@Albert S said:

Any problems like this is connected to Human Playback and I guess you have contacted Robert P directly as well? Sometimes I get the feeling that MakeMusic and Robert don't communicate that well... 😉

 

Done that, but unfortunately didn't get any answer.

Best,

Andi

Thanks Andi for your information, things are becoming a lot clearer now. I had some contact with Robert some years ago on the Northern Sounds forum where he helped me out with a few things. He IS a difficult person to get in touch with (I have also tried and failed a couple of times). I'm not sure why. Maybe he's to busy or maybe he is not interested, I really don't know.

Although Robert is the creator of Finale's playback engine "Human Playback" it would be a shame if it were impossible to combine two of the most advanced music applications available (VSL & Finale) just because one person doesn't respond to an e-mail? Don't you agree? Is there a plan B? 😊

It was not only one e-mail.
I'm also in touch with Phil Holst (QA Engineer) who told me that solving these issues is high on their priority list for the next version of Finale.

As another Finale user, I have followed this thread with great interest. All I want to say is that I share the same concerns as Albert S. A better integration between Vienna & Finale and detailed tutorials would not only be welcome, but key to the success of both platforms.

I also agree to what Albert S and michelp wrote.   I´m still a finale user but if there´s another crossgrade promotion I will think about a change to Sibelius knowing that there´s more support for the customer´s needs.

@RainerL said:

I´m still a finale user but if there´s another crossgrade promotion I will think about a change to Sibelius knowing that there´s more support for the customer´s needs.

Just a quick word about changing notation software.

Most users on this forum (and probably the majority of VSL users?) are mainly concerned with playback. Some are professional film composers and use VSL as a part of their "end product".

BUT:

Most professional users of Finale use this software because of the more or less unlimited possibilities to edit your notated score. Playback is appreciated but not essential for engravers, copyists, composers (of concert music) etc.

It is highly unlikely for these users to switch to another notation software just because playback with a certain library is not working. Especially if they have worked with Finale for 15-20 years and all their scores are in Finale-format. They will change to another library instead.

And since there are a lot of question marks concerning how well Finale and VSL integrates, many notation pros hesitate to purchase VSL products. At least, this is my experience from the Finale forums and how my composer colleagues are thinking.

I think that VSL and Finale could be a great combination for both professional users and hobbyists. It just needs some more development, both from Finale (ie MakeMusic) and VSL.

Hi:

I am coming to this thread a bit late. I have forwarded the contents of this thread to Phil at Make Music. He tells me that they continue to try to address the communication problems between HP and VSL. I can only hope that both VSL and Make Music take a more active role in trying to improve the situation. These are both such great products.

Michael

I just discovered that Finale 2011 is available for pre-order. From the read-me file about Fin2011 you can read:

Human Playback
Human Playback no longer causes unexpected CC11 data.

Errors regarding inserting keyswitches have been resolved.

Dynamics now play back correctly with Garritan Sound Effects.

The interpretation of trill accidentals has been improved.

Additional instruments including harpsichord and accordion are now supported.

I don't know if this will solve any Finale/VSL problems discussed in this thread but one can always hope... ;-)

Why, in May 2010 is it called Finale 2011?

Sounds like a few bug fixes to me!

@Albert S said:

I just discovered that Finale 2011 is available for pre-order. From the read-me file about Fin2011 you can read:

Human Playback
Human Playback no longer causes unexpected CC11 data.

Errors regarding inserting keyswitches have been resolved.

Dynamics now play back correctly with Garritan Sound Effects.

The interpretation of trill accidentals has been improved.

Additional instruments including harpsichord and accordion are now supported.

I don't know if this will solve any Finale/VSL problems discussed in this thread but one can always hope... 😉

That would be great, especially if the CC11 and keyswitch problems have been improved! Thanks for posting that, Albert.

Michael

 I agree with rosflute,

Finale 2011 & VSL are working better at this time ...way better than 2009 even 2010 ..it looks like the improvements from Human Playback are indeed good and reliable at least with what I tried ...( vienna SE )!!

Hoping as well that master Andi is willing to try to develop at least half from the sound sets that he did for Sibelius. I have both platforms (Sibelius and Finale) but I would love to have some previous works with Finale to be done with such a great library as VSL !! It seems that converting files from one program to another are still not quite qualitative at this time !

all the best

I already did several tests with Finale 2011 Human Playback. It's true that some bugs have been fixed and everything works better. However there is still one drawback. Custom text commands don't work properly if they need different actions for different kinds of instruments. Our bigger collections would have to rely heavily on these Custom Text commands. The MakeMusic guys are already aware of this and hopefully there will be a solution with the next update.

Best,
Andi

 Thanks Andi for keeping us informed about the work progress with finale sound sets. Somehow, I had a feeling that finale is still not ready 100% to take full advantages from big libraries- maybe next update, as you said, will be the key to freedom !

thanks again and all the best

@andi said:

I already did several tests with Finale 2011 Human Playback. It's true that some bugs have been fixed and everything works better. However there is still one drawback. Custom text commands don't work properly if they need different actions for different kinds of instruments. Our bigger collections would have to rely heavily on these Custom Text commands. The MakeMusic guys are already aware of this and hopefully there will be a solution with the next update.

Best,
Andi

Hi Andie,

I'm sorry to report that the problem with CC#11 data is not being sent on phrases that start with shorter note values and don't contain any hairpins still exist in Finale 2011. We discussed this bug in HP in private mails earlier this spring.

Do you know if MM is working on this bug as well?

thanks

Albert

Hi Albert!

Sorry, but I don't know if MM works on that. I guess you have to ask them.

Best,
Andi