MIDI menu

How to get there

The MIDI menu is one of PrintMusic’s unchanging menus.

What it does

This menu contains items specific to your MIDI setup and usage.

• Play PrintMusic Through MIDI. Check this box to playback using the devices chosen in the MIDI Setup dialog box.
• Play PrintMusic Through VST. Check this box to playback using the devices chosen in the VST Instruments dialog box instead of those specified in the MIDI Setup dialog box.
• VST Banks & Effects. Choose this command to open the VST Banks & Effects dialog box, where you can setup VST instruments for playback.
• Human Playback • None • Standard • Baroque … Custom. From this menu, you can choose a playback style such as romantic, jazz, reggae, or classical. PrintMusic uses the style chosen to emulate a human performance during playback. Adjustments to the MIDI performance data in tempo, note duration, key velocity, and other MIDI attributes are applied throughout PrintMusic’s performance. The Human Playback performance includes existing expressions, smart shapes, and other markings in its interpretation based on the style chosen. These settings also apply to saved MIDI files (*.MID). You can turn off human Playback by choosing None from this list.

  The Custom option is only available if you are viewing a file created in Finale that contains custom Human Playback settings. If this is the case, you can choose Custom to activate these settings. (Editing Human Playback custom settings is a feature of Finale only. This option will be grayed out for new PrintMusic files.)

  Note that Human Playback interprets articulations for the note they are attached to. For Human Playback to interpret articulations and other compatible note-attached items properly, ensure they are attached to the appropriate note (and not attached, for example, to the previous note and dragged to the right as is the case with items such as breath marks and cesuras). See Articulations and Expressions for details. Human Playback also interprets certain words added as expressions. See Human Playback Dictionary.

• Swing: None • Light • Standard • Heavy. Select a swing value to apply a swing feel to the current document.
• Reassign Playback Sounds. Choose this command to automatically assign sounds to your score instruments. With Play PrintMusic Through VST checked, PrintMusic assigns sounds to instruments according to the order specified in the Sound Map Priority dialog box (see below). With Play PrintMusic Through MIDI checked, PrintMusic uses either SmartMusic SoftSynth or General MIDI, depending on the device chosen for MIDI Out in the MIDI Setup dialog box. You can review the sound assignments under the Sound column of the Score Manager.
• Device Setup. Choose this command to display the Device Setup submenu, where you can change MIDI setup and audio output settings. See MIDI Device submenu.
• Sound Map Priority. Choose this command to open the Sound Map Priority dialog box, where you can assign the priority of VST sound libraries that PrintMusic uses when assigning sounds to score instruments. This order is taken into account when using the Reassign Playback Sounds command (see above).
• Start Playback • Stop Playback. Use these commands to start or stop playback. Playback starts at the measure chosen in the Playback Controls.
• All Notes Off. From time to time, you may encounter MIDI lock, a rare situation in which a synthesizer sounds as if its keys are “stuck,” and it plays continuously as though someone’s still pressing them. To send the MIDI signal that tells it to “release the keys,” choose this command; after a moment, the synthesizer will be silent. Technically, this command sends a Note Off command to all notes on all channels.
• Reset Panning. Choose this command to automatically configure the pan setting for each staff in order to simulate the effect of instruments distributed among the orchestral space. PrintMusic recognizes many instrumental configurations, and sets the MIDI Pan value for each instrument accordingly (also taking into account solo instruments). These settings are based on Human Playback's interpretation.
• Play as Recorded. Select Play as Recorded to hear your music exactly as you played it in HyperScribe or an imported MIDI file. With Play as Recorded selected, you will not hear any adjustments to tempo or volume added later with PrintMusic expressions or articulations.
• Send Patches to MIDI Device on Playback. Select this option if you want PrintMusic, just before it begins playback, to transmit any patch information specified in the Score Manager to your MIDI instruments. You probably won’t want to select this option, however, if you prefer to assign programs to MIDI channels on your MIDI instrument before you begin playback, instead of letting PrintMusic do it. If you select Send Patches to MIDI Device on Playback, PrintMusic will wipe out any MIDI channel/patch configurations you’ve set on your MIDI instrument, and use the information defined in the Score Manager for playback.
• Click and Countoff. Choose this command to display the Click and Countoff dialog box, where you can specify a countoff click for recording with HyperScribe or playing back using the Playback Controls. You can also determine how many measures to count off, and define two separate metronome click sounds for the down beat and other beats in your music. For detailed information, see the Click and Countoff dialog box.
• Quantization Settings. Select Quantization Settings to display the Quantization Settings dialog box. In this dialog box you can specify the smallest beat you will allow for actions such as using the HyperScribe tool and Importing MIDI Files. See Quantization Settings dialog box for more details.

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