Hi Michael,

I didn't think anyone saw these comments. After generating an email log with the helpdesk, I wrote this in frustration. I must have community response notifications turned off. I never knew anyone replied from MM.

I like ALL the plugins and features! TG's tools are my favorites, but I have used JW's plugins as well. I've used most of the features at least once, especially when copying an extensive work, like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (fourth movement only) into Finale so I can hear the composer's intended balance, tempo, timbre, and the like.

Most notoriously with Finale 26, using Finale's stem slash will cause certain instruments to sound like someone slapped them with a steel pole. The TG tool's articulations cause the GPO key-switches to activate correctly. I forget which of JW's tools I used, as it's been over a year since I needed them last. I will be shortly working on the Schlussszene aus Faust movement of Mahler's 8th. As you may well know, it begins with a seemingly unending high, quiet tremolo in the violins.

Working on Mahler's 8th (Hymnus movement), I also just ran into a problem with the GPO instrument ranges. It would be nice to have a GPO soprano clarinet that will play the Eb (E on the clarinet in A), but I'll comment on a separate note.

Thank you for your reply. I wish I'd seen this before you all released Finale 26. Perhaps for the next update, you might get TG's permission to fully publish the professional version of his tools to Finale users.

Michael no longer works for MakeMusic. Perhaps David or Jonathan will respond.

And if you were to buy the full version of TG Tools (if you haven’t already) you would no longer see the notice that the trial is set to expire...

Hi Clinton,

Thanks for following up with this and, yes we do see your comments here, I can say that I do my best to read every one. I can't speak to the particulars of why some plug-ins are chosen to be included in the program while others are not. We do work with these developers and are certainly grateful for the helpful tools that they create which users, like yourself, benefit from.

I have to second Mike Rosen - TG Tools is an external plug in collection designed to add missing functionality to Finale.  You should be compensating Tobias for his hard work rather than hoping for Finale to integrate it so you can get it for free.

I have tried to contact Tobias several times about what's going to happen with TGTools and, so far, no response whatsoever.  I did upgrade some time ago after the 64 bit transition and while the set is extremely useful for me, there are bugs and some features that used to work no longer do.

I agree Tobias should be compensated for his work, but he hasn't done anything with the set in a LONG LONG time.  And it seems to be languishing to the point of deprecation.

J D Thomas

ThomaStudios

Thank you for the responses.

Please note, gentlemen, I did not at all say I wanted anything for free. I'm saying these tools when updated and maintained should be fully-included, which would be purchased as part of the price users pay for Finale and its upgrades, a different situation. Hope this clears things up.

There are reasons why having these plug-ins under developer control rather than integrated may be to users' advantage in that the developer-owned plug-ins can be update more frequently than those included in Finale. Although this now happens far less often than it used to when Finale upgrades appeared more often or had fewer features, it is still an advantage.

TGTools was last updated in May 2020, to the 3.00 rc8 version. There has been one update of Finale (26.3) since then, of course.

Having features that are essential to Finale's use dependant on individuals is .. fragile, to say the least. Robert Patterson's beaming plug-in has been bundled with Finale for at least 20 years -- is he still maintaining it for MM? That's absurd. 

Finale should have folded the parameters of RP's Beaming plug-in into Document Options years ago, so that decent beams are created automatically. But the trouble with plug-ins is that it excuses MM from developing those areas.