Apply Human Playback dialog box

How to get there

1. Choose the MIDI tool .
2. Select a region.
3. Choose MIDI Tool > Apply Human Playback.

What it does

This dialog box allows you to apply a Human Playback style, or specific elements of Human Playback to regions of your document. For example, if a Latin section appears in the middle of your jazz score, use this dialog box to apply the Jazz style for most of the piece, and the Latin style for just the Latin section. In addition to applying one of the preset styles, you can use the additional settings to ‘fine tune’ playback in many ways using all of the same options available for Human Playback available in the Playback Controls.

When you have customized the settings to your preferences, click Apply and this dialog box adds the MIDI data to the region you have selected (as if you had played back this region with Human Playback on and recorded the MIDI data). Note that existing MIDI data in the selected region is overwritten when you apply this dialog box. Global (program-wide) settings can be made for all regions you edit with this dialog box in the Human Playback Preferences dialog box. This dialog box cannot be applied to partial measures.

• Apply a Defined Style. Select this radio button, and then a style from the popup menu to apply a preset Human Playback style to the selected region.
• Apply Specific Elements • Select. Select this radio button, and then choose the items you want Human Playback to interpret.
  • % Reverb. Move this slider right to increase or left to decrease the degree to which reverb is applied to the performance. Reverb (reverberation) is the persistence of sound after the source has been stopped, such as the echo effect apparent in a large room or auditorium.
  • % Mood. Move the Mood slider right to increase, or left to decrease a slight degree of randomness in the performance. Virtually all items interpreted by Human Playback are effected by the position of the mood slider.
  • Swing: Set to None … Dotted 8th, 16th. This control allows you to apply a swing feel to the Human Playback style. Click on the Swing Values popup menu to select from several levels of swing. Or, choose Current to use the current setting in the Playback Controls.
  • Automatic Expression. Check Automatic Expression to allow Human Playback to automatically add expressions (temporarily) to passages where there are none. For example, in a section, wind and string instruments will be assigned a delicate and realistic attack.
  • Detection of Solo Instrument. Check Detection of Solo Instrument to tell Human Playback to recognize a solo instrument staff (usually at the top of the score) in order to apply appropriate settings (Such as Soften Accompaniment). Note that the balance between the solo and others can be adjusted in the Human Playback Preferences dialog box. (It uses Volume controller for balancing, and also effects how the solo part is placed in the orchestral space (Automatic Panning).
  • Automatic Panning. Check Automatic Panning to tell Human Playback to intelligently distribute instrument channels to simulate a live performance (using Pan MIDI controller 10). For example, this option can isolate a solo instrument on one speaker and the orchestra on the other. It covers many instrumental configurations, from a solo instrument to a symphonic orchestra. Although default panning always exists, the better the notation, the more accurate the effect.
  • Baroque Style for Ornaments. Check Baroque Style for Ornaments to perform mordents, trills and other ornaments in a Baroque style (i.e. trills start on upper note, appoggiaturas are slow, etc.).
  • Short Syncopations/Off Beats. This option makes jazz music sound more realistic by emphasizing off beats and short syncopations. The effect is applied with Key Velocity.
  • Viennese Waltz Feel. Gives a Viennese feel to 3/4 (and also 3/8) based scores. Rubato dependent and uses Start/Stop times to create the effect. A Viennese Waltz is characteristically performed in a ‘fast three’ with an accentuated first beat in the bass.
  • Play drum rolls exactly. With this checked, tremolo diddles are played precisely (not unmeasured). Used in Marching Band style.
  • Adjust Dotted 8th+16th/Triplet • Longer • Shorter. Check Adjust Dotted 8th+16th/Triplet, and then choose Longer to increase the duration of the sixteenth note in dotted eighth-sixteenth figures (relative to a quarter and eighth -note triplet). Choose Shorter to decrease the duration of the sixteenth note in dotted eighth-sixteenth figures (relative to a quarter and eighth -note triplet).
  • Soften Accompaniments. Detects and softens accompaniment figures (such as Alberti basses, arpeggios, etc), to emphasize melodies. Key velocity is used to apply this effect.
  • Auto Piano Pedaling. Complementary to the Pedal Marking feature, this options creates a pedal effect automatically (using MIDI controller 64). It analyzes harmonic progressions for changes and avoids note confusion as much as possible. It is inactive in passages that contain pedal markings that have been added manually.
  • Chord Balance. Check Chord Balance to highlight melodies by balancing notes within chords appropriately by adjusting key velocities. This is especially useful for piano music.
  • Soften Basses. Check Soften Basses to decrease the volume of the lowest note in chords.
  • String Harmonics. Creates harmonic effect for strings (violin, etc) and harp, using standard notation.
  • Strum Plucked String Chords. Check Strum Plucked String Chords to apply a strummed feel to entries containing multiple notes on fretted instrument staves (slightly offset the entrance of each note in a chord from the previous).
  • Match Harmonic Cadences. Check Match Harmonic Cadences to tell Human Playback to analyze the harmonic progression of the document and automatically decrease the tempo slightly for perfect and semi cadences.
• Clear MIDI Data. Select this radio button and specify the MIDI data you want to remove by checking the appropriate box(es). You might, for example, clear “All Continuous Data” if you want to use Human Playback’s interpretation of a section of music based on expressions, hairpins, and other markings you’ve added in the document, and have chosen to incorporate your own MIDI data with Human Playback’s interpretation in the Human Playback Preferences dialog box. (Note the Apply Human Playback Preferences dialog box contains the same options as the Human Playback Preferences dialog box, but only applies to Human Playback assigned with the dialog box).
• Restore To Default. Click this button to reset all parameters in this dialog box to their original settings.
• Preferences. Click this button to open the Human Playback Preferences dialog boxwhere you can control Human Playback’s interpretation of the document, and how it deals with existing MIDI data. The settings you make in this dialog box are program-wide, but only affect regions to which Human Playback has been applied using the Apply Human Playback command.
• Apply • Cancel. Click Apply to apply the current settings and leave the dialog box available. Click Cancel to dismiss the dialog box without making any changes.