Finale Forum

A few years ago I stopped using Finale because there was no way to sound strings that have no vibrato for a few measures. Has that changed?

Thank you for your help.

Jim Adrian

I Notice that adding my email address to a message is allowed. I cannot find where to change my email address. Can you help me?

Thank you for your help.

Jim Adrian
jim@futurebeacon.com

User Control Panel / Profile / Edit account settings.

But I woudln't add it to your postings--this is readable by anyone and you're setting yourself up for spam. If you want a personal reply, someone can send you a private message here and you will be notified by email.

There are many sound libraries that allow control of vibrato. Finale ships with Garritan instruments for "free", but you're not limited to those.

Does anybody know which library I should buy?

Jim Adrian

What's your budget? Solo or ensemble?

My budget is large.

Jim Adrian

I would personally recommend NotePerformer. It has the option to turn off vibrato for strings as well as have variable levels of vibrato.

You can download it for free with a 30-day trial to see if you like it before you buy it. The current price is $129, so there are more expensive libraries that might meet your needs better.

https://www.noteperformer.com/

What I like about NotePerformer is that it delivers incredible results while being hands-off.

For reference, I'm not affiliated with NotePerformer in any way. I'm just someone who is extremely satisfied using it for the last six months.

Huh. Suddenly this has become a big problem for one of my mockups, which demands nv in one passage and is ruined by the inherent vibrato. Though not a problem in the score since I can mark it that way, it seems like an oversight not to have sampled nv pitches while the performers were in the studio. (Note Performer is synthesized/AI so it's no go, I only used sampled instrumentation, including choir.) Guess I'll have to look for a patch Aria can read, or drop in a Kontakt instrument, since I imagine they have one.

blueshift wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 27, 2023 11:27 am

(Note Performer is synthesized/AI so it's no go, I only used sampled instrumentation, including choir.)

Firstly, NP's synthesised strings are miles better than anything in Garritan libraries (and some others), so dismissing them out of hand because they're not samples seems like a needless self-imposed restriction, rather than a criterion for quality.

Secondly, NP 4 is designed to automatically control many of the high-end, pro, sample libraries; giving you the sounds from the best samples, but with NP's own intelligent phrasing and patch balancing.

NP can use Spitfire's BBCSO, Orchestral Tools' Berlin Orchestra, East West's Hollywood Orchestra, Steinberg's Iconica, etc, etc, etc. Given that you can only use 8 VSTs in Finale, NP offers you a simple way of accessing these libraries, which usually require many more plug-in instances; and you don't have to worry about creating Human Playback prefs, or other manual tweaking.

I would absolutely second that. With only a few exceptions, NP3 and NP4 have worked very well with regard to strings, both in terms of realistic vibrato but also harmonics. I do still use GPO5 for some things when NP falls flat (it can't handle glissandi for Finale, as one example) but most of my audio recordings in the past year have used NP and my stuff is better for it.

Nick Mazuk wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 20, 2018 6:47 pm

I would personally recommend NotePerformer. It has the option to turn off vibrato for strings as well as have variable levels of vibrato.

You can download it for free with a 30-day trial to see if you like it before you buy it. The current price is $129, so there are more expensive libraries that might meet your needs better.

https://www.noteperformer.com/

What I like about NotePerformer is that it delivers incredible results while being hands-off.

For reference, I'm not affiliated with NotePerformer in any way. I'm just someone who is extremely satisfied using it for the last six months.

Hello Nick,

Could you kindly walk me through how you've turned off string vibrato in NotePerformer? I have just installed the trial version (with the intention of purchasing a license soon), but to my ears the default NotePerformer string sound has even worse a vibrato than the Garritan instruments. Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Traveler

Obviously you have to tell it not to use vibrato. NotePerformer uses a large number of MIDI CCs to control various aspects of the sound. They should all be listed in the documentation.

Vibrato is turned off with CC20 set to 6. You will need to make sure that this switch is set, either in an expression, or in HP settings.

Since this thread is still active - totally no go on NP, it sounds so synthetic. I have tried a couple of libraries and settled on one, which I use in a daw (easier). But one big thing I discovered in creating my small sections is using the Garritan solo instruments with associate players. Remarkably good, and almost no detectable vibrato as long as two voices are playing together (eg, Solo 1 and Player 1 together) - in real life, this is how it works. I only wish Garritan had recorded a 4th solo violin! for my 8 player section (Vln 1 and 2, two desks each) the results are outstanding within Finale (though Vln 2-2 is Player patches). I'm kinda blown away.

[edit - this is using solo strings; packaged section strings in any size sound like mosquitos.]