MIDI Menu
How to get there
The MIDI Menu is one of SongWriter’s
unchanging menus.
What it does
This menu contains items specific to
your MIDI setup and usage.
- Human
Playback · None · Standard · Baroque... · Custom. From this menu, you
can choose a playback style such as romantic, jazz, reggae, or classical.
SongWriter 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 SongWriter’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 SongWriter 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 (SmartMusic SonftSynth or General MIDI, depending on the device chosen for MIDI Out in the MIDI Setup dialog box).
- Device Setup. Choose this command to display
the Device Setup submenu, where you can change MIDI setup settings. See MIDI Device submenu.
- 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. SongWriter 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 SongWriter expressions or articulations.
- Send Patches to MIDI Device on Playback. Select this option if you want SongWriter,
just before it begins playback, to transmit any patch information specified
in the ScoreManager to your MIDI instruments.
- 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.
