instrument sound levels too low in HP

[lynndavidnewton]

Using latest Finale, latest Mac OS.

Recently I revisited an old score of a chamber work that
includes alto saxophone. Although the score is in great
shape, since doing the score (c. 2002) I acquired GPO5, and
of course now run v.25, so stormed through it to make sure
everything was still good and also to change the instruments
to GPO5 (they are soprano, alto sax, (classical) guitar, and
piano).

When I listened to the results in human playback, I found
that the alto sax part was barely audible, like it's in the
next room and have no idea why. I messed with it a while,
couldn't solve the problem, so just abandoned it.

A couple of days ago I began a new project, transcription of
a high school composition (dated 1960) for concert band. It
begins with an alto sax solo. Imagine my surprise after
pounding in the first few measures and playing it back and
finding that again the alto sax part is so low that it can
barely be heard.

I'll admit to not knowing much about how sound libraries
work technically. I simply expect that if I notate something
with the dynamic mp in an alto saxophone that I'll get
something that is roughly comparable when I write the same
thing as mp on a clarinet ... or a violin or a french horn
or a piano.

I haven't gone through to check instrument sounds one by
one, but it seems to me I've experienced others that seem to
be a bit on the low side.

Yes, I could use Studio View and tweak some knobs, but this
doesn't really solve the problem. What if I want to have a
dynamic of ffff on the alto sax (assuming such a thing is
possible)? In the playback that barely makes it into the low
end of the mf range, while other instruments are also
written louder.

Is there something I can do about this?

Thanks.

[gogreen]

I don't know why, but instrument levels are far too low in most of the instrument samples in GPO5 and COMB2, while some are way too loud--at least, in my experience. I've made some adjustments by placing an instrument or instruments in their own Aria instance and then adjusting the base volume there. For instance, the attached is the Aria instances for a concert band piece I'm working on. Bank 1 is woodwinds. Bank 2 is brasses. But Bank 3 is bass clarinet and baritone saxophone, which are way too loud and blaring. Bank 4 is suspended cymbal, also far too loud. Bank 5 is flute 1 and flute 2, which are far too soft. You might want to try adjusting some base instrument levels this way.

[lynndavidnewton]

I don't know why, but instrument levels are far too low in most of the instrument samples in GPO5 and COMB2, while some are way too loud--at least, in my experience. I've made some adjustments by placing an instrument or instruments in their own Aria instance and then adjusting the base volume there. For instance, the attached is the Aria instances for a concert band piece I'm working on. Bank 1 is woodwinds. Bank 2 is brasses. But Bank 3 is bass clarinet and baritone saxophone, which are way too loud and blaring. Bank 4 is suspended cymbal, also far too loud. Bank 5 is flute 1 and flute 2, which are far too soft. You might want to try adjusting some base instrument levels this way.

This solution sounds promising, and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who finds some of the GPO5
instrument volume levels way too low.

Unfortunately for me at this point, my knowledge of how to work with Aria is quite limited. Which is
another way of saying I have little clue what I'm doing, or even how Aria relates directly to any
given Finale score I'm working on.

I'd probably know better if Garritan provided better documentation ... or if good documentation exists
if I were able to locate it and study it for a bit.

But at least your suggestion sounds like a reasonable approach I can experiment with.

(It took me a few days to respond to this because the project in question is on a low burner
right now.)

[gogreen]

I'm experimenting a lot this way with the volume of GPO5 and COMB2 instruments in my scores. It's easy--my method: First, create an Aria instance in the next available bank. You can leave it unfilled. Second, go into the score manager and select instruments for the new bank. With your having created the new bank, score manager will then see it and make it available either as a listed bank or press "next available" to see it. Add instruments. I place instruments in the bank that are similarly too loud or too soft. As I mentioned previously, baritone saxophone and bass clarinet are way too loud, so I've put them both in a separate bank and lowered their collective volume. Suspended cymbal is even louder, so it gets its own bank with the volume turned down even lower. Flutes, on the other hand are way too soft, so they get their own Aria instance with the volume turned up. Balance isn't perfect for me this way yet, but I'm getting there. And by the way, these volumes seem the same both for GPO5 and COMB2 instruments.