Has anyone tried running Finale 2006 into Logic/VSL? If so, how is it going?

Michael Matthews

Yep, I am using 2005 in logic great. The key is in the enviroment window to setup a channel spliter for either an interaplication midi device or the finale midi output. Now that finale finaly freaking finaly has 128 channels and a mixer its going to freaking own! freaking own!!!!!! This is isane and nobody here realizes it yet!!! this is what we have all been waiting for (at least me!!!). I can't wait to get 2006! I'll let you know when I get it and what soloutions I come up with.

Please elaborate…

Just writing to point out that Finale users can cross-grade to Sibelius for the same price as upgrading from Finale 2004 to 2006. I don't want to start yet another Sibelius vs. Finale debate, but my opinion of Finale is pretty low and sinking fast (especially after I just telephoned Finale with an upgrade question and was told I was breaking their license agreement for using a copy of Finale at our business that is registered to my partner).

You have to mail Sibelius two pages from the Finale manual to prove you own it, then you can get Sibelius for $149. I have a 1200 measure silent film score to finish by next month, and if Sibelius saves me a week in time then it's worth it. It also syncs to video!

JD

Magates,
I'm not sure about that. I use Live playback and the volume is set in a bar above each note. If i want to cres/dim I put in 16ths, and tie them together. It gives a great result, and if going from a working playback score to a written score it's little hardship to replace the 16ths (of course dependant on tempo) with a semibreve.
And selecting the whole bar, going to Transform Live playback and using the Cres/dim option to graduate volume is a lot quicker than using the Cres/dim plugin, which is almost completely useless and very time consuming.
And if you put the notes in first and quantise them, yet still want the Live playback volume adjustment option, simply highlight the bar, and go to Transform Live playback again: It asks you what volume level you want to start at, (default is 63 or 64 i think) and you get the chance to adjust from there. With practise it's pretty quick, and lot friendlier in playback on the ears.

Regards,

Alex.

We're talking about compromises here, and again, we face workarounds because the software isn't quite up to it.

I owned an earlier version of Finale for a very short time, and dumped it, as the Midi stability was about as desirable as an astronaut passing wind in a spacesuit.

Regards,

Alex.

Hi there:

My normal setup with Finale 2005 has been 32 channels of Logic's audio instruments and 32 channels of Gigastudio. Correctly set up - - with a configuration of the MIDI Patchbay freeware application interposed between two of Finale's virtual outputs and Logic and the other two outputs dedicated to two Gigastudio ports, there are no serious issues with latency, stuck or missing notes.This setup has proved stable and reliable in daily use over many months. (If anyone wishes the details of this setup, I will post it here.)

My experience with Finale 2006 is completely different: after a month of testing, I have found no way of eliciting stable, reliable simulataneous playback of Gigastudio running on a Widows XP machine and Logic. As Matt says, you can get Finale 2006 to play external MIDI devices reliably through the use of a non-standard setup involving a MIDI Patchbay configuration that directs Finale's virtual outputs to Gigastudio instead of Logic. But, even if you only use two of Finale 2006's virtual outputs in this fashion, this setup precludes reliable playback from Logic. Conversely you can get Logic to playback as long as it is the only thing playing back, but, even then, any notes in beat one of the leftmost measure will not sound. I have sent highly detailed reports to MakeMusic with directions for and screenshots of every relevant setting, but they have not come up with any solutions. One clue to what is going on might be that, after playback by Finale 2005, Logic's arrange window is unchanged, while, after playback by Finale 2006, Logic's Arrange window shows the cursor to have moved and that the defined 4 bar cycle play region has been exceeded. This appears to indicate that Finale 2006 is sending MIDI Sync data to Logic, although "Send MIDI Sync" is unchecked in Fianle 2006s MIDI Setup dialog box. In what appears to be the single attempt MakeMusic has made tp reproduce what I reported, the description they sent me of what they had done appeared to have no relation to what I'd described and was, at least to me, unintelligble. All this has made me uncertain as to MakeMusic's commitment to fixing these problems and to the Mac platform in general.

I've been told that there is no way, in Sibelius, to create hidden symbols that define channel changes on a single staff. Could his be true? If so it would certainly make it difficult to use EXS 24 libraries in conjunction with Sibelius. I would appreciate further information about this.
Thanks,
Stephen

Steve,
This has been discussed at length here, so i'll try ro give you a summary.
Firstly with a midi router (Patchbay, Pipe, etc.), it's possible to wire Sibelius into Logic. Downside is Logic doesn't recognise articulation changes or expression markings on the score. (At least, that was the last update.) It's possible to hide program changes in Sibelius, but you can't switch channels per stave.
I use two scores. A working one, in which i set each articulation as a stave, e'g' 1st Violins sustain, 1st Violins Pizz,etc. if i want to use samples, and the usual conductors score. They bear little resemblance to each other, and if you use a working score first, obviously you have some changes to make converting it to a conductors score.
I've been experimenting with an AU host, and VSamp for playback, but of course you miss out on the other stuff in logic, and you can't record unless you add a further program specifically for this. The latest version of Sib (4) adds video, but little else, and if you visit their forum, you'll understand many Sib owners are dissatisfied with being charged for what is basically bug fixes, and a paltry collection of new features for notators like us.

So, my experience of Finale was horrible, Sibelius lacks VST hosting, and a means to playback in another program (Logic) without problems. With Sibelius you get Kontakt silver, an extremely limited range of poor samples, at least, that's my opinion. (No additional articulations)
You can of course write in Sibelius, then export the midi file to Logic, but you still have a mountain of work to do, to get decent playback.

I suggest you check out a program called Overture by Geniesoft. Overture 4 is due out tomorrow, and a demo (according to the owners) will be posted on their site tomorrow. OV4 has full VST hosting, and a pile of other features. I've been testing version 3, and although the screen isn't as pretty as Sibelius, it's actually easier to use, and the MIDI is stable, unlike Finale.
Logic has it's own score editor, but the impression i get is, it's insufficient for your needs. (As it is for many of us who like to watch notes!)

Best of luck, and you're not on your own. The day Logic and Cubase update the useability of their score formats is the day we may finally get something we can work with.

Regards,

Alex.

I couldn't find out from their site do they have a save as that lets you import to finale. It would save lots of money on orchestration and copying costs.

Matt:

I fixed all latency issues, stuck and dropped notes, missing notes on bear 1 beat 1, when using Finale 2005 with Logic, by using MIDI Patchbay as a "helper" application between Finale 2005 and Logic. Essentialy, one creates a patch for each Finale Output port that one wants to send to Logic. If you are using exxternal devices, you don't make patches in MIDI Patchbay for them, but just assign them normally in Finale 2005's MIDI Setup dialog box. MIDI Patchbay is freeware available at: http://pete.yandell.com/software/ It's very easy to set up and use. However it does NOT seem to improve matters with Finale 2006.Let me know if you try this.

Stephen