v27 Percussion?

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THOMAS COX Posted June 18, 2021 14:52

I'm trying to test-drive the percussion changes in the v27 demo. Here's what MM had to say about it:

Deliberate attention has been paid to the diverse world of percussion. Now, no matter what instrument you choose in the Setup Wizard, you will be starting with a layout that enters the correct noteheads at a logical location on the staff and plays back to an appropriate sound level. We hope to greatly reduce the number of times when you have to configure your score in the Setup Wizard or Percussion Layout Designer to achieve that magic combination of readable notation and accurate playback.

First, an immediate problem is that demo doesn't include the updated GPO, so lots of sounds are either wrong or missing. This applies whether opening a v25 file, importing MusicXML, or starting from scratch.

Second, a piece I have been putting off (because working with percussion in Finale has been a pain) will have a minimum of two aux percussionists covering a wide variety of accessories that would require mixed sounds (e.g. Orchestra, World, Standard) on different layers for those staves. That doesn't seem to work even allowing for the GPO problem, since AFAICT the percussion layout designer still only allows one percussion map per stave.

So I have the following three questions:

1. Can anyone with the full v27 confirm the new percussion maps are working as intended?

2. If the different sounds on each layer is not expected to work, can you suggest a better workflow? (I would prefer not to have multiple staves for those parts.)

3. (Not a Finale question) Is anyone familiar with Solomon's "How to Write for Percussion"? I would be interested in a brief review of how helpful it would be for addressing situations like this.

Thanks

4 comments

Date Votes

MIKE HALLORAN Edited June 18, 2021 17:18

First, an immediate problem is that demo doesn't include the updated GPO, so lots of sounds are either wrong or missing.

It would be nice if Finale followed Notion or Dorico in that regard. How can you evaluate that which isn't there.

It's been reported by a few that MM does give refunds within a certain time if you need to purchase first to evaluate properly. I would use the Submit a request link at the top of these pages to confirm this from Sales, then take the plunge.

OTOH, if you wanted to sketch up a 12 bar example, I'd be glad to test it. I'm easy to find on other forums and Facebook since I use my real name. Find me and we can exchange contact info.

THOMAS COX Posted June 21, 2021 03:02

Thanks. Look for a PM on another forum.

THOMAS COX Edited July 01, 2021 04:16

I went ahead and purchased 27. (Windows 10)

Audio driver: ASIO (Focusrite USB ASIO)
Device: Garritan Instruments for Finale

Wind instruments sound OK, with more reasonable volume levels than Finale 25. (I did try DirectSound on the other hand, it had levels too low to be usable.)

The percussion is a train wreck.

Starting from a blank document, I added the following instruments with these results:

Staff...........  Sound (listed)....  Sound (actual).....  Comments
================  ==================  ===================  ======================================
Bass Drum.......  Bass Drum.........  Bass Drum..........  Volume level was way too soft    
Snare Drum......  Snare Drum........  None*..............  Rim shot might have been tympani
Marimba.........  Marimba...........  Marimba............              
Glockenspiel....  Glockenspiel......  Glockenspiel.......  Sustain was off, but no big deal
Wind Chimes.....  Brush Drum Kit....  Unknown............  Sounded like hitting a music stand?
Gong............  Basic Orch Perc...  None...............
Triangle........  Perc. Toys........  Unknown............  Sounded like a damped wind chime?          
Temple Blocks...  Temple Blocks.....  Wood Block.........  All five blocks sounded the same
Percussion......  Basic Orch Perc...  Mismatched.........  Added to get a suspended cymbal
Accessories.....  Perc Toys.........  Mismatched.........  Added out of desperation
Cabasa..........  Ethnic Percussion.  Tom................        
Guiro...........  Fusion Drum Kit...  Guiro..............  Longer notes not supported
VibraSlap.......  Fusion Drum Kit...  VibraSlap..........  Shorter notes not supported (no damping)
================  ==================  ===================  ======================================

Overall, that's worse behavior out of the box than 25.

Looking at the Percussion layouts, most of the broken ones had a Percussion MIDI Map of "None (Built in GM)".

Trying to Change the Percussion MIDI Maps failed - editing existing ones failed outright (changes were not saved, no error msg) and duplicating or creating new ones appeared to work, but did not produce correct sounds.

Using "Reassign Playback Sounds" trashes any MIDI map edits. That's especially irritating because my laptop and desktop (not surprisingly) have different hardware, and I often have to use "Reassign Playback Sounds" to fix broken playback when I open the project on the other machine.

(Edit: Sorry about all the dots in the table, the forum software seems to put proportional spaces in the code section, where it should be using fixed-width ones.)

THOMAS COX Posted July 03, 2021 00:33

In exploring ways of getting usable percussion, I tried the following experiments:

1. I attempted to used the BFD3 VST with a custom map. Finale promptly crashed upon adding it to the VST Plug-in directories. I use this VST on a regular basis in both the BFD software and Reaper, and have never had stability problems. I remo

2. I downloaded NotePerformer. This was much better - all the instruments map correctly except temple blocks, which uses wood block. (Not a surprise, temple blocks aren't included in NotePerformer.) This gives me at least a temporary workaround.

I haven't used NotePerformer a lot, and I'm not a huge fan so far - it seems to default to playing unarticulated notes as staccato. (Yes, I tried clearing all MIDI data after changing the instrument mappings.) Maybe there is a way to fix that, but I haven't found it yet. I would also like to be able to use all those new instruments that are supposed to be in GIfF, and I hate to lay out the case just to work around a bug.

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