Finale Forum

Latest macOS with Finale 25.

How do I get Human Playback to play notes that are out of the assumed range of an instrument?
I've done this before and can't find it again, having looked about a half dozen different places.

This becomes a problem when you're writing music for expert players, e.g. Finale assumes no one can play your trumpet part that goes beyond the range of a near-beginner high school player, when in fact it could go an octave higher.

I'm doing a voice and piano song. The voice part (technically a tenor) goes up to a high C (written C7, two leger lines above the treble staff. Although I nearly had a brain hemorrhage trying to sing this fifty years ago, this is really normal range for any competent tenor. And many can sing much higher.

I've got Finale <i>displaying</i> everything properly (it doesn't show these notes in a different color), but so far I can't get it to play them.

I know this has gotta be easy. Thanks.

What instrument are you using for the tenor? Change to some other instrument like clarinet.

::: Bill

I just tried tenor and trumpet playing written C on the treble clef up to high C above the treble clef (the two sounding an octave apart) and all notes sound, both with Garritan instruments and with SoftSynth, so I'm not sure what's wrong, unless you're using tuba for the tenor or something like that. As far as I know, "Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced" range check only affects the display by coloring some notes yellow; you can turn this off altogether, but it probably won't solve whatever problem you're having.

Hmm. Here's a thought. I started this using the Setup Wizard. It's simple as can be, just solo voice and piano.

When I set it up, I had it in normal treble clef. When I started to work on it, I realized I needed to use the treble clef for tenors, the one with the little 8 attached below, so I just did a clef change in the first bar. As far as I knew, that was all I needed to do.

It's been playing back fine so far until I got to the high notes. (I think A above the staff may be the lowest non-sounding pitch. I notice that it also does not play anything below a written middle C (which sounds C4).

I can't imagine, though, how what I did might have caused a problem.

I know about how to turn off the coloration for out-of-range notes and have done that.

Post your file here. It's probably easy to fix.

OK, I don't usually post files, but I'll try this. I've stripped it down, deleting the first 85 measures and the last 100 or so. That way only the part that's relevant is here.

At this point, there is nothing whatever in the piano part, just the voice, but I've left in the piano staves. I've submitted it as an attachment rather than inline because someone might need to look at it internally.

Someone asked what I'm using for the voice. The Score Manager says "Tenor Voice." I'm using Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 sounds.

The high A, B-flat, and C do not sound on playback.

Thanks for your patience and generous help.

I changed the instrument to clarinet and it works. I am using the included Garritan library, not the one you used.

::: Bill

I suppose I could change the instrument since what is provided for "voice" is pretty lame.

I wonder if someone somewhere is working on software that will be able to sing lyrics. There is software that can do a reasonable version of speaking written text, so it can't be that much more difficult to produce something that might be bad singing but is surely better than the pitiful sounds that exist now.

lynndavidnewton wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:00 am

… I wonder if someone somewhere is working on software that will be able to sing lyrics …

http://www.myriad-online.com/en/product ... singer.htm

All notes sound for me with these settings. I don't have Garritan Personal Orchestra--maybe it's deficient for this sound. Perhaps someone here who has it can check. You can probably find another vocal sound that's not broken and that sounds more like a person than a clarinet (which may not go as low as a tenor's lowest notes).

Motet, that suggestion worked for me. (With slight variation.)

I selected Choir Aahs as the instrument (had to change the name to Voice, it came up as Choir), and the Sound is said to be Full Choir KS.

It also plays back all the way down to an A-4, but on A-flat-4 it bottoms out. No problem, I don't need it.

And with that, the higher notes sound fine. (I had to adjust the clef again. It transposed everything down an octave and put it in standard treble clef.)

Furthermore, I think the sound is somewhat nicer than what was there before.

Problem solved. (Well, good enough.) Thank you so much.

Peter, that Virtual Singer is very interesting. That's not something that's compatible with Finale, though, is it?

I would love such a thing that works with Finale.

But at least it indicates that someone is working on the problem and has progressed to the point of making a saleable product. It can only get better.

lynndavidnewton wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:41 pm

Peter, that Virtual Singer is very interesting. That's not something that's compatible with Finale, though, is it?

I would love such a thing that works with Finale …

You could export from Finale as MusicXML, then import the MusicMXL in Virtual Singer.

And be aware that there is a pretty steep learning curve to get it to sound as good as the samples!

Nothing could possibly sound like a singer.
No software could have the individuality of a real singer.
It would just be nice to hear words rather than ahh-ahh-ahh all the time
in a sound that doesn't even sound much like a voice.

If I were to ever show a serious interest in such a product,
I'd want to see it demoed first and hear realistic examples.

Still, knowing it's possible is a great encouragement. Someday they'll have something
that almost works. Like listening to 3CPIO speak.
(Which of course is a human with an electronically altered voice.
So why not an electronic voice that sounds almost human?)

Idle speculation.

Garritan Personal Orchestra's "Tenor KS" sample has a range up to an A flat, which is pretty insulting!

The Basses don't even reach Middle C, either, stopping at the A below, which is pretty poor. I've had to edit the data to extend them to a more useful range.

Boy, that's depressing. It means that whoever designed this didn't know anything about voices and didn't even bother to check with someone who does.