Finale Forum

Some functioning expressions don't have any visible clue how they work -- e.g., rall., accelerando, a tempo, & others. How can I get to the underlying midi parameters, assuming that's where they are? All I see in Expression Designer > Playback is
Type: None
and
Effect: Set to value [0].

Those things are interpreted by Human Playback rather than being settings in the expressions.

You also need specific tempo settings on both sides of the tempo alteration for HP to interpret tempo alterations correctly.

For example, you have a piece which begins at q = 120. A few measures later you add a rallentando. But after that, you need in another measure q = 88. Now Human Playback can see exactly how much to slow down in the rallentando to reach q = 88 in the destination measure.

There is a way to get specific behavior by using the playback shapes. These were necessary before Human Playback was created. I have never been able to get as precise behavior from those shapes as others (Peter Thomsen has them mastered). Instead, if HP doesn't do what I want, I do it with the MIDI Tool.

Zuill

Thanks for these responses -- I think I'm getting closer to some understanding of some of the behaviors. Apparently there is no central location that contains all of the current values of the parameters, and allows users to do their own arithmetic on them. So a lot of time is going into experimentation that others have surely done. Like I find that if I place a rall on say, 3 or 4 successive notes, I get a molto molto rall. In at least one case, I saw a rall with no succeeding expressions revert to a-tempo after 4m. There is still the mystery of the existence of some functional expressions -- someone made them, but the user can't. E.g., a-tempo has access to the tempo parameter value prior to invoking a Tempo Alteration. That's as it should be, but editing a-tempo is a dead end -- the user can't get the prior tempo here, and maybe nowhere. How did these functional can't-functionally-edit expressions get created?

I see though that Midi Tool > Edit Tempo > Percent-alter at least allows some extra capability with it.

The code for HP is hidden and not user editable. You do have some control with the Styles. If none of the styles give what you want, you can choose Custom and adjust some of the parameters. These are universal, and still are somewhat Cryptic. There are also settings in HP preferences, which are also universal. Another option is to "Hard Wire" HP into the score and then turn off HP. If you still don't get exactly what you want, then you can use the somewhat archaic MIDI Tool to edit the MIDI data. Pretty confusing, and the cards are stacked against the user.

Zuill

Thanks, zuill -- can you explain how to implement ["Hard Wire" HP into the score]. And is that deletable by Clear Selected > Midi Data or other?

In the MIDI Tool Menu, at the bottom, is Apply HP. There's also a feature in that utility to undo the process if needed.

Zuill

Thanks! I will work on it.