Percussion Playback woes

[Gareth Green]

Can anyone help with this, please? I've never had much luck with getting percussion playback to work in Finale, and the whole MIDI business is a bit of a mystery to me. Nonetheless, a few days ago I set up a new file (using the setup wizard), with a drum kit staff. I went into the Scoremanager percussion setup and edited the percussion map there to get the instruments on the staff positions I wanted ( I also deleted unused sounds to simplify things). I then went to Midi/Audio > Device Setup > Edit Percussion MIDI Maps … > selected MIDI Device: Garritan Instruments For Finale, and selected the Jazz Fusion Drum Kit map. I amended the MIDI Note NUmbers for the instruments I was using so I could use my Korg NanoKey to enter the notes. Again, I removed the extraneous sounds from the list.

All this was according to the instructions I found in the manual, and the important thing to understand at this point is that it worked. I entered the simple kit part as in the attached file, and everything played back perfectly.

When I went back to do some more work on the file today, I discovered that all the playback sounds are now wrong. For example, the Ride Cymbal now sounds like a cowbell, and most other sounds are incorrect. But I didn't change anything. All the settings in Score Manager for the percussion staves/maps etc., and the setting in the Percussion MIDI maps are correct, but it doesn't work properly.

Can anyone figure out what is wrong, please? I'm tearing my hair out here, and I need this project finished in a couple of days.

Thanks in advance.

Gareth

[zuill]

The way things work, unfortunately, is that, although the Layout goes with the file, the Percussion Map does not. So, your customized Percussion Map only works for you, as we don't have that.

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

Thanks, Zuill; not the news I was hoping for, of course …

Does anyone know of any way of re-setting the Percussion MIDI Maps to Default, having inadvisably screwed around with them? Can't find anything on this in the manual.

TIA,

G.

[zuill]

The manual has the lists for each of the Maps the way they are by default when you install Finale. One way to get it back is to manually do it according to the list. Then, save a backup of the XML files in case you want to restore them in the future. Also, instead of changing the default list, you can create a new Map with a new name so that the default Map is left as is.

Zuill

[zuill]

Another thought: if you have v25 installed, the xml files should be the same as for v26. So, save your modified xml file in a safe folder in case this doesn't work, an then move the v25 xml file into the v2 folder. That should work. I'm also wondering what would happen if you move the modified file to another backup folder and then open Finale. would that xml file be recreated in its default state?

These files are found in the Application Data folder, which is hidden. You can choose to show those, which I am guessing you already know how to do.

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

Thanks, zuill. I don't have v25 installed, but it occurred to me to wonder if I could install v26 on a second laptop, find the xml file in that installation and copy/move it to the original installation by means of a USB stick or similar?

[ttw]

Try this link in the Make Music Support Knowledge Base:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... PrintMusic

It has a bunch of XML stuff including stuff for some default percussion. There are a couple of other directories near this one at the MM site. I don't know if it's what you need or not though.

[Gareth Green]

Thanks, ttw; good idea, but didn't work for me. I found what I'm sure were the correct files, and downloaded them, but when I tried to follow the detailed instructions for installing them I kept coming up against "Location Not Found/Available" errors.

[ttw]

Their detailed instructions were a bit complicated. I just downloaded them to a known directory (I've got one on disk C:). Then I used either the File Explorer in Windows or the DOS box XCOPY or COPY command to put them where I wanted. (File Explorer may be easier.)
Then I put them in something like "programdata" or "program files"; I didn't like MM's % signs because I couldn't seem to type them exactly.

You could take File Explorer (be sure to set things to show all extensions, folders, hidden files, etc.) then look into folders (which I still call directories, French Revolution comes to mind) named PROGRAM DATA and PROGRAM FILES (maybe with an 86). The sub-folders are not exactly the same. Eventually I find the location.

One trick is to use <Ctrl>N to make a second (or third) copy of File Explorer. I use one copy for the source and one for the target.

[zuill]

I think manually fixing the Map from the list in the Manual (Documentation) is the easiest way. It sounds like you only changed the Jazz Fusion Map. For future work, create your own Map and leave the provided Maps alone. My 2 cents worth.

You might want to file a support case with MakeMusic and see if they would be able to provide you with the xml file to replace the modified one.

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

Once again, thanks to Zuill and others, and apologies for delay in replying.

Re-constituting the MIDI map manually seems to have done the trick, and playback sounds have returned to normal.

Still left with the problem of why amending the map should have messed up the sounds. If I can't change the allocation of MIDI note numbers for input purposes, then it's not really practical to use my NanoKey for percussion input, and I'm stuck with the laborious cursor up/down button entry method, which is very slow for a kit part, because I can't enter, say kick drum and Hi-hat on the same beat simultaneously.

Why does MIDI/Percussion have to be so complicated, and why can't it just "work" … ?

[zuill]

Maybe for what you are doing you need to set up the Percussion Input Maps. That is the item directly below the Percussion MIDI Maps in the menu.

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

Maybe for what you are doing you need to set up the Percussion Input Maps. That is the item directly below the Percussion MIDI Maps in the menu.

Zuill

I did have a look at that, but it doesn't make any sense to me. Unless I'm misunderstanding, it only seems relevant if you are using a MIDI device for input with built-in percussion sounds and a map that doesn't match the ones in Finale. Fairly certain that doesn't apply to the NanoKey.

[zuill]

Isn't the NanoKey a MIDI input device? Do the sounds sound correctly when entering, but just don't go the correct spot on the staff? I guess I'm not sure what is actually happening. Are you wanting Finale to do playback through the NanoKey?

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

Not trying to get playback - not possible in any case, as the NanoKey is only a MIDI controller in effect, with no onboard sounds or speaker. Also, no problem with notation. What I'm trying to do is to change the MIDI note number allocations for input so that they correspond to the staff positions to make life simpler. IOW, for example ( I write very simple kit parts - crash and ride cym., closed hi-hat, SD, four toms & kick) I have the kick drum on the first space (treble clef 'F') The default MIDI note number for the kick drum in the Jazz Fusion Map for GIF is 36. Off the top of my head, I don't know what pitch that represents; I could work it out, but I don't want to be stopping to do that during note entry. So I want to re-allocate that to note number 65 ('F' above middle 'C'), and so on with the other sounds, so That all the sounds are contained within just over an octave (white notes only), which correspond to the staff positions for notation. I realise they aren't actual pitches, because it's a percussion clef not treble clef, but it helps for entry to think in treble clef, and also it fits under one hand on the NanoKey, so I can enter the kit part without moving my hand, using speedy entry.

Sorry, that's a bit of a long-winded explanation, but I hope it's clearer. The point is that I was able to achieve this originally by editing the input map, and it worked properly. I made the mistake of editing the default map instead of creating a new map, because I thought it would be easier. The bit I don't understand is why the playback sounds got messed up. In theory it should have worked.

[zuill]

If playback is fine, then what you need to work with is the Percussion Layout, not the Percussion Map. In the Layout, you can keep the MIDI note as is and move the staff position of the note. You can even choose the types of noteheads you want.

Am I missing something here?

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

I did edit the percussion layout to get the different instruments showing in the right position on the staff, but that doesn't change the MIDI note number for entry. I can use that for entry using Speedy without MIDI keyboard, but in order to use the NanoKey I have to able to change the entry pitch for each sound. I'm sorry I'm not explaining it clearly enough.

[zuill]

Okay. Maybe each button on the NanoKey can be programmed individually to correspond to the instrument you want?

Zuill

[Gareth Green]

It's a good thought, but the NanoKey is a very basic device. I revisited the user manual for the NanoKey (All one page of it!) but there is no mention of any such facility.

I'm afraid it's all to do with the fact that I kind of "missed the boat" when MIDI was first developed. Ever since I've been playing catch-up with trying to understand it, and I'm now a bit long in the tooth to have any chance of grasping how it works.