Timpani Roll workaround

I don't use Zerberus at all because the files are so large I don't download them. As a result, I have no idea how your workaround sounds. I do one of two things to make rolls sound better.

Use the Aegean Symphony Orchestra. I have it's instruments.xml loaded as the second instruments.xml for my system. If you wanted to use it with MDL, you would probably need to copy the contents of one to the end of the other since you can only have 1 alternate instruments.xml. ASO puts two channels on the timpani. One is for hit, and the other is for roll. I created two staff text items and put them in my custom palette. I made one say "Hit" and set voice 1 to hit, I made the other say "roll" and set voice 1 to roll. I made both invisible before ctrl+shift+dragging them to my palette. Now, When I change between hit and roll, I select the first note of the change and double click the text I created. I can even make multiple changes at once by click, then ctrl+click several notes and add the text to all of them at once, then do the same with the other text. It works the same as adding articulations to several notes at once. I use the tremolo to annotate the roll and the sound is better than the standard "hit" sound that comes with most soundfonts.

If I don't use ASO, I place a pedal (from the lines palette) under the roll and make the pedal invisible. It improves the sound of the roll by letting each hit from the tremolo ring. The main disadvantage is that you will get a noticeable crescendo if the roll is very long.

My personal method is to just use invisible notes to get a reasonable spacing of hits. For some parts I'll also go in and manually respace notes using the piano roll to give minor tempo alterations within the roll without altering the overall tempo. It's not perfect, but it's at least no machinegun.

I use the same method for violin tremolos.