Transcribing a sequence

To record a performance

1. Create an empty score; establish the meter, key signature, and configuration of staves. You can transcribe onto one or two staves at a time.
2. Click the HyperScribe Tool   and select Transcription Mode from the HyperScribe Menu. Click the measure at which the transcription will begin. You enter the Transcription window.
3. Click Wait Till. Finale is in “pause” mode. The recording begins with the first note you play (or any other MIDI signal—be careful not to use the sustain pedal until you’re ready to record).
4. Play your piece. Click anywhere (except on a button) to stop recording. When you stop recording, you’ll see your music expressed as a sort of horizontal bar graph; the length of the bars indicate the notes’ durations, and their relationship to the piano keyboard indicates their pitch.

Tip: if your performance begins with a pickup measure, fill the first part of the measure with “dummy” beats; the Transcription window always transcribes on the assumption that the first note is beat 1.

5. If you want to preserve your performance as a sequence, choose Save As from the File Menu. Note that as far as Finale is concerned, the Transcription window is a different program. The File Menu’s commands (New, Open, Save As) no longer refer to the Finale document (notation) you currently have open. They refer instead to the performance, or sequence, you just recorded. If you choose New from the File Menu, for example, you’re specifying a new sequence; you’re not creating a new Finale (notation) document.

When you save your Transcription window performance, you create a special Finale file called a Note File. When you exit Finale and return to the desktop, you’ll notice that your note file has a different icon. You can open this file any time you’re in the Transcription window; you can, for example, record a piece today, save it, and transcribe it tomorrow.

6. To play your performance back, choose Select All from the Edit Menu. The display area is highlighted.
7. Under the word Keyboard, click Play; then click Start. Finale plays back your performance.

To hear a click track while recording in the Transcription Mode

In the Transcription Mode, a click track is nothing more than playback of Time Tags that Finale has placed automatically. You can specify various characteristics of the click: its pitch, MIDI channel, length, and so on.

1. Click the HyperScribe Tool   and select Transcription Mode from the HyperScribe Menu. Click a measure in the score. The measure you click will be the first measure of the transcription when you transcribe the performance. You enter the Transcription window.
2. Click the word In at the lower-right corner of the Transcription window, and enter the time, in hours, minutes, seconds, and thousandths of a second, at which you want the click track to begin. If you want the click track to begin immediately at the beginning of your recording, leave the indicator set at 00:00:00:000. (Instead of typing numbers, you can also specify the appropriate point in the music by clicking in the display area.)
3. Click the word Out at the lower-right corner of the Transcription window, and enter the time, in hours, minutes, seconds, and thousandths of a second, at which you want the click track to stop. In other words, if you guess that your performance will last two minutes, type 2:00:000. (Instead of typing numbers, you can also specify the appropriate point in the music by clicking in the display area.)

Instead of entering numbers with the In: and Out: indicators, you may prefer to simply drag the mouse through the keyboard display area (marked by a piano keyboard at the left side). The In: and Out: numbers will change to accurately record the width of the highlighted area.

4. Enter the tempo in the Set to text box. The number you enter here is a standard metronome marking (beats per minute), and allows you to specify the tempo of the click track. (You set the rhythmic value of this metronome setting—usually quarter notes per minute—using the First Tag submenu of the Time Tag Menu.)
5. Choose Click Output from the Time Tag Menu. The Click Output Type dialog box appears.
6. Specify the sound of the click track by clicking Listen and playing the appropriate note. Finale automatically takes note of the MIDI channel you used to generate the sample click.

You might want to use a rim shot or other short percussive sound on a drum machine, or a very high note on your MIDI keyboard. If you like, you can change the duration of the click sound by changing the Duration number; the default duration is a half second.

7. Click OK (or press return). You return to the Transcription window.
8. Click Wait Till. When you click Wait Till, Finale places a set of Time Tag note icons across the top of the selected Keyboard region; when you begin to play, it will play each of these back as one click of the metronome.

Finale is now in pause mode, awaiting the first note of your performance. Make sure that the Record at End radio button is selected (under the word Keyboard) and that Play is selected (under the words Time Tag).

9. Record your performance as usual. As you play, Finale will record your performance while generating a click track of the tempo, sound, and duration you specified.

To transcribe a sequence from a sequencer using the Transcription Mode

If you’re interested in notating a performance that’s currently stored in a hardware or software sequencer, you have several options. If your sequence is stored in a sequencing program (software), you can usually transfer it to Finale by saving it as a standard MIDI file; read your sequencer’s instructions, then seeTo import a MIDI file for instruction on converting a MIDI file to standard notation.

If the sequence is stored in a physical (hardware) sequencer, or if you have a second computer equipped with its own MIDI interface, you can plug the sequencer (or extra computer) into your computer and play the sequence into the Transcription Mode window. As far as Finale is concerned, the MIDI signals it’s receiving in this way are no different from the ones you produce when you play your synthesizer. The Transcription Mode can record tracks simultaneously from as many MIDI channels as you like, and then transcribe up to four channels at a time.

1. Create the empty score, including meter, key signature, and staff configuration. You can transcribe onto one or two staves at a time.
2. Click the HyperScribe Tool g and select Transcription Mode from the HyperScribe Menu. Click the measure at which the transcription will begin. You enter the Transcription window. If the sequence is capable of providing a MIDI “click track,” or if you can add a separate track consisting solely of quarter-note (or some other value) “clicks” on a single pitch, you’ll save time in the long run, because Finale will be learning where the beats fall at the same time as it’s hearing the music. If your sequence does not contain a click track, skip to the instruction marked by the asterisk (*).
3. Choose Click Input from the Time Tag Menu. Specify the incoming MIDI signal that will serve as the click. The easiest way to enter the click description is to click Listen, and then play the click itself. Note that if the click itself is to be a pitch, make sure it’s either a very high or very low pitch—one that won’t be mistaken for a note in your sequence.
4. Click Ignore First Data Byte (so that it’s no longer selected). This checkbox essentially tells Finale whether or not it should be particular about the MIDI signal it’s interpreting as Time Tag information—in other words, whether or not to consider any key (or controller) to be a Time Tag. You don’t want this option selected, because you’re going to record both Time Tags and keyboard notes simultaneously.
5. Click OK (or press return). If the clicks will be “tapping” any duration other than a quarter note, be sure to let Finale know by choosing the correct duration value from the First Tag is submenu of the Time Tag Menu.
6. Click Record under the words Time Tag. If the sequence won’t be providing a click track, leave Play selected under the words Time Tag; you can add the Time Tags separately after you’ve recorded the sequence.

7. Click Wait Till. Finale is now in “pause” mode, where it will remain until it receives the first MIDI signal from the external sequencer.
8. Play the sequence. Click anywhere (except on a button) to stop recording. When you stop recording, you’ll see your music expressed as a sort of scrolling horizontal bar graph; the lengths of the bars indicate the durations of the notes, and their position in relation to the piano keyboard (left side of the screen) indicates their pitch. If you recorded the Time Tags (“click track”) as the sequence played, you’ll also see note icons at the top of the screen, indicating the placement of the beats.
9. To play your performance back, choose Select All from the Edit Menu; under the word Keyboard, click Play; then click Start. You hear the sequence played back. Note that Finale records the MIDI channel information from the sequence, too; when it plays back, it will transmit the MIDI signals over the same channels on which they were received. Keep this in mind if you’re having trouble hearing all the tracks in the sequence when you play it back.
10. If the sequence didn’t contain a click track, add Time Tags. See To transcribe a sequence.
11. Select the MIDI channel and pitch information to be transcribed by choosing Transcription Filter from the Transcription Menu. The Transcription Filter dialog box appears, in which you can specify the range of notes within each MIDI channel you want transcribed.

For example, if your sequence contained tracks recorded on several different MIDI channels, you can now transcribe them onto individual staves, one at a time; if the flute and clarinet were both on channel 2, for example, enter 2 in the first MIDI channel text box. Then, to make sure you only transcribe the flute part, enter the highest and lowest notes of the flute’s register in the Key Range: High and Low text boxes. (To enter this information by playing it, click Listen; play the lowest note, and then the highest note of the range you want to specify.)

You can also use this high note/low note filter in reverse. If, for example, you specify a Low note that’s higher than the High note, you’ll have defined a range of notes you want to omit from the transcription; only notes lower or higher than the specified range will be transcribed.

12. Click Use Filters. You’ve just told Finale, in terms of MIDI channel and range of notes, what it should extract from the complete sequence for notation onto its own staff. When you’re finished transcribing this element, you can return to the Transcription window, choose Transcription Filter again, and specify the next MIDI channel setting to extract the next “track” out of the sequence, and so on, until you’ve filtered out each individual “track” from the sequence.
13. Choose Assign Measure Tags from the Time Tag Menu. For each downbeat, Finale automatically puts a tiny M above the other Time Tags in the Time Tag display area, according to the time signatures in the score itself.
14. If you’re transcribing onto two staves, choose a split option (Fixed or Moving) from the Split Point submenu of the Transcription Menu. If you choose Fixed, a dialog box appears. Enter the number of a synthesizer key whose pitch you want to designate as the dividing point between upper staff (usually treble clef) notes and lower staff (usually bass clef) notes. (Or, if you prefer, click Listen and play the key.)

If you choose Moving, Finale will split a two-handed performance onto the correct staves (treble clef or bass clef) by tracking the positions of your hands as they move up and down the keyboard. Enter (or, by clicking Listen, play the interval of) the largest hand span (in half steps) that occurs in the sequence. As long as there’s a discernible gap between your two hands, Finale can track a changing split point automatically. Click OK to exit either Split dialog box.

15. Click Quant Settings in the Transcription window. The Quantization Settings dialog box appears.
16. Choose a smallest note value and type of quantization. Choose the smallest predominant note value in the piece. Select either Mixed Rhythms, Space Evenly (for a swing feel) or No Tuplets. See Quantization Settings dialog box for more information.
17. Click More Settings. The More Quantization Settings dialog box appears.
18. If you like, click Key Velocities, Note Durations.
19. Click OK twice.
20. If you like, click Save Continuous Data, and Save Tempo Changes. When the dialog box appears (when you click Save Tempo Changes), press return.

These four options tell Finale to remember the precise feel of the original performance, and to keep this data handy for playback when you dismiss the dialog box. If you don’t choose these options, then when you play back the transcribed music from the score, Finale will simply play back the sheet music—mechanically reproducing the notes, but without expression or feeling—instead of an exact re-creation of your original performance.

21. Click the Transcribe button. If the results aren’t perfect, remember that your performance is still intact, in the Transcription window. Click the first measure of the transcribed notation to switch back into the Transcription Mode, where you can correct any split point or quantization settings; then click Transcribe again.

If you still don’t get good results and you can’t figure out what’s wrong, read the section called Quantization Settings Guide in the Appendix. If you discover occasional split-point errors in the transcription (where a right-hand note was notated on the left-hand staff, for example), see Recording with HyperScribeQuantization Guide –To correct split point errors and.

To transcribe a performance

1. Record the music. See “To record a performance,” above.
2. Choose Select All from the Edit Menu. The display area is highlighted. You’re about to tap along with your music as it plays back, providing Finale with a tempo point of reference. These taps are called Time Tags.
3. Choose a rhythmic value for your taps from the First Tag is submenu of the Time Tag Menu. If you plan to tap even rhythmic values (all quarter notes, for example), also choose Record Equal Durations from the Time Tag Menu. (If you don’t select Record Equal Durations, you can actually vary the rhythmic value of your tap—sometimes eighths, sometimes quarters—and Finale will attempt, by interpolating and extrapolating, to assign the Time Tags correctly.)
4. Under the word Keyboard, click the Play option. There are two distinct layers of MIDI information in the Transcription Mode: the Keyboard layer, which records every aspect of your synthesizer performance, and the Time Tag layer, which records only your beat taps. You want the Keyboard layer to play while you record the Time Tags.
5. Under the words Time Tag, click Record. If you’re about to generate Time Tag taps on any channel other than MIDI channel 1, choose Click Input from the Time Tag Menu. Click Listen to MIDI, and play the note (or MIDI controller) you’ll be tapping. Click OK.
6. Click the Wait Till button. Finale goes into pause mode, where it will remain until you touch a key or pedal on the synthesizer.
7. Tap any key in time to the music. Click anywhere (except on a button) to stop recording. If you need to start over, choose Select All from the Edit Menu and repeat the last four steps. When the music ends, Finale automatically stops recording, and you should see small note symbols (Time Tags) across the top of the screen.
8. Choose Align Tags to Notes from the Time Tag Menu. This command “quantizes” your taps to the nearest notes. A small dialog box appears, asking you to specify the search width. The number in this text box, in thousandths of a second, tells Finale how far from each tag it may “search” for a note with which to align it. If the performance was slow, you can increase this number; if it was very fast and “notey,” you may want to use a smaller number (so as not to move a Time Tag inadvertently to the note after the one with which it should align, for example). In most cases, however, you can simply keep the default search width setting (200 thousandths of a second).
9. Click OK (or press return).
10. Choose Assign Measure Tags from the Time Tag Menu. Finale automatically puts a tiny M at the beginning of every measure, according to the time signature (or time signatures) you’ve already established in the score itself. If your piece has several different time signatures but you haven’t already established them in the score, choose Measure from the Time tag Menu and repeat the tapping process, but this time tap at each downbeat. When you’re finished, choose Convert to Time Signatures from the Time Tag Menu; this will automatically create time signature changes in the correct measures in your score.
11.  If you’re transcribing onto two staves, choose a split option (Fixed or Moving) from the Split Point submenu of the Transcription Menu. If you choose Fixed, a dialog box appears. Enter a synthesizer key number at which to split the performance into two staves. (Click Listen, if you prefer, and play the key.) If you choose Moving, a dialog box appears in which you can enter (or, by clicking Listen, play) the largest hand span that occurs in your performance (in half steps). This doesn’t necessarily mean the widest interval you can play with one hand; rather, it means the widest interval you played in the piece. When transcribing, Finale will attempt to split your two-handed performance onto the correct treble- and bass-clef staves by tracking the positions of your hands as they move up and down the keyboard. As long as there’s a discernible gap between your two hands during the performance, Finale can track a changing split point automatically.
12. Click OK to exit either dialog box.
13. Choose a smallest note value and type of quantization. Choose the smallest predominant note value in the piece. Select either Mixed Rhythms, Space Evenly (for a swing feel) or No Tuplets. See Quantization Settings dialog box for more information.
14. Click More Settings. The More Quantization Settings dialog box appears.
15. Select Include Voice Two if desired. 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. See Retranscription.
16. If you like, click Key Velocities, Note Durations.
17. Click OK twice.
18. If you like, click Save Continuous Data, and Save Tempo Changes. When the dialog box appears (when you click Save Tempo Changes), press return. These options tell Finale to remember the precise “feel” of your original performance, and to keep this data handy for playback when you dismiss the dialog box. Save Key Velocities tells Finale to retain key velocity information (see Key velocity). Save Note Durations preserves Start and Stop Time data, such as rolled chords and swing (seeStart and Stop Times); Save Continuous Data retains continuous data (pedal, pitch bend, and so on); and Save Tempo Changes captures your tempo fluctuations, including ritards and accelerandi. If you don’t choose these options, then when you play back the transcribed music from the score, Finale will simply play back the sheet music—mechanically reproducing the notes, but without expression or feeling—instead of exactly re-creating your original performance.
19. Click the Transcribe button. If the results aren’t perfect, remember that your performance is still intact, in the Transcription window. Click the first measure of the transcribed notation to switch back into the Transcription Mode, where you can correct any split point or quantization settings; then click Transcribe again. If you still don’t get good results and you can’t figure out what’s wrong, read the section called Quantization Settings Guide in the Appendix. If you discover occasional split point errors in the transcription (where a right-hand note was notated on the left-hand staff, for example), you can either change the split point settings in the Transcription window and try again, or simply go to the score and fix the wrong notes manually. See Recording with HyperScribe–More Quantization Settings dialog box ,Quantization Settings dialog box . See alsoQuantization Guide To correct split point errors and and Retranscription.

To edit Time Tags

Sometimes you need to change the durational value of a Time Tag, or move the Time Tag so that it aligns with a note, or to add or remove a Time Tag completely. The following instructions assume you’ve already recorded a performance and entered Time Tags, as described in “To record a performance ,” above. They also assume that you’re still in the Transcription window.To transcribe a sequence” and “

1. Click the words Time Tag. The words become highlighted. You’ve just indicated that you’ll be editing Time Tags only. For better control, you can “zoom in” by choosing View Resolution from the Transcription Menu. In the dialog box that appears, enter a smaller value to enlarge the display—50, for example; click OK.
2. To insert a new Time Tag, double-click in the Time Tag display area. The Time Tag display area is the top strip of the display window, where the Time Tags appear (in a line with the small metronome icon). When you double-click, a new tag appears, whose duration is determined by the First tag is setting in the Time Tag Menu.
3. To move a Time Tag, drag its notehead. If you select a group of tags (by dragging through them or by choosing Select All from the Edit Menu), you can drag any one notehead to move them all.
4. To change the duration of a Time Tag, carefully double-click its notehead; on the second click, hold the button down. Drag it to the left or right. As you drag, the Time Tags cycle through the durational values: sixteenth notes, eighth notes, quarter notes, and half notes. Drag to the right for larger values, to the left for smaller values. By selecting a range of tags (by either dragging or by choosing Select All from the Edit Menu), you can use this technique to effectively renotate an entire piece at once. You could change a  piece to cut time, for example, by changing quarter note Time Tags to eighth note Time Tags; you’re effectively telling Finale that every quarter note is now an eighth note. (If you try this, however, don’t forget to choose Assign Measure Tags again from the Time Tag Menu before clicking Transcribe.)

To edit keyboard notes

While it’s much easier to edit your performance once it’s been transcribed into standard notation, you can, if you wish, edit notes directly in the Transcription window.

1. Click the word Keyboard. The word becomes highlighted. You’ve just indicated that you’ll be editing notes only. For better control, you can “zoom in” by choosing View Resolution from the Transcription Menu. In the dialog box that appears, enter a smaller value to enlarge the display—50, for example; click OK.
2. To delete notes, drag through their starting point and press delete.
3. To insert a new note, double-click in the Keyboard area. The Keyboard area is the bottom three-quarters of the display window, where the other notes appear. When you double-click and drag to the right, a new note appears, whose pitch is determined by the location of your click; use the piano keyboard at the left side of the screen as a guide.

Technical note: The note’s initial duration is 15 units; the value of a unit is determined by the number in the View Resolution dialog box. In other words, if the View Resolution (the unit) is 100 (in thousandths of a second), the note produced by a double-click is 1500 thousandths of a second long—which is 1.5 seconds. If you hold the mouse button down on your second click, you can drag backward (to the right) to increase the duration of the note.

4. To move the attack (or release) of the note, carefully double-click the line; on the second click, keep the mouse button down and drag the first (or second) half of the line right or left.