Hi, Eric - you may want to take a look at some of the threads in the Garritan portion of the Finale Community. Apparently there are updated instructions for setting up Finale, Aria & Garritan, sent to an individual, but oddly, not posted anywhere else. Seems that getting Finale to recognize Aria and Garritan is a known issue. Hope this helps!

Thanks Girard. I'll head there now. I also posted a support ticket. I will post updates with an info I find or receive.

Not enough information.

When you updated, your link includes three downloads: the purchased version of Finale, the latest Aria Player and the GIFF. You should run all three into their default locations. Reboot. Some find that a shut down before reboot works best.

If you downloaded the 27 demo, Aria and GIFF aren’t included. You’ll need to set the path to find them from your older version if that’s your situation.

Thanks Mike. I downloaded the full paid version and installed all three elements to the default directories. I didn't restart or shut down at that point but have restarted several times since. Should I uninstall and reinstall? I since have had some succes but am not sure if it's correct. 

I followed this support article though it's not totally current: https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217674648--The-requested-virtual-instrument-plugin-could-not-be-found-error-with-Garritan-Instruments-for-Finale

Rescanning for VST did not resolve the issue so I followed the manual route. Eventually I got to a pathway that worked but it's not quite the one that's listed. Aria play was then available under the VST Banks and Effects but there was no sound. I used the Reassign Instruments feature and still no sound. I then realized that all of the banks had their volume faders set to 0 so I turned up the volume on the first bank and now have sound. I don't know if this is correct but it seems to work with an existing file. I haven't tried it with a new file yet. 

I had trouble getting Garritan and Aria in Finale 27 also.  Why?  WHo knows?

" I then realized that all of the banks had their volume faders set to 0 ..."

This has to be one of MM's biggest mysteries. Why set the volume to 0 MM? You go through all the other BS to get sound and find Finale has all the sliders set to 0.

Can we presume this discussion (so far) is about accessing the Garritan Instruments for Finale included with the program rather than the add-on Garritan packages such as JABB, GPO, or World Instruments, which require a slightly different installation routine?

You are correct, sir.  It was the COMB and GPO5 that didn't want to install...easily.

Yes. This is only as Aria player and Garritan , the included elements with Finale v27.

The odd thing, however, is Garritan is a MM product. One would, or should, expect it to install with the program it is designed for. It shouldn't matter that they are add-ons or standard equipment.

I have a add-on reverb called TAL that Finale 27 apparently found because I had it with 26.3, I guess. Although, I did not reinstall it for 27. Perfect Layout and Noteperformer 3 both installed easily.

Yet Finale's own, Garritan, add-on didn't!

Update: This is the response I received to my help request from MakeMusic:

The easiest way to get Finale to find the Aria player would probably be to reinstall it. Will you reinstall it from the link below and let me know if the problem persists?

ARIA Player Version 1.959

The target location should be C:\Program Files\Garritan\ARIA Player.

I haven't followed their suggestion since it is currently working.

I should also note that Finale has been starting itself after I close the program. Mostly it does this once each time I close but the last time it was 4x in a row! I closed the program and it opens again. Sigh.

Eric have you done a complete uninstall and reinstall? I forgot whether you are on Windoze or Mac but WIndows can sometimes leave files behind so you don't get a complete new install. I think you need to do that. If you have done it I doubt doing it again will help.

Another thing to try is create a new user account. Log onto that account and see if you still get the same issues. If all is well you may have a permissions issue or an "ini" fault. Windows not Mac,of course.

Hi! And if I downloaded the demo version and now I will buy the full version, will I get a link with Aria Player and a sample library for Finale?
Kind regards,

md

You don't get a demo version. You get a standard Garritan library. It has most common instruments included but not all. You get the Aria player as well.

For instance I have added, additional purchase, the COMB (marching and band) and PO (personal orchestra). I also bought NotePerformer3 which I highly recommend.

Hi! And if I downloaded the demo version and now I will buy the full version, will I get a link with Aria Player and a sample library for Finale?

Once you purchase, there will be a new download in your User Account. Once you download and double-click on it, you'll see that it contains two Installers. You need to run both—some people ignore that second installer thinking it's redundant. The second one installs the latest version of Aria and the Garritan Instruments for Finale.

Thank you very much for your answers and recommendations. I will do anything as suggested. Note performer looks promising.
Best wishes

I have been struggling with no audio playback in Finale 27.  I reinstalled Finale 27 and installed both Aria and Garritan; I have reinstalled ARIA player, following an article I found, to no avail.  Why should this be so hard?  Any further tips?

Mac or Windows and what OS? If Windows, 32 bit or 64 and what audio drivers are you using? It makes a difference.

Mac OS 11.6.4 Big Sur.  I'm not sure what you mean about audio drivers.  I'm not using MIDI, I just want to listen through the standard audio units.  When I download Finale 27, I see the installation for Garritan instruments but not for ARIA player.  I downloaded that separately and followed instructions about where to drag it (Components folder) but it didnt work.

UPdate: Very un intuitive:  I highlighted "Play through MIDI" and although I'm not connected to a MIDI device, now it will play... 

You aren’t running Windows so 3rd party audio drivers shouldn’t make a difference—but that doesn’t mean they can’t if you’ve accidentally selected one for playback.

With a Mac, you can select an audio playback destination for Finale that is different than System Audio. This is the usual suspect especially when the User doesn’t know this. So, what audio do you have selected for playback? 

I just downloaded Finale 27 on a brand  NEW Mac Mini M1and I have similar  problems.  First the Virtual Instruments plug in cannot be found, then I download version 1.959 and the error message goes away, but now Garritan complains that is cannot find the "fire engine" and asks to re-install. Just in case I followed the alternative  instructions from makemusic https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217674648--The-requested-virtual-instrument-plugin-could-not-be-found-error-with-Garritan-Instruments-for-Finale and download the zip file version of the plug in, but that upsets Finale at start up because "the application has been downloaded from the net" (and the AU that is inside the zip is from 2015, while version 1.959 is from 2022, why on older version would work?)

This is frankly embarrassing, How can a clean installation have problems like this?  Let's see what Finale tech support says ...

Have you read this?

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054240594-Finale-Garritan-Compatibility-with-Apple-Silicon-M1- 

that links to this?

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4548377288599 

Have you rebooted?

Were there Apple Security messages that you ignored during installation?

In the mean time, remove 27 completely. 

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003352327-Uninstalling-Finale 

Reboot.

Download 27.2 and run both installers. The included Aria/GIFF 2.01 installer is required for it to run in Apple Silicon Native mode. Older versions of Aria require that Finale be run over Rosetta 2 on an M1 Mac.

Pay attention to Apple Security messages. From the above instructions:

1. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.

and grant Permissions as they are asked.

Reboot.

Many 3rd party plugins (including NotePerformer) will require that you run Finale over Rosetta 2. Until they are able to run AS Native, you must do so before they will run.

thank you, although this is just nuts... Finale lets you download V27, there are no warnings anywhere about possible problems, and then, after nothing works, you have to go through a list of seemingly required readings, uninstall by hand and start from scratch?... and hope that everything goes all right?

Anyway, I avoided the uninstall and downloaded the Aria Player v2001 and now it seems like things are working. Next is to get my Garritan Orchestra Sounds to work, one wonders where will the proper instructions will be!

I gave you the uninstall instructions because you installed an older version that does not perform in Native mode on an M1 Mac. 

then I download version 1.959

Good that you got it working. You don't say which Garritan sounds you have but, in one of the links I posted, it does say

•  

• Garritan ARIA Player v2.001

  • ...

  • All current Garritan libraries can be used natively on Apple silicon Macs with ARIA Player v2.001. 

And they do on my M1 including World Instruments, Harps and GPO 5. This might exclude GPO 4 and earlier—though I have that, I never installed it on my M1.

Anyway, now that Finale and Aria 2.001 are up and running, try reinstalling your Garritan Instruments and rebooting.

I did not install an older version. I installed what Finale provides when one navigates to the Mac download page.

Anyway, Garritan 4 does not seem to work with 27 (here is no clear indication if it  does or not but the installer fails) so I upgraded to 5 and it seems ok. Finale up an running on M1. Thanks for the help

There are two installers with a Finale download—the second reinstalls the latest ARIA engine. Both must be run during a Finale reinstall.