New Forum needed

Give us your opinions on the new forums here.

Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker

BachOn
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 12:42 am
Finale Version: Finale 2012

Post by BachOn » Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:29 am

I've used several items of music software over the past 20 years. I started with the old Music Printer Plus back in the 90's. I've also used Cakewalk, and Cakewalk Sonar. I just purchased Finale 2012. It came with Garritan Voices. I'm now in the stage where I'm trying to determine the best hardware system for the program before I install it.

There are some minimum guidelines on the box in which the software came. But I'd bet many have questions about the best hardware setup to take advantage of the advanced features of the program. I know I do.

I've looked around the various divisions of the forum. Hardware issues are all mixed up with "how do I get triplets to enter correctly?". Finale 2008 is all mixed in with Finale 2012. Garritan Voices and other external sound libraries may increase the hardware compatibility issues. But how will we know in advance if you don't warn us in advance?

I suspect some "stickies" with recommended setups for the various versions of the program would help.

A FAQ section for "Why do I get an out of memory message?" or similar reasons might be prevented if your experts could give advance recommendations.

Sound card issues seem to be an source of confusion. I know they are for me. As an example, providing information on Asio hardware. I'd guess many are using the sound device built-in to a motherboard. Many of these devices are not Asio compliant. In some cases, 3rd Party drivers may allow users to work around this limitation - but they may cause problems with some software. Finale Users might need advice about which sound cards do support Asio. I'd think this could eliminate many calls to Technical Service. The Log Books from Technical Service could be used to answer - in advance - many of the issues that users will experience.

Operating system issues. If I use Windows 7 64 bit, what kind of issues have been experienced? The gain is that it can 'see' more RAM. But what advantages can one expect by having this extra RAM? Windows 7 32 bit cannot 'see' more than 4 Gigabytes of RAM. What are the advantages of having more RAM? And what are some typical problems a 64 bit operating system might produce? Are there known issues with Vista or XP with newer versions - or older versions. Help users know what issues need to be considered to setup a hardware foundation adequate for the software you produce.

Mac's probably need their own sticky - and maybe their own forum.

I guess what I'm suggesting is to get ahead of the curve by making more specific and proactive recommendations. I know you don't want to get in the business of picking hardware winners and losers. But if you already know of hardware combinations that will cause problems, why not tell your customers before they waste time and money on trying to get unworkable hardware combinations to operate properly?

I believe these things would help improve both the initial and long-term satisfaction for your customers/users. You have produced great software. But getting it to 'play nice' with the hardware is always a huge issue for software. Give us some help.

"Teach us how to fish." Don't wait for the Technical Support people to have to tell us after the fact "Sorry, but there's No Fishing in the particular body of water you've selected."

BachOn
:wink:


Post Reply