Mike's Performer Tips

Creating Crescendos/Decrescendos on All Tracks Together

  1. Select the music you wish to change. To select all the music in one or more bars of music, click and drag in the Tracks window above all the tracks (click and drag over the measure numbers).
  2. Go to the Region menu and select "Create Continuous Data."
  3. In the dialog box that pops up, select "Controller" and type a "7" in the box next to it.
  4. In the middle of the dialog box, where is says "Change smoothly from ___ to ___", enter in appropriate values. A crescendo will have a smaller number in the first box, a decrescendo will have a larger number in the second box. Remember that the maximum and minimum values are 127 and 0, respectively.
  5. Hit the "Apply" button and you're done. Listen to the results and readjust if necessary.

Changing the Velocity of Many Notes at Once

  1. To change the velocity of many notes at the same time, first select the notes you want to change.
  2. Go to the Region menu and select "Change Velocity."
  3. Click on the word "Compress" to get the drop-down menu to appear. This will allow you to do many different things:
    - Select "Set" to set all velocities to one value (a flat dynamic).
    - Select "Add" to add a quantity to all note velocities.
    - Select "Scale" to change all velocities to a percentage of their current value (more than 100% makes them louder, less than 100% makes them quieter).
    - Select "Smooth" to make a smooth change from one velocity to another. While this can be used to create a crescendo/decrescendo, you'll generally want to use Controller #7 for that.
  4. Remember, the maximum and minimum values are 127 and 0, respectively.

Using Finale to Input Notes for Performer Files

  1. Create your file in Finale. Add dynamics and articulations as the score indicates; crescendos, however, will not work so don't bother with them. Don't worry about the look, just worry about getting the notes right. Any repeats should not use repeat bars; copy and paste the music with Mass Mover. Make staves correspond to tracks you'll want in the Performer file (i.e. if you want 3 tracks, put the music in 3 staves).
  2. After you finish the music, go to the Window menu at the top of the screen and select "Instrument List." Set each staff to have a different instrument (it doesn't really matter what they are, as long as they're different).
  3. Go to the File menu and select "Save As." In the dialog box that comes up, under where it says "Type," select "MIDI file." Give the file a name and hit OK. An "Export MIDI File Options" dialog will pop up. Make sure "Format 1" is selected and hit OK.
  4. Before closing Finale, save the file as a Finale file (with a different name as the MIDI file), as well. This is good just in case there are problems with the MIDI file.
  5. Close Finale and open Performer. Under the file menu, select "Open" and open the MIDI file you created in Finale. A "Device Remap" dialog will pop up; make sure that under "New Assignment," you have "Generic Synth" selected. Hit OK.
  6. Play the file back to make sure it's OK. Rename any tracks as needed, assign correct instruments to tracks, and reorder the tracks if you need to. After you're satisfied that the notes are all in correctly, enter any crescendos you need with the help of Controller #7. When you wish to save the file, select Save As from the File menu and keep "Normal" next to "File Format." This will save it as a Performer file.

Adding additional MIDI tracks in Performer

  1. In the Tracks Overview window, the inverted triangle button in the upper left hand corner closes the window. Directly to the right of that is a "mini-menu" button that, when clicked, will give you options for the Tracks window. Click on it and select Add MIDI Track.
  2. Use the Move Handles (the buttons on the far left of each track, see MIDI I handout section 2.2) to shuffle the order of the tracks (to group all the MIDI tracks together). Click and drag tracks to where you want them to go.
  3. To delete tracks, first select a track (click once on the name) and then select "Delete" at the bottom of the mini-menu (not pictured).