I cannot speak to anyone else's experience, but I have pretty much always found the support staff's responses prompt, helpful, and courteous.

Prompt and courteous, yes. Helpful. Not so much. Too many AI type answers, even though I know there are still people there.

I don't work for MM but have for other companies. The problem with bug reports is that most are not. 

All suspected bugs must be submitted in a strict, detailed "If this, then that..." format that anyone on the back end can follow precisely so that the issue can be duplicated. An exact description of your setup is a must including a list of plug-ins. Attach screen shots as necessary.

I've submitted a few bugs to MM over the years. As per MikeR, the responses are polite but often uninformative—when you get them at all. The big installation issue involving NotePerformer and the macOS has yet to be resolved but thanks to detective work by Arne Wallander and myself, we know the problem and workaround (and I re-post it everytime it comes up)—perhaps by Finale 28, it will be fixed. But it's no surprise that MM can't duplicate it—unless one of their Macs has a few hundred plug-ins installed, like mine, they cannot recreate the conditions that make this problem rear its ugly head. There's an export to .aiff bug — I think because, if it's been resolved, I was never notified. Again, there's an easy workaround: Mac users should export as .wav instead. I don't know if it's a Finale or Apple bug because the workaround is solid.

And so on...

As for Tech Support, my experience is like Adrian's, quick and usually correct. The Finale Installers (especially 26!) did have bugs but the workarounds were simple and Support had them to me next day.

Garritan has not seen updates or improvements since everything went to 64bit eight years ago. How many of the problems we hear about are actually the ARIA Player (which does get updated now and then)? I don't know. There is a separate Garritan board for those issues and I never go there. I own all the libraries but rarely use them—and only when in a hurry. 

I was the point person on the recent Apple Silicon M2/3 macOS Sonoma 14.4x / Kontakt/Komplete 7.81 / external monitor debacle that turned out to be bugs on both sides. Why me? I had an affected machine with the right apps and external hardware and was in contact with both Apple and NI like a shot when it surfaced (Apple M1 & Intel owners were unaffected). Also, I know how to submit bug reports that others can duplicate. All fixed now with K 7.10.2 / macOS 14.5 but that took a couple weeks. Since I knew where the problems were, it never occurred to me if they showed up in Finale, too. BTW, since Finale and VST3s are still incompatible, this was never a Finale/Win issue — VST3 support is still a Feature Request and lack of it is not a bug (28, perhaps?).

Well, the last time I used support (just 2-3 months ago), it was for a bug, pure and simple.  If using the "Delete" key on a Mac running Sonoma (all up to date) to delete a note or notes in a layer other than the first, the Finale 27.4 (up to date) crashes if you hit delete and there is not another note in the same layer preceding it.  Setup 7 staves (4 SATB voices, 3 pipe organ).  Also, as far as Garritan libraries go, most of the Classic Pipe Organ library is pitched incorrectly and the range of some of the stops on the staves are not standard for any pipe organ from the 1800's to present (I know I am a degreed organist).  

As for the crashes using the delete button, they never could figure out anything and wanted me to halt my work for who knows how long to uninstall, reinstall and repeat over and over.  They always stated they could not reproduce it but would never validate that they were testing on equivalent hardware and OS as I have.  So, no, they were not helpful.  Courteous - yes.  Helpful - absolutely not.   

As far as the Garritan issue, they essentially refused to do any update to correct the issues because they didn't have anyone who could make sure that the sampling of the sounds was not affected.  Makes little sense to me since one is simply attaching a sampled pitch to the correct note value...........oh, well.  Not one ounce of ownership for this or the crash issue.  I have a hard time believing that if everything else works correctly on a device except one app that the issue is with anything other than how the app is programmed (or perhaps, not properly programmed for modern CPU / GPU architecture).

That's my beef with support.  

Again, I don't work for MakeMusic but there are some problems with your post:

it was for a bug, pure and simple.  If using the "Delete" key on ... to delete a note or notes in a layer other than the first, the Finale 27.4 (up to date) crashes 

Two things:

First: If it was a "bug, pure and simple", I would be able duplicate it following your description. I can't. Second: If it is a bug, whose bug is it? I'm not saying you don't have a problem but I'm not surprised that MM couldn't duplicate it. It's quite likely that something else is going on.

I used support (just 2-3 months ago) ... a Mac running Sonoma (all up to date)

What was up to date then is not up to date now. The current macOS is 14.5, release date May 13, 2024. 14.4 was a mess. The Beta 14.4d release candidate was May 12 and I was one of many who gave the thumbs up—(14.4b fixed a few things and 14.4c broke them again). To be clear, Apple had serious bugs 2-3 months ago. I was under deadlines then and none involved Finale so I never checked to see. 

If you have updated the macOS to 14.5 and are still having this problem, lets have a look. It's a good idea to take a screen shot video so that we can see your steps exactly. Zoom makes this really easy. You can make download links for the file and the short video available here (GoogleDoc or Dropbox) so that any of us can see this. Since I have the current macOS and all Garritan libraries, I'm happy to take a look.

Again, Garritan is an issue on the Garritan boards.

Dude - 2-3 months ago is when I started the support ticket.  Don't talk down to me.  I am an accomplished programmer so I do know a thing or two.  I am also a trained musician in case you want to go down that road inappropriately.  So, just because you have not had less than ideal experiences with the support team does not mean that others do not have issues.  I do not appreciate your tone so I would be grateful if you did not respond to any of my future posts. 

And, by the way, a reported issue should not be marked as solved unless it truly is solved.  How else will others know without going through volumes of interactions that no fix occurred if it is not left as open in perpetuity.  Saying something is solved that is not solved is not only  untrue but misleading.  Thank you.

Yea... I was wondering when you were going to give us your resume after telling us about bugs that cannot be reproduced by Support — or me when I followed your directions.

If you just want to moan and argue, I'm happy to never view this thread again. OTOH, if you want any of us to look at this, please follow my instructions. There's a lot of experienced users around here. We are volunteers trying to help others, that's all.

Sorry, Kent, but treating us like doofuses who can't understand your superior knowledge on the subject doesn't work.

You are the one complaining that Support can't find a "bug, pure and simple". I explained that I couldn't replicate it following your directions. And then you responded by explaining that you are a programmer? Yikes...

This is Feature Requests for Features not currently found in Finale. You have not made one except that Garritan be brought up to date—and I don't disagree but there's another MakeMusic board for that. If you head over there, you will also find out how to tune Garritan Instruments in the ARIA Player. Oh hell, I'll post that here:

1. Open the instrument slot you want to configure
2. Drag the tuning controls up or down to fine-tune the pitch by up to 100 cents, or one half-step
3. To reset the tuning value, you can CTRL-click or COMMAND-click

 

If you think that I am talking down to you by explaining how certain things work, well... I can't help that. I don't know that any of us can.