Finale Forum

Is there any way to get the Chime Tree or mark tree or bell tree (although bell tree is a different instrument) to playback realistically? With all the major advancements in other instruments, nuances and sampling and switches, etc. it would seem the Mark tree would have been enhanced. I'm hoping I just don't know the right notation to trigger playback correctly.

I see the mark tree written to inform the player duration and stroke direction like this:



Is there anyway to get the playback to sound realistic to this notation. I can write music without hearing it. I can write music even with the terrible playback I'm getting, but everything else sounds so good in Finale, surely there is way to get this instrument to playback correctly! Anyone? I see this question has been asked for years, but have found no answer! Thank you if you can solve this!!

The only way this could be cone is if you have a sample that has both downstroke and upstroke. In other words, most samples I've herd have only the down stroke. What sample are you using?

Zuill

First - thank goodness experts like you, zuill, have migrated to this forum after the other closed. Thank you!!

I'm not sure if I'm going to answer this correctly: It is automatically getting assigned through the VST Instruments, SmartMusic SoftSynth. Is that where the sample is? Is there a way to load a different sample with the correct switches for the notation? I'm advanced on Finale notation, but beginner on playback - samples, switches, etc.

I would imagine it would have to be a complex sample - changing duration and direction - duration being the variable time from one end of the instrument to the other. Is this something I can sample myself and add to Finale? It is so frustrating not being able to add it.

Since I don't use GPO, I can't say, but I would look there to see. If it has down and up samples, then you're good to go (after paying the price, of course).

Zuill

P.S.: I checked the manual for GPO and I only see mark tree, which leads me to believe there's just one sample, which I would assume to be a down stroke. Maybe somebody more knowledgeable than I will "chime" in.

This doesn't really answer the question, but I notated ‘Bar Chimes’ (yet another name for Mark Tree &c) as shown in the screenshot (scroll down a bit to see) and faked the sound with a SoftSynth glockenspiel glissando, noteheads and ledger-lines hidden and transposition modified (exaggerated up). The sound is not realistic, but it does have approximately the right atmosphere and feel, so I could let my potential non-musician collaborators have an idea of what might be going on.

Thank you everyone for suggesting, checking, and giving ideas of "creating" the playback. I appreciate your time and effort!

I purchased Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 and indeed there are multiple samples of the mark tree doing everything I need. Took me a short while to figure out how to make it work but I'm quite pleased with the result. Thank you everyone for your help!