I was somewhat astonished by this discussion, as I was astonished by
the energy Coda/MakeMusic invests in Finale's playback capabilities.
First question: What do you need playback for? I use it for proof
reading. Basta. So I haven't ever needed Finale's "save to wav" or
"save to mp3". If I want it performed, I get it played by real
instruments. I checked it out just in case, and it worked fine.
If you want to put an mp3 besides some graphics to sell your Finale
files on a web site, I think it's useful to have a midi file or an
mp3. I don't think a potential buyer minds wether it's by the smart
sound soft synth or GPO Finale or full GPO, it's also a kind of proof reading.
Maybe I would use GPO more if it wouldn't take so long to open the
Finale files using it. I want to drink coffee when I want to, not
just because I'm waiting until the sounds are loaded. And be honest -
they are better than smart sound, but they are not good.
If I really need a good sounding output and I can not use real
instruments I go to Nuendo or Cubase and use various real instruments
and soft synths (maybe including GPO for some sounds) to get it
sounding better. Use a decent reverb (e. b. Waves IR). For piano, use
the "Grand" or "ivory". And so on.
I'd prefer MakeMusic concentrating on things we need more urgently
than better playback. For example: I still need most of my Finale
time for correcting the layout. How about Finale doing these things
right? Good spacing, no collisions of symbols and notes, usable
lyrics, distances between verses, in short, a "nice" score.
And postscript output is still somewhat erratical. Hey, Finale should
be a professional score printing program. Think it sounds professional?
I mean, for example, listen to the chords playback. I always have to
mute it in all occurring voices to prevent vomiting...
Finale isn't a sequencer, and - in my opinion - doesn't need to be,
there are a lots of better programs out there to do that. I use
Finale to write scores.
Problems - if you need the playback: Swing, and setting tempo when
using it often doesn't work. I think this is more important to fix
than playback sounds. Phrasings often play back wrong. I have a score
with staccato accents playing back legato...
I think it much more important to get those things fixed than getting
other sounds.
You really need the playback? There are many programs and sound cards
out there that let you record the sound coming out of your computer,
so it will be easiest to do this - it will sound just (as bad) as it
comes out of Finale. Use smart sound or soft synths, GPO or Vienna -
WYHIWYG (what you hear is what you get).
E. G. If you have a recent Creative Sound Card, you just can record
your "what you hear"-channel.
Just my 10c
Kurt
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