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More Quantization Settings dialog box

How to get there

The Quant Settings button appears in a number of related dialog boxes.

To open this window manually:

Choose MIDI/Audio > Quantization Settings.

What it does

The More Quantization Settings dialog box provides more detailed control over how your MIDI input will be transcribed.

Retain Key Velocities • Retain Note Durations. These options tell Finale to remember the precise "feel" of your performance, and to keep this data handy for playback once it’s been transcribed. If you don’t select these options, then when you play back the transcribed music from the score, Finale will simply play the "sheet music"—the notated version, which will be rhythmically precise but expressionless and "square"—instead of an exact re-creation of the original sequence.

Key Velocity is the MIDI information that describes how hard you struck each key; in other words, it’s used mostly to re-create your dynamics when you play the piece back. Note Durations refers to Start and Stop Time Data—small rhythmic deviations from the beat that result in musical "feels" such as swing, rushing, rolled chords, and so on. If you select both of these options, Finale’s playback of your transcription will very closely resemble your original performance (but your document will be slightly larger when saved).

Tip. Retaining Key Velocity will allow you to automatically apply dynamics to your score using Auto-Dynamic Placement plug-in. Retaining Note Durations will allow you to further edit your MIDI information if you wish.

Include Voice Two. If there’s an inner voice in the music you’ll be transcribing, select this option; Finale will accurately transcribe the sequence into two independent voices per staff, one stems-up and one stems-down. (You can edit the two voices using the Voice 1/Voice 2 mechanism.)

If there are few places where you’ll be needing an inner voice, however, don’t select this option. This will prevent Finale from creating secondary voices where you didn’t intend them—for example, where two successive notes were accidentally overlapped in the sequence. The status of this option can have a dramatic effect on the "cleanness" of your transcriptions. Use the Retranscribe function in the MIDI/Audio menu to correctly place Voice 1 and Voice Two in the few places you want them.

Allow Dotted Rests in Simple Meters • Allow Dotted Rests in Compound Meters. Usually Finale writes out all rests instead of notating dotted rests. Check these boxes if you want Finale to notate dotted rests when copying, transcribing your MIDI file, or during a HyperScribe or Transcription Mode performance.

Check Allow Dotted Rests in Simple Meters to apply this setting to all portions of your score in a simple meter (e.g. 2/4, 4/4, 2/2, etc). Check Allow Dotted Rests in Compound Meters to apply this setting to all portions of your score in a compound meter (e.g. 6/8, 9/8, 5/8, etc). When this option is selected Finale notates a quarter rest followed by an eighth rest as a dotted quarter rest.

When copying and pasting, if it is necessary to rebar the music (see Rebarring Music), these settings apply to the target region. For example, if Allow Dotted Rests in Compound Meters is checked, Finale will combine quarter rest/eighth rest figures into dotted quarter rests when music is copied into a region with a compound meter and rebar music is applied.

Soften Syncopations. This option affects the way syncopations are transcribed by the HyperScribe tool and Transcription Mode. Finale decides how to notate syncopation based on two factors—the time signature and whether or not this option is selected—but you must select this option before transcribing.
Remove Notes Smaller than ____ EDUs. Before converting any notes to grace notes, you may want to ensure that small glitches in the performance are not transcribed at all. If you want to ensure that every note is transcribed exactly as it was captured, change this value to 0. This function is done before any other quantization is applied by Finale.
Allow Grace Notes. If you select this option, any note in the file that’s shorter than the quantization value will appear as a grace note in the score.
Remove Grace Notes. When this option is selected, any note in the file that’s shorter than the quantization value will be removed.
Convert to Real Notes. Finale automatically lengthens any notes in the MIDI file whose durations were less than the quantization value you’ve specified.
Minimize Number of Rests. Select this checkbox to prevent Finale from quantizing your rests as small as your notes. Finale will fill out the notes through the rests (unless there is a rest on beat 1), so if you have stopped slightly short of you intended half note, you will not get a sixteenth note rest. You will still be able to enter sixteenth notes without any problems at all.
Sensitivity Level. Click the checkbox to enable this option. The number in this text box represents the finest quantization level Finale will use. Remember, Finale may "stretch" the notes in your performance as though the keys were pressed until the beginning of the next beat—in effect, creating a coarser (larger) quantization level. But the Sensitivity value indicates the smallest rhythmic value Finale will notate.

The Sensitivity is measured in EDUs (1024 per quarter note). To change the Sensitivity value, you can either enter a new number in the text box, or choose a value from the drop-down list.

For many situations, the default Sensitivity value (Sixteenth Note) works well. If, however, you’re using HyperScribe to transcribe small tuplets (like quintuplets) and you discover that Finale isn’t notating note values as fine as you’d like, or that it’s creating many grace notes, you need to choose the next smaller Sensitivity value, and try the transcription again.

OK • Cancel. When you click OK, Finale will change your Quantization Settings and return to the score. Click Cancel to return to the score without making any changes.