Minor GIFF woes F 26

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David Ward
Posts: 814
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:48 pm
Finale Version: F 25.5 & 26.3
Operating System: Mac

Post by David Ward » Sun Jun 16, 2019 6:41 pm

This passing saga may be of interest or use to some on the forum.

When I installed Finale 26.1 a week or two ago, I didn't install Garritan Instruments for Finale (GIFF) because I'd made a couple of adjustments to available instrument ranges a a few years ago via modifying the .sfz text files for the relevant instruments (I've forgotten how), and I assumed F 26 would work perfectly well with the GIFF files previously installed for F 25.

All did seem OK until I discovered that there was no percussion sound in F 26. Worse, this now seemed to affect F 25 as well (all files, not just new ones), after I'd saved a single file in F 26. Non percussion appeared to be sounding via ARIA player, but not the percussion. I was able to restore perc sound to F 25 by specifying GIFF in the Score Manager, but this option was not available in F 26.

Next I installed GIFF for F 26 from the .dmg which I kept from the original download ‘in case.’ The percussion sound returned, but now my range extensions (eg the lowest two notes on Contrabass Clarinet, which are strangely absent in GIFF) were missing in both F 25 and 26.

Finally, I found the relevant .sfz file for CB Clar on my second computer which doesn't yet have F 26 installed. I went to Applications > Garritan Instruments for Finale > Programs > Woodwinds > Clarinets > Contrabass Clar Solo.sfz and copied and pasted the .sfz file to replace the one on my F 26 HD (having first made a precautionary back up copy of the .sfz). This worked, which is as well since I can't remember how I modified the .sfz file to get the two extra notes: it's not immediately obvious.

Moral I suppose, if you modify something with difficulty, keep handy copies of both the original and the modified versions.
Finale 25.5 & 26.3
Mac 10.13.6 & 10.14.6


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zuill
Posts: 4418
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2016 9:35 pm
Finale Version: Finale 2011-v26.3.1
Operating System: Windows

Post by zuill » Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:27 pm

For those who need to modify the ranges, the link to the instructions are still available:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... an-library

I do remember, however, that within the file there are several places that need modifying. Unless one does this regularly, one might forget exactly what should be done.

So, saving the files which are modified in a backup folder for those files is a safe workflow.

Zuill
Windows 10, Finale 2011-v26.3.1
"When all is said and done, more is said than done."

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