Craig, I agree that these sounds improve the chance of catching orchestration and composition errors, but they do require the suspension of disbelief in order to interpret the results of Finale playback and imagine how a band will sound.
When I wrote an arranging book for Garritan using these sounds, Gary found Robert Soggetti to massage the examples and render them more realistic. It is possible to do this with reasonably good results (he did), but I can only imagine the amount of work involved, and I don't believe it is done in Finale. Jim makes some good suggestions, balance and panning being more important to me than the staggering of attacks. Bass #2 is one of my basses, and it sounds quite accurate - perhaps improved in evenness, but in this case the attack is unrelenting - no nuance. I know I don't play like that. Trumpets are mostly unrealistic, trombones only slightly better (and all the samples sound better in massed unison than they do individually or in harmony). Saxes are subject to such variation from player to player, that the samples don't come close for me (except for the baritone). Woodwinds are better and percussion is OK. I guess I am suggesting that spending time and effort imagining what you want to hear and adjusting notation with real players is more rewarding than attempts to tweak machines into human behavior. Once a good performance level has been achieved with musicians, there are invigorating variations from performance to performance. Knowing there are people doing it makes all the difference. Modern conveniences lead us to abandon some of the effort we used to make to get face to face with other people, and I admit to the seduction of technology. It's there, everyone is using it, so we think that is the way things must be done. Rehearsals are better, and it's our job to convince players of their value - by writing well and directing them well. My 2c. Chuck On May 3, 2013, at 7:04 AM, Craig Parmerlee <[email protected]> wrote: > I have JABB V3 (the current version. I think the saxes and various > basses are pretty good. Trumpets are horrendous -- sound more like a > reed organ than a trumpet.. I have worked mostly with the individual > trumpet sounds of the "notation - keyswitch" category. so maybe some of > the other trumpet sounds are better. > > The trumpet harmon mute sound is good but I can't get any accents. The > straight mute sound really isn't usable at all. Bucket is mediocre. > > Overall, there are basic problems with HP in this setting. The most > annoying one for me is that HP doesn't observe the marcato accent (the > upside down "V") correctly. In big band, this will always be an > indication of a sharp punch -- never a long note -- always separation. > But HP plays it as a long note that is hardly separated at all. And I > can't hear any difference between a passage with out slur and with > slur. These aren't little nuances. They are essential qualities of big > band style. I'd say the JABB set is a little better than MIDI playback, > but without hours of tweaking, it is nothing like a realistic sound. > > That's the critical view. Now, for the supportive view. Even though it > is nothing like the hype, I personally find it a good enough quality > that it does help me hear things that I would have missed with MIDI > playback -- not just bad notes, but weak viocings and phrasing. I have > made numerous improvements to arrangements that, realistically, I never > would have had time to make if I had to run it by a live band first. So > despite its shortcomings, it is worth the money for me. > > My own mileage varies. > Craig > > > > > On 5/2/2013 10:22 PM, Girard Bowe wrote: >> >> And has anybody heard anything more atrocious than Finale's on-board >> Garritan sounds for brass? Does Garritan JABB sound any better? If so, how >> much tweaking is involved? Is there another jazz band sound option which >> doesn't cost an arm and a leg? >> >> Giz >> Richmond VA > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > Chuck Israels 8831 SE 12th Ave. Portland, OR 97202-7097 land line: (503) 954-2107 cell phone: (360) 201-3434 <www.chuckisraelsjazz.com> _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
