On 17.12.2005 Darcy James Argue wrote:
Johannes, your advice might make sense if you are only writing for a
small ensemble. However, because of the way Finale handles channels
for AU/VST instruments, if you are writing for more than 8
instruments, it is MUCH faster to use the Setup Wizard. Manually
configuring your GPO setup is tedious, time-consuming and introduces
the possibility of error (especially the error of accidentally
loading a non-"notation" instrument).
Even if you need to modify staff names or attributes after the fact,
that's still quite a bit faster than manually loading GPO
instruments, one at a time, for an entire orchestral score.
I am not so sure what is more time consuming (see below), however, my
main point is that the setup wizard in conjunction with GPO does not at
all work how it should work.
It is completely silly to have the choice of instruments be governed by
the limited choice of GPO sounds. The way it should work is exactly the
other way round: choose or define a part/instrument/staff, then choose a
sound. Finale should suggest a sound for you, at least for those
instruments it has got sounds for, but it should give unlimited freedom
in the instruments I may need. The wizard in conjunction with GPO is
simply badly designed.
There was no reason to do it this way.
I often have instrument lines like "Basso continuo" or the like, and
with the Smart Music Soft Synth thing I have set up my instruments.txt
file to provide those I commonly use. It would have been very easy to
link GPO sounds to instruments.txt. All it required was a text file with
the linking, which could then be easily edited, just like
instruments.txt. The way GPO works in the wizard is different. The staff
names are actually taken from the GPO sounds, so I now have English
instrument names, requiring me to change every single staff name
manually afterwards.
When the wizard was first introduced it was a great and flexible (if you
edited the file) way to set up a score. That is lost with the GPO
wizard. Personally I find it easier to set up my score the old way and
then manually load the sounds, especially since I then have better
choices with the full GPO to load exactly those instruments I want (ie
the correct violin) and setup the panning and volume as I want it at the
same time. That is certainly quicker for me then to use Finale's
decisions on everything and then change virtually all of them by hand.
Johannes
Johannes
--
http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
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