Finale Forum

How can I ensure that Finale plays back exactly what I have played myself?

I keep finding that Finale repeats notes (which are actually notes from just before the barline that sound longer), often at the beginning of the next measure. I then have to correct these notes by either tie them to the notes just before the barline or removing them.

I also notice when playing back older midi files that I recorded through another program, unwanted notes are created by Finale.

I have already tried several options:
human playback style: none
HyperScribe options: tie across barlines

Can you supply specific examples?

Left what Finale had made of it.
Right my corrections.

I need to erase some notes which I haven't played and lengthen some notes.

Hard to say! It looks like the notes your circled, rather than being unwanted notes, where displaced from the end of measure 3. When you played it in, did you perhaps use the pedal and lift your left hand?

I also think the sustain pedal has an influence. Apparently Finale sees held notes as new notes.
When I lengthen the notes in my correction of the file it sometimes leads to a reverberation as if the pedal was held too long.
I can solve this a bit by using the pedal when recording an mp3.
Another solution would be to release the sustain pedal more often while making a file. But that only applies to new files.

I guess I am not the only one with this problem.
What are the right options in Finale?
Today I had to correct a file. It takes a lot of time again. It is very frustrating,

I feel your pain. I had an old Finale file of a piano work (it’s a two-hour work, and lots of markings) and after spending a ton of hours fixing playback, it still is not right. Many fermatas aren’t working or else have distant effects that are only fixed by removing them. Pedal markings are not always recognized and trying to cancel the pedal with a * is not doing the trick in most cases. And don’t get me started on how painful and useless it is to try to tweak things in the MIDI tool.

It’s too problematic to dump in a DAW like Reason and try to fix, so I’ve pretty much gotten to the point that the current version is as good as I can get it, short of re-entering all 2 hours of the score into a new file. New files typically play back fine, especially using NotePerformer 3.x.

I’ve also tried Data Check and this finds no issues.

I just want to play back what I have played to make a recording. Far in the past I used Midisoft what was very fine for me.

It is silly to change the file to get back what I have played. Sometimes it is almost impossible to fix it.

Maybe I need another program. It is a pity I still have no all-in-one program.

I have got an answer of the customer support of MakeMusic:

I would agree that the use of the sustain pedal is likely related here. As you mentioned, it is likely catching that data and placing extra notes at the beginning to replicate the sustain.

One thing I would recommend would be trying to make a version of the MIDI file on your Nord without using the sustain pedal for the purpose of importing in Finale. It won't sound the same as a performance version might, but if the goal is clear notation with minimal edits after, then making a version of the MIDI that is optimized for that purpose would be the most logical thing to do.

Otherwise, deleting the extra notes as you have been, or highlighting them and selecting the "R" key to replace it with a rest, would be your next best course of action.


For me playing without the sustain pedal is like eating meat without salt. The use of sustain pedal is an important part of the performance too.