problems with arco-pizz changes

[hermanding]

i run finale2008a on a Mac pro quad with 9 gigs ram and 2.5 terrabytes of storage, so should enough memory and power.
have a piece - pairs of regular winds plus bass clarinet, f horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, strings, and solo viola.
up until about bar 189, string section has been in arco. then, a much faster passage for about 80 bars with section strings in pizzicato. in the middle of the passage, a bar rest and first have a bar of arco, the a rest bar, and back to pizzicato. same for seconds, section viols, and cellos. the section violas will NOT change to arco for their bar - no matter what i do - erased the bar and put back in, moved arco around. finally i had to give the viola arco passage to the cello as well and let it do some pizz notes.
any ideas on this - has it happened to anyone, where instument will not play arco, no matter what? later, after the fast pizz passage, it went back to arco with no problem.
thanks so much for all opinions and ideas

[iannis]

hermanding-

Are you using the Garritan Instruments for Finale?

Did you use the KS voices for the strings?

Did you use the arco and pizz. expressions from the expression selection window?

Did you set this document up new in Finale 2008 or did you use a template from an older version?

[raweber]

Hey, Ding,

I had a similar problem. I think the issue is that HP is so complex that sometimes it just losed track. In my song, none of the strings would switch back to Arco after a Pizz section. Here's what I did to work around it:

First, assuming that you're using the Garritan instruments that come bundled with Finale, each of the KS instruments have certain keys, waaaay down at the bottom of the keyboard, that are used to change the articulations (I apologize if you already know all this - someone else reading this might not).

The Human Playback algorhythm is supposed to read the markings, like "Arco" and "Pizz" and automatically apply the correct keyswitch. In your case and in mine, that didn't seem to work.

So, what I did was edit the "Arco" and "Pizz" expressions to add the MIDI command for the correct note. The Finale documentation walls you through doing this.

I know that they say when running HP you shouldn't use MIDI Commands like that, but it solved my problem and now runs like a dream. Having the MIDI control commands embedded in the expressions doesn't seem to have affected HP at all.

Good luck!

[Molaso]

Hi, Raweber. I have exactly the same issue. Sometimes the expressions attached to the score do switch from "pizz" to "arco" or viceversa, but many times they do not, which is very annoying. What confuses me most is that there is no rule to follow to guess if it will switch or not, and given my cartesian way of understanding it gives me too many headaches.
You mention that you add the Midi command to do the keyswitch "manually". I went though the Finale manual carefully but didn´t find any explanation on how to do it. Could you write down it step by step? It would be great!
Another STRANGE thing: as a work-around, I wrote in the score, just before the arco change, the midi note to make the switch. It worked, but ONLY if the note was visible. As soon as I hid the note (for obvious reasons), the switch stopped working.
I hope you can give us some advice.
Thanks in advance.
Saludos desde Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Molaso.

[raweber]

To add Keyswitches as Expressions

While using Finale GPO for playback, you can add a keyswitch at any point to change the instrument sound, for example, from arco to Pizzicato. A Keyswitch is simply a regular note outside the range of the instrument that triggers this change. For a list of Keyswitch mappings, see GPO Finale Edition Instrument Details.

If Human Playback is enabled, text (such as “arco,” “pizz,” etc.) is interpreted and keyswitches are added automatically. If you are not using HP, choose from a list of keyswitch expressions available by default in the Expression Selection dialog box to add these effects.

You can also assign a Keyswitch to an expression manually by defining the expression to send a MIDI Note On message at the pitch of a Keyswitch. By doing this, you can invoke a Keyswitch by simply adding the expression defined accordingly (a “Pizz” text expression would change the playback to a pizzicato sound). Remember, Keyswitches are a feature of GPO, and will not apply to other playback devices.

1. Click the Expression Tool mf , and Double-Click the document. The Expression Selection dialog box appears.
2. Click Create. Or, you could also select an existing Expression you would like to define to a Keyswitch and click Edit.
3. Type the desired text. Set the font, size, style, make it hidden, or apply other text attributes.
4. Click the Playback Tab. The playback options appear.
5. From the Type Menu, choose Dump. The Playback Data Dump dialog box appears.
6. For Number of Units, type 3. We will be sending 3 pieces of Data.
7. For the top Data box, type 144. This is the message for Note On.
8. For the second Data box, type the MIDI Note number for the Keyswitch. For example, Arco = 0, Pizz = 5 in Finale GPO). For a complete list, see GPO Finale Edition Instrument Details.
9. In the third data box, type 127. Since the note is below the instrument’s range, it will not sound.
10. Click OK, OK, Select, and OK to add the Expression. The performance style will change upon reaching this point during playback.

Good luck!

[Molaso]

Quick reply there. Thank you so much. And brilliant information; worked great
Now I have another question: I hear the pizz much louder than arco in Cello KS. Is there a way to lower it a bit?
Thanks a lot.
Molaso.

[erikalieberman]

I am having a problem with pizzicato playback as well. I have version 2011 on a 2.66 GHz Intel i5 imac, 8g RAM. I used KS Garritan strings, standard HP, and the pizz playback gave me arco strings with a low, rumbling sound. I tried changing the midi instructions as suggested here, but the results are the same. Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[ghaggard]

Hello. I am using 2012 and had the same problem. Your clearly explained advise was perfect!
Thank you so much.

[atill91]

I am having the same problem. I'm using Finale 2010 and am on mac os x 10.7.5. The steps above had no effect, and in fact made it worse. I am writing a string quartet, and only the 2nd violin part will not play pizzicato. The other parts switch from arco to pizz and visa versa just fine. The 2nd violin part does not switch no matter what I do.