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Limit - Note Durations dialog box

How to get there

Choose Window > Advanced Tools. Click the MIDI tool . The MIDI tool menu appears.
Select some measures. If you’re in the MIDI tool split-window, select the region you want to affect by dragging through the "graph" display area or by selecting the handles of individual notes whose MIDI data you want to edit.
Choose MIDI tool > Note Durations.
Choose MIDI tool > Limit.

What it does

This dialog box allows you to limit the values of the note durations to within a specified range of values.

Minimum of ____ • Maximum of ____. In these text boxes, enter the minimum and maximum values permissible for the note durations within the selected region. Any existing data values below the minimum value you specify will be boosted to that minimum value; any existing values above the maximum value will be clipped down to that maximum value.

The maximum and minimum values you specify are Start and Stop Times. The Start Time is the difference between the notated, or quantized, starting point of a note and the moment you actually struck the note in your performance. The Stop Time is the difference between the notated release of the note and the moment you actually released the note.

In this case, then, the values you’re limiting to a maximum or minimum value are the Start and Stop Times, measured in EDUs (1024 per quarter note). If you enter zero in both text boxes, Finale will adjust the attacks and releases of the notes in the selected region so that they’re perfectly "quantized" with their notated values; when you play them back, they’ll sound rhythmically perfect. If you enter positive or negative numbers in either text box, you limit both Start and Stop Times to the specified number of EDUs from the notated durations.

OK • Cancel. Click OK to confirm, or Cancel to discard, the MIDI data changes you’ve specified. You return to the MIDI tool split-window (or the score).

Tip: Enter "0" to hear the notated values; enter positive or negative numbers to move the attack or release from the notated values.