Finale Forum

I set the reverb to maximum dry and wet to zero. But each time I open a saved document, the playback includes the default amount of reverb. The problem is solved by turning off Garritan Ambience. But then if Garritan Ambience is not selected, playback volume is awfully weak (but not as weak as if using Atria Player).

Is there a way to get playback without weak volume and without having to turn off the reverb each time?

I just created a test file in 2012, set the reverb as you described (both bank and master). I saved the file, closed Finale, reopened Finale, and checked the settings. They remained exactly as saved.

So, maybe we need more information or a sample file to run a test for you.

Zuill

Well I'm utterly puzzled: I'm unable to replicate the issue. The reverb off setting now stays. I'll just have to keep an eye out for what kind of edit causes the reverb to be switched on automatically because it does happen.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I always have to re-set the Room Size.
I also use to Dry at Max, and have no other issues at all w/Aria Player.
It plays at 24/96 with my Dac, and sounds great AFAIC!

You must have a powerful sound system to make use of Aria player. The signal is choked to accommodate the huge dynamic range in orchestration. So for a classical guitarist, little gain is available.

If you use a mixer, how clean is the signal through a good set of headphones...any artifact in the waveform?

For starters, you're comparing Finale 2012 on Windows with Finale 25 on Mac. There are differences. I have Finale 25 on Win 7 and some sounds can be soft, but there are ways of getting good results.

Zuill

Evidently using Aria Player requires an I.Q. above what I have. The steps I tried (see below) did nothing to ameliorate the problem of correcting Aria's ridiculously low default volume output.

1. Window -> Score Manager -> Instrument List tab -> from "Device" drop-down menu, select "Aria Player."
2. Edit Player ("Sound" column at right) -> click on instrument name in (e.g. channel 1) -> Finale Default Bank -> Keyboards -> Steinway Piano.
3. Mixer (right side panel) -> drag fader all the way to the top.

So what is the secret to getting a response from Aria Player?

Djard wrote:You must have a powerful sound system to make use of Aria player. The signal is choked to accommodate the huge dynamic range in orchestration. So for a classical guitarist, little gain is available.

If you have a milti-band compressor as a VST, drop that on the master bus. That can reduce the dynamic range, making it easier to hear the interior voices.

There are people who say the best way to hear the playback is to set everything to a piano voice. Maybe that was true 5-10 years ago, but I would never dream of doing that today. With a few good effects added to the chain, and some reasonable stereo placement, you can hear everything with a better context than the old school of just using piano synth for everything. I would definitely drop a limiter as the last effect n the chain to protect your ears and speakers. And most limiters can help bring out the interior voices too.

None of that addresses the original question about saved settings. I do have problems with Aria occasionally making instruments go nearly silent (related to the mod wheel setting). But other than that, Finale has always saved by VST settings. I use Finale 25 on Windows 10.

No powerful sound system,
Powered desktop speakers, Audioquest Dragonfly Red or Mytek DSD Dac.
No volume problems, mod wheel problems.
I use the Mixer for panning, and Dynamic Expressions for various dynamics, all fine.
I don't use Midi, just manual entry.
Just saying'...

If an instrument signal is to low: Open the Aria player (which runs Garritan sounds) and check the mod wheel levels, which control CC11.

I was having a problem (after being out of town for a month) in that Finale suddenly played things softly but other things didn't. For some reason, I found that Finale used my monitor speakers rather than my external cheap speakers; the monitor uses Bang and Olufsen speakers but there are only two small ones while the external speaker is a Walmart version of inexpensive Logitech 6-speaker system. Somewhere in the Audio settings there's a spot to tell Finale which speakers to use. No measurements but it seems like I got about a 90 decibel loudness increase (everything was turned up high during the experiment.)

Skjalg wrote:If an instrument signal is to low: Open the Aria player (which runs Garritan sounds) and check the mod wheel levels, which control CC11.

Yes. This happens to me quite frequently. It is a real PITA. Finale or Aria ought to set the mod wheel to zero every time playback begins. This seems like such a simple thing but it has been going on for years.

"Check the mod wheel" does not help me. How do you check a mod wheel, especially since CC11 is not shown in the Controls panel? I see CC20, CC21, etc. but no CC11. Turning the mod wheel on my system does nothing for volume; in fact, it does nothing.

Speaker selection is only for use with a microphone: MIDI/Audio (upper text menu) -> Device Setup -> Audio Setup -> select sound system from the output drop-down menu.

I'm just wondering if any of these lame problems that others also have experienced have been fixed in the latest version. I see no point in upgrading until the bugs are fixed, and unstable Aria Player's attenuated output volume is a bug in my book. I can drag Windows' spkr volume control all the way up with Aria Player selected: after a minute amount of gain when upped from 20% to 30%, even Windows cannot increase the volume: it dies. Not so with SmartMusic SoftSynth and the plugins I use. I'll have to live without Aria's nice soundfonts.

On the bottom of Aria Player is a piano keyboard with pitch and mod wheels.

I turned the wheel and played on the preview keyboard. For me, the mod wheel does nothing. A search through the guide yields nothing. I'm handicapped by logic.

I use Finale 2014.5 in Windows 7 on a now-ancient laptop with an early quad processor and 1 full Gb of RAM. Only the most complex cinema-type orchestras give me sound playback issues. For speakers, I run a pair of powered, flat-response studio monitors from M-Audio out of the headphone jack and it`s very easy to make the windows rattle if I choose to! So no, I don't have overall volume issues.

I do, however have issues with some of Garritan's preset levels in some of their samples. Drums, for example, are a permanent Pain in the youknowhat inasfar as levels are concerned. However, that said, I have found that presetting the volume in Score Manager helps a lot. Try it, it may help you out.

I learned that you can set "relative" volumes in SM which allows you to load the sound in the way you wish using numeric settings from 1-125. This allows you to start from a point where the instruments sound in realistic relative volume to each other, as they would in a real room or rehearsal hall. So, drums are loud, so are trumpets, while the piano is quiet and easily overpowered by the string section, acoustic guitars can be lost etc. You get the idea. So my starting point is based on reality. It actually helps. But it also depends on the makeup of your music, so listen to recordings you like the sound of and work at matching the "relative levels" of the sections beforehand.

Next, the dialogue box under MIDI/Audio. There are several volume controls there. Make sure it is up to at least 90% for each bank and that the Master is also up.

Next come the controls in Aria, and there's quite a lot of flexibility there, too. First, make sure that every instrument is turned "on" to take advantage of the controls it comes with and also responds to dynamics and Expressions in the score. There are also controls included with many instruments, but not all. Take advantage of the ones you can. Another route is the Expression and Dynamics tools in Finale. Between all of these, you do have quite a bit of control over your sound, overall and indivudual. Oh..

A "last resort" might be the Gain control in Aria, but as with anything involving gain, be very, very judicious or your piano will start to sound like Jimmy Page's guitar!

It's not perfect, but those controls working together make the playback quite a but easier to hear and the result of your labors sound more like you imagined it would. In the end, a reasonably fine amount of control is possible, but of course nothing beats a proper DAW for volume. Still, it's a darn good start.

Thanks for the interesting info. It seems to be a lot of work to get a little volume from Aria Player. But if that is what one must do....

You say, "Next, the dialogue box under MIDI/Audio." I can't find it. Would you mind walking me to that window?

Victoria! Is that in Australia? (I am originally from Altona, fair dinkum).