Finale with Aria Player will not play dynamics

Discuss playback problems, including VST, Garritan, MIDI, etc.

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bangtuff
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 5:21 pm
Finale Version: Finale 2014.5
Operating System: Mac

Post by bangtuff » Sat Apr 13, 2019 5:30 pm

Hello,

I am running Finale 2014.5 on a 2017 MacBook Air running MacOS High Sierra with 1.8GHz processor and 8GB of ram. I developed the attached file I am working on using the default SoftSynth. All of the dynamics including hairpins played back as they were supposed to. When I switched to playback through Garritan Instruments for Finale, I assigned different Player variations to different layers.

Now, the playback does not follow any dynamics. I switch from "Play Finale Through Audio Units" to "Play Finale Through MIDI", and the MIDI playback does not follow dynamics. I try it with both HP set to "Standard" and set to "None" with no change. I have checked and the dynamics are written for every layer. HP Preferences are set to "Default" including "Optimize Attacks for Garritan Libraries". I have deleted the Finale Preferences file and restarted. I cleared all MIDI data. I have created a new document and copied everything from the old document into it, and there is no change. I open the file on a different computer and there is no change. All other files I use with the same setup follow dynamics.

Can anyone think of how to resolve this? I have tried to attach the file, but it tells me it is larger than the 250KB limit.

Thank You,

Mike


User avatar
Djard
Posts: 916
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:23 am
Finale Version: Finale 26
Operating System: Windows

Post by Djard » Mon Apr 22, 2019 6:45 pm

You seem to have done everything correctly.

When I run into the situation you describe, I create a new (default) document then check if dynamics are functional in playback. I then copy and paste some measures from the problematic document in to the new one that has a non-customized library. I then choose standard or Classical HP (I have known changing the HP preference to make a difference). If the dynamics are functional in playback in the new, test document, I interpret that to mean that either the original document or customized library is corrupted. For me, such instability occurs only when I write complex music (polyphonic staff) with a lot of editing. I never experience problems when writing simple stuff for orchestra.

If the the dynamic markings are honored in the test document, you may want to copy and paste in your entire score.

Another thing you can try is to place hidden dynamics at the beginning and end of a hairpin. It would be a sad commentary on Finale if you need to enter hidden dynamic markings (pp, mf, ff etc.) for your hairpins.

bangtuff
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 5:21 pm
Finale Version: Finale 2014.5
Operating System: Mac

Post by bangtuff » Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:55 am

Thank you @Djard. I found the culprit was that two Garritan instruments cannot exist on the same staff in two different layers (even though the Finale Manual says that is how it should work). When I made the two layers into two separate staves, the playback worked once again. Of course this means, I now need two documents: one for printing parts and one with accurate playback.

User avatar
Djard
Posts: 916
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:23 am
Finale Version: Finale 26
Operating System: Windows

Post by Djard » Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:56 am

Thanks for sharing your solution. Glad you won the battle.

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