Issues with proper sustain pedal playback (vibraphone)

Discuss playback problems, including VST, Garritan, MIDI, etc.

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DominicW
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2021 2:46 am
Finale Version: v26
Operating System: Mac

Post by DominicW » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:17 am

Hello!

I recently got Tapspace's Virtual Drumline, which integrates right into Finale. While so far my experience using Finale with Virtual Drumline has been good with only a few minor yet fixable issues, I have experienced quite a bit of trouble trying to get proper playback for using a sustain pedal on a Vibraphone. I initially tried using the Smart Shape tool, which provided the right notation but did not affect playback whatsoever. Even after adjusting Human Playback and making sure that I chose the vibraphone sound from Virtual Drumline with sustain pedal control, I could not get it to play back properly.

After doing about 30-40 minutes of searching on Google for help with this issue, I found something that kinda worked. To my surprise, the Articulations tool provides pedal down and pedal up markings (The "Led." marking and the "*" marking, respectively), and this did actually play back properly. There are some limitations using this, however, because - if I understand the Articulations tool correctly - these markings can only attach to notes. This prevents me from doing the following:

1. Having a vibraphone part where the pedal is lifted up after a note has been struck and right before a rest
2. Having a vibraphone part where the pedal is lifted up and then immediately lifted down (Ex.: Playing one chord for one whole measure and repedaling to play a new chord for a measure without the previous chord bleeding over.)

This leads to me to my main question: is there a better way to achieve sustain pedal playback with greater control over when the pedal is down and when it is up? In addition, would it be possible to accomplish this playback with notation that looks like this:
Image
For reference, I am using Finale v26 on a new Mac laptop. Any and all help with this topic is appreciated.

Dominic


User avatar
zuill
Posts: 4418
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:35 pm
Finale Version: Finale 2011-v26.3.1
Operating System: Windows

Post by zuill » Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:05 am

FYI: Led is actually Ped. That first letter is a fancy P. A student once asked me "What is Leo for?" Those fancy old letters are hard to decipher.

As far as sustain playback, it sometimes depends on how things are set up. Human Playback is what is at issue in interpreting things like sustain. Can you post a sample file for us to examine?

Zuill

P.S.: You can create expressions for sustain playback that then allows the "off" command to be other then exactly at the moment of a note, as with expressions. Do you know how to create those with proper playback?
Windows 10, Finale 2011-v26.3.1
"When all is said and done, more is said than done."

DominicW
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2021 2:46 am
Finale Version: v26
Operating System: Mac

Post by DominicW » Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:58 pm

Hello Zuill,

First of all, thank you so much for your reply. I had no idea that you could use the expression tool to make a custom expression for "pedal down" and "pedal up." After reading your post, I went into Finale and quickly figured out how to make these custom expressions with the correct playback. Since expressions can attach to notes, rests, and barlines, this method did solve the first issue I had using the articulations tool, which was that I couldn't stop the sustain right before a rest. However, I am still having trouble with the second issue I had with the articulations tool, which was that I couldn't get repedaling to work properly. So, I've attached a document demonstrating my issues with sustain pedal playback. In this document, I used the default Vibraphone sound in Finale (specifically, the Garritan vibraphone sound) rather than the Virtual Drumline vibraphone sound, but, with the exception of measures 7-13, the results are the same regardless of which sound I use.

Measures 1-2 demonstrate what I might want a vibraphone part to look like with pedal notation, but with no sustain playback.

Measures 4-5 demonstrate the same notes as in measures 1-2 but with the articulations tool instead of smart shapes. The sustain playback does work here, but since articulations can only attach to notes, getting the playback to repedal the vibraphone or lift the pedal up on a rest is not possible.

Measures 7-8 demonstrate the same notes again, this time with the custom expressions I made for "pedal down" and "pedal up." When using the default Vibraphone sound, this gets the playback exactly right, with the pedal down and pedal up in just the right spots. However, when using the Virtual Drumline vibraphone sound, although the expressions work correctly, the notes from measure 7 bleed over into measure 8 despite the "pedal up" marking being right between measure 7 and measure 8. (My theory as to why this is happening is that, since Virtual Drumline is meant to replicate percussion instruments as realistically as possible, the transition from pedal down to pedal up on the Virtual Drumline vibraphone isn't quite as instantaneous as it is when using the Garritan vibraphone. This would mean that the "pedal up" marking might not come into effect during playback if it is too close to a "pedal down" marking.)

Measures 10-11 show a new vibraphone part using the same custom expressions. In this case, the repedaling doesn't play back quite right with the Garritan Vibraphone. You can hear the quarter notes on beat 4 of measure 8 bleeding over into measure 9, despite the "pedal up" marking being right between the two measures. This leads me to believe that repedaling will only play back properly on the Garritan vibraphone if the "pedal up" marking is placed between a rest and a note, just like it is in Measures 7-8. (When testing out the Virtual Drumline vibraphone, all the notes from measure 10 bleeded over into measure 11.)

Measure 13 demonstrates the same problem as in measures 10-11, only this time the repedaling occurs in the middle of the measure. With the Garritan Vibraphone, you can hear that, while the quarter notes on beat 1 are not sustained after the repedal, the quarter notes on beat 2 do bleed over. (With the Virtual Drumline sound, both the notes on beat 1 and on beat 2 bleed over after the repedal.)

I hope this all makes sense. Thank you again for your help!

Dominic
Attachments
Vibraphone Test.musx
(103.32 KiB) Downloaded 93 times

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