Key velocity

1. Choose Window > Advanced Tools Palette. Choose the MIDI tool . The MIDI tool menu appears.
2. Choose MIDI tool > Key Velocities, if it’s not already selected.
3. Select the region whose playback data you want to affect. Click to select one measure, SHIFT+click to select additional measures, drag-enclose to select several on-screen measures, click to the left of the staff to select the entire staff, or choose Edit > Select All.
4. If the selected region is only on one staff, double-click the highlighted area. You enter the MIDI tool split-window. At the bottom of the window you see the music on the staff you selected. Above each note is a thin vertical line; in essence, these lines are a bar graph of the key velocities of the displayed notes. Click the up, down, left, and right arrow buttons to move through the score.

   While in the MIDI tool split-window, you have note-by-note editing powers for the displayed notes. To select the notes whose velocities you want to edit, drag through the graph area of the window, highlighting it; the handles of all displayed notes are selected. You can also click an individual note’s handle, or SHIFT-click additional handles, or drag-enclose groups of handles—or even SHIFT–drag-enclose additional groups.

5. Choose the appropriate command in the MIDI Tool menu.
   • Set To gives all selected notes a velocity value you specify.
   • Scale creates a smooth gradation from one value to another (ideal for crescendo effects).
   • Add alters every selected note’s velocity by a value you specify.
   • Percent Alter alters a note’s velocity by a percentage of its current value.
   • Limit lets you specify a maximum and minimum velocity value for the selected notes.
   • Alter Feel gives you selective control over downbeats, offbeats, and backbeats, letting you alter each by an absolute or percentage of current value (ideal for “boosting the backbeat”—in other words, making the backbeats louder).
   • Randomize changes the velocities of the selected notes by a random amount, to the degree you specify (ideal for giving a more human “feel” to the piece).
6. If you have the MIDI tool split-window open, and want to hear the effects of your work along the way, choose MIDI tool > Play. It’s important to understand that you’re editing the performance data of the selected music. Performance data is a set of velocity (and Start and Stop Time) playback information that Finale associates with each note in the score. At any point, you can hear your music played strictly as it appears in the score, or you can hear it played using the captured MIDI data (choose Document > Playback/Record Options).

   If the music you’re editing was from a performance in HyperScribe, and selected Retain Key Velocities in the Quantization Settings dialog box (or if you clicked Save Key Velocities before transcribing in Transcription More), in the MIDI tool you’d see (and be able to edit) the actual key velocities of the notes as you originally played them.

7. When you’re finished, close the MIDI tool split-window. In order to hear the changes you made, choose Window > Playback Controls. Click the expand arrow, and then Playback/Record Options. Make sure Play Recorded Key Velocities is selected. If it is, you’ll hear the score played back using the performance data—in other words, you’ll hear the effects of your velocity editing whenever you play back your score.

For complete information on recording with the HyperScribe tool, see Recording with HyperScribe.

1. Choose MIDI/Audio > Quantization Settings > More Settings. Ensure Retain Key Velocities is checked.
2. Choose Document > Playback/Record Options. The Playback/Record Options dialog box appears.
3. Make sure Play Recorded Key Velocities is selected and click OK. When Play Recorded Key Velocities is selected, Finale uses the original key velocity information it recorded when you created the performance—even if you edit the durations of notes in the score. You can edit the captured velocity information visually by using the MIDI Tool (see To edit key velocity with the MIDI tool, above).

See To copy or erase captured (or edited) MIDI data.