Finale Forum

Hello all!

So I'm arranging a 12/8 blues for big band and no matter what I do, human playback doesn't swing. 8th and 16th notes come out straight no matter what I adjust or change. Has this been a problem for anybody else? I've tried creating new projects, using various texts and expressions. Never had this problem in any other time signature. What could this be?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

We might need a sample to play with to help resolve the problem.

Zuill

Audio or visual sample?

I suspect it's because in 12/8, the default breakdown is 4, dotted quarters. And so, Finale is putting the accent on the dotted quarters: one-and-a, two-and-a... and trying to combine that with a two eighths=quarter/eighth triplet.

If you set the tempo as 6, quarter notes, displaying as 12/8, the swing is fine, but you lose the accents. I don't know enough theory to go beyond that!

A Finale file is what we need. 12/8 is basically swing written out, so quarter followed by 8th gives you swing. That's why I am wondering what the file looks like to assess what the real problem is. I'm scratching my head meanwhile.

Zuill

That makes sense to me. Thanks for teaching me again, Zuill!

Here's the file (forgive the roughness/incompleteness I only just started it and the swing issue has distracted me from adding things or patching things up.) Lemme know what you think! The sort of beat I was looking for is like a standard 12/8 blues ride pattern with that ever so slight 16th note swing (1 2 and 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 10 11 12). Here's the track I've been using for reference for you to get a better idea of what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLFlMbyA0r8

Thanks a million for all your help, gang!

Just needed some tweaking.

Zuill

P.S.: Your profile says you are using Finale 2012, but this is a Finale 25 file. You might want to update your profile.

Oh awesome! Thank you so much! May I ask exactly what you tweaked? And yes, I'll update!

First, I changed the meter to be 12/8 as 12 single eighths as opposed to compound meter. I kept the option to show as compound under the false assumption that would keep the beams in groups of threes. I was wrong. So, just create the meter as 12 8ths as simple meter. You'll have to rebeam to compound meter 12/8 later. Lot's of extra work. You can enter all the music first in compound meter, then change the meter to simple 12/8 just to get the correct playback. that might save work.

Now, you need to change the Score List 1 (that's the Score List used for the Swing expression you are using) to have all the staves selected under the parts list. You can choose not to select the bass staff of the piano if the grand staff is sharing a channel.

Lastly, change the definition of the swing playback in the expression for Swing you are using to have the swing set to 50 instead of 100. When swing 16ths, the normal value is cut in half.

Zuill

zuill wrote:You'll have to rebeam to compound meter 12/8 later. Lot's of extra work.

I confess to not really following what swung 12/8 is, but won't Utilities/Rebeam/Rebeam to Time Signature accomplish it without a lot of extra work?

That's what I meant. That's not really a lot of extra work. I just meant that getting the swing for 16ths adds steps not normally needed. For you and me not too much, but for some it might be daunting.

Zuill

I wonder if it might be acceptible to write it in 3/4 or 9/8, 3 times as fast, with every beat of the old becoming a measure of 3 beats in the new.