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Hi all:
Thank you for this fine suggestion. I've documented it as FIN-4322.

 

Cheers,
Michael Johnson
VP, Professional Notation
MakeMusic

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Yes. Even Sibelius has better guitar and lute sounds.

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The steelstring sounds also very cheap.

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The acoustic guitar of Garritan is the worst instrument of this bank of sound.
In addition, there is an error when I am told at MakeMusic to choose this acoustic guitar when I want the classical guitar.
When I think it's the most common instrument in the world and Garritan (MakeMusic) is not able to pick up a REAL classical guitar sound.
It's really lamentable.
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Garritan and MakeMusic parted ways some time ago, so this isn't likely to change. You can certainly get good quality instruments from other vendors.

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It's frustrating that Garritan's acoustic guitar sound isn't meeting expectations, especially when expecting a realistic classical guitar sound. It might be worth reaching out to MakeMusic for assistance or exploring other virtual instrument libraries for better options.

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Finale does not have any convincing soundbanks. I agree. I've used Finale since 1989 and never submitted my work due to incredibly bad guitar/bass sounds. However, since 2012 I've used Arobas' Guitar Pro software that when importing Finale XML really has incredible and convincing guitar audio.

Here's what I'm talking about. This is my Pat Metheny score transcription of his tune "James". I would never be able to post my work with audio if I left it to Finale guitar/bass sounds. Check it out! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-pbFQ2_HyQ&ab_channel=HemmeLuttjeboer

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Garritan and MakeMusic parted ways some time ago, so this isn't likely to change. You can certainly get good quality instruments from other vendors.

 

From Garritan.com:

MakeMusic, Inc. acquired the Garritan Corporation, the world's leading provider of virtual software instruments, on December 30, 2011.

 

To say that Garritan and the Aria Player are long in the tooth is an understatement. I own them all and still find some sounds useful — nylon stringed guitar was never one of them.

 

I do agree that there are plenty of good sounds from other vendors. In addition, the Aria Player plays SoundFont and sfz libraries, some free and others quite inexpensive. Until recently, I used one for classical guitar that I liked but am now using a Kontakt library that I like better.

 

Perhaps MM will upgrade the Garritan libraries in my lifetime but I’m not holding my breath. It certainly not a priority. There was no mention of Garritan at the Alfred Music booths at NAMM last month.

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Ha, ha!! They don't care about all our comments! That's why I've been using Dorico with Noteperformer sounds for over a year (imperfect sound, but way, way better than in Finale).
It's 2024 and in 2017 they wrote:
"Hi all:
Thank you for this fine suggestion. I've documented it as FIN-4322."

This is ridiculous!!!!!

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Speaking of Noteperformer, they seem to have a guitar, though I haven't tried it

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I've been using Dorico with Noteperformer sounds for over a year (imperfect sound, but way, way better than in Finale).

 

I confess that I have never heard much difference between NotePerformer in Finale and NotePerformer in Dorico except that, in Dorico, many of the accents and effects are exaggerated and that isn't fixed yet.

 

Noteperformer, they seem to have a guitar, though I haven't tried it

 
Since these are the effects, I wouldn't get my hopes up. I think there's only one guitar sound and classical ain't it.
 
GUITAR EFFECTS
 Distortion
 Fuzzbox
 Heavy Distortion
 Chorus
 Flanger
 Phaser
 Wah-wah
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Finale's classical guitar sound has always felt unnatural and disappointing. There are numerous instruments in the classical guitar family like tenor, alto, bass, and requinto, each with distinct tones. Niibori guitars, for instance, offer unique sounds. Hopefully, software will improve to capture these nuances more accurately.

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Eventually, to get the sounds we want, most of us have had to add third-party sound libraries to our collection. Just be sure to do due diligence before choosing one, especially if it is expensive.

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The only Garritan library on which Make Music places a premium is the Abbey Road CFX (Yamaha) Grand Piano — even that hasn't been updated in years and it's not included in the Anthology. Some of the Anthology packages are ok. Concert & Marching Band + Jazz & Big Band certainly have their fans among composers who consider them essential to their work. GPO 5 gets the job done with far more instruments and articulations than the bare bones GIFF set included in Finale.

 

The real purpose of these instruments is to give you a good idea of how your score will sound when performed. If you want performance level VIs, pretty good idea to look elsewhere. If you want better control over those instruments, export to a DAW through MusicXML or Inter Application MIDI now that Rewire is dead, dead, dead and never coming back.

 

Again, the ARIA Player plays sound fonts and .sfz (Garritan samples are .sfz). Lots of cheap and freeware in those formats — some of it is pretty good.

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