Randomize - Key Velocities dialog box

How to get there

  1. Choose Window > Advanced Tools Palette. Choose the MIDI tool icon. The MIDI Tool menu appears.
  2. Select a region of measures. If you’re in the MIDI tool split-window, select the region you want to affect by dragging through the "graph" display area or by selecting the handles of individual notes whose MIDI data you want to edit.
  3. Choose MIDI Tool > Edit Key Velocities.
  4. Choose MIDI Tool > Randomize.

What it does

In this dialog box, you can direct Finale to alter the velocity for all selected notes at random. This can be a useful option if you want to give your playback a more imperfect, "human" feeling. (The Randomize command isn’t available if you’ve selected MIDI Tool > Edit Continuous Data.)

  • Randomize the Key Velocities but Limit the Change to ___. In this text box, enter the maximum amount by which you want Finale to randomly vary the key velocity values of the notes in the selected region. The number in this text box represents MIDI velocity units, which are on a scale from zero, which is silent, to 127, which is very loud. You’ll probably find that a number between 10 and 20 produces satisfactory results (a more human "feel") without introducing obvious accents.
  • OK • Cancel. Click OK to confirm, or Cancel to discard, the MIDI data changes you’ve specified. You return to the MIDI tool split-window (or the score).

Tip: Enter values between 5-20 to achieve a more "human" feel.

See also:

MIDI Tool menu

MIDI tool