Darcy James Argue wrote:
Not all hosts are equal. For instance, on Mac the external host (Garritan Studio) uses VST while Finale (which as of Finale 2006 requires no external host) uses AU. Garritan Studio also requires extra system resources compared to loading the instruments directly in Finale. For these reasons, Garritan Studio does not perform as well (on Mac).
Sorry to be a stick in the mud, but I'm finding that the "received wisdom" about Garritan Studio (v, 2.00) being a poorer performer than the AU is just not what I'm finding on my system.
Even though what you say makes sense and is what I would have guessed the reality to be, it just doesn't seem so when I test it.
Where is it documented that the AU in Finale 2007 is a better performer than Garritan Studio 2?
My ears tell me that Garritan Studio does a better job of rendering the MIDI data and it even sounds better. The AU gives me stuck notes, accents that are way too loud and has a rougher sound in the solo violin part that I'm testing, for example. (I do recognize that something can sound better, but not be a more efficient user of system resources.)
But here is the kicker: I just tried using a program called "Do I Need More Memory?" which tells me how much RAM is being used at any given time as well as the number of pageouts. When I use both Garritan Studio and Finale 2007, the memory usage program says that I don't need any additional RAM. (I have 1GB RAM on a 13.3 GHz PPC G4 Powerbook.) When I restart the computer and load the same instruments, using the same parameters, into the AU, the program says I need 44MB more. I'm trying to be as scientific as possible by keeping the independent variables the same.
I'm not trying to argue for the sake of argument (as we sometimes get on this list). I really want to find out what works and sounds better. So, let's keep an open mind and run these programs through a variety of tests. We may have to rethink our assumptions after all!
-Randolph Peters _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
