from Finale to Logic Pro X

[lynndavidnewton]

My computer is a MacBook Pro (soon to be an M2 Mini), which is relevant.

Are there any Mac users among us who sometimes import the audio output of their Finale scores in Apple's Logic Pro X DAW, such as by exporting it as a MIDI file and importing it to Logic to get a better-sounding output?

If so, do you have any hints to share? I'm dumb enough about Logic that I don't yet have a standard routine.

I've done this a couple of times with modest success on simpler scores. (E.g. solo piano, another guitar piece.)

I've just completed a solo electric guitar work, and I'm happy with the Finale notation. It also sounds good in Finale's playback except for the obvious fact that it doesn't sound at all like a guitar. So I just tried exporting it to MIDI and tried opening a new project with this as a base and assigning an electric guitar to it. (There are many choices.) I won't claim that it sounds great, and I know there are numerous other instruments to explore and amplifiers to try, but I'm not an expert in Logic. (Yet.) But it's good enough to demonstrate for friends and relatives.

I'm just surveying to see if someone knows better than I do how to accomplish what I'm trying to do, which is certainly possible given that I'm a relative Logic novice.

[BuonTempi]

About the only thing I can contribute is that Logic can import MusicXML, as well as MIDI; and you may find that one provides more useful/complete data than the other.

[heinzfan]

If you want to preserve the human playback aspect of your Finale file then export it as a midi file. The Finale blogs included some articles on using Finale with Logic. https://www.finalemusic.com/?s=logic&post_type=post

[blueshift]

I output audio to a DAW every time for finishing - as amazing as Finale is, final mixing on audio clips puts a professional, studio finish on any recording. Mostly I use a lower order of Cubase for this, sometimes Studio One (the UI is the same design firm!), sometimes Logic Pro which is organized differently so I am a bit slower on LP. But still, the techniques are the same and I get great results.

From Finale, I output tracks or groups of tracks as AIFF or WAV separately, panned to the center - HP is maintained throughout. (for safety, I have a non-printing staff assigned to an empty aria channel with all my tempo variations which I output with every track). If I have a string quartet, for example, I will import each voice separately so I can set panning, adjust gain, craft individual EQ (with graphic feedback), automation such as velocity and mid-track gain adjustments, and other features.

Logic Pro will easily build a multitrack stack out of your takes, make sure you can access the automation lanes, etc., to gain all the functionality available. Moreover, you can group tracks into busses - e.g., you can group individual tracks into strings, winds, brass, choir, etc - and further process those in exactly the same way. In Logic Pro, I often mix the odd midi + instrument with Finale audio if I can't get the instrument into Finale (usually because I've run out of racks). You can also record a voice track (or several) if singing or adding a voiceover.

When working with audio tracks, all the complicated processing has been done by Finale - audio is much lower overhead so you can get a brilliant level of detail in your finished mix without taxing or slowing down your computer.

[lynndavidnewton]

blueshift, I'm gratified to learn that all you describe is possible, though I've suspected it. Most of it is way over my depth of experience.

I'm an old guy, someone whose composing career flourished mainly in the 1960s, and although I still know a lot about classical music and notation (I worked as a music "engraver" for 20 years (using music typewriters and graphic arts gear), mostly in New York City), life's circumstances became such that I never really got to pursue some of the things that I'd expected all my younger life to do.

Today I have gear and space and time but lack knowledge that if life had been different I would have mastered long ago. Fortunately, my brain is still 100% operational.

Over half of the work I do in music today is dinking with legacy projects, though I've produced a couple of significant new things as well, just not to the level I'd like because I just don't know how. After years of wishing, that's on the verge of changing, but there's still so much I don't know.