well, if you don't mind, I can input a bit of my own experience with Finale and full GPO, however, it will be with Finale 2006 (I have 2007, but feel that its version of HP is still lacking in integration with full version GPO).
The most important thing I can say is make sure your score is
visually as complete as possible. HumanPlayback was designed to take into consideration a number of notational score items:
- staff names
- clefs (particularly for percussion)
- phrase markings (especially for woodwinds)
- bowings (for strings)
- dynamics
- articulations
the more of the above-listed items you can include, in as clear and logical a fashion, the easier time of it HP will have in interpreting your music.
HP's integration within Finale and with GPO allows it to select the appropriate samples for different dynamics.
A detail that is sorely lacking from the Finale user manual is one related to articulations - in particular, trills.
You can get perfect playback of trills, notated in whatever way you need, if you assign them properly from the articulation tool.
The first thing that needs to be done (and generally, I open a default document and resave it as the
maestro font default.ftm file) is to change the fonts for your trill symbols. Those trills can be found at the following locations:
- replace the "tr" symbol by the following - EngraverFont Set, symbol number 217 (this will match the other trills we are setting up)
- create (or replace) a "tr-b" symbol (trill flat) from the Engraver Font Extras font set (character - NOT shape!) symbol number 60
- "tr-#" from the Engraver Font Extras font set, symbol number 44
- "tr-natural" from the Engraver Font Extras font set, symbol 46
* note, these are "characters" and not "shapes". you must check the appropriate check box when creating these. And you must redefine them for both "when placed above" and "when placed below the note", or they will not play back properly.