changes is applied to every channel). This has been the case for me with every version of Finale I've used for the past 6 years. I don't know if this helps, or if your problem may have a different cause from mine. As with many "features" of Finale, I've learned to work around it. But at least now you know you're not alone. Lee Actor Composer-in-Residence and Assistant Conductor, Palo Alto Philharmonic http://www.leeactor.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
