How to legato string sounds in Finale

hi Corrado, did you activate the Human Playback? It's that plugin that deals with making the articulations and dynamics in the end (at least a little) more realistic... if you open the MIDI/Audio menu there is an entry called exactly Human Playback, where you have a drop-down menu where you choose the style of your piece...

Phrase slur or value slur?

It seems to me I am reading that you are interested in the value, how do you create it?

Tiger, I don't think it's a matter of value slurs, which are nothing more than an extension of durations... I think the op is talking about obtaining the right bow strokes that give meaning to the phrasing, legato/staccato/tenuto etc.

Exactly Crisantemi, that's exactly what I'm referring to; I would like to be able to determine the slurs in the phrasing and have a consequent playback result. I confirm that I have activated human playback. I suspect that the potential possibility of having a filter for a realistic legato is related to the Preferences function specifically of the human playback, but I have never had the chance to work with it and don't know how to use it. I know that there are codes, for example, for pizzicato or for détaché, but I have no idea how to activate them at one point or another in the score. In effect, if I want a pizzicato, I insert the "pizz." symbol from the Articulation Tool and the playback reads the instruction and changes timbre because it contains a specific code that activates the relevant filter. Perhaps I should edit a new slur symbol, assignable to the potential code for a legato slur (if one exists), and insert it on the notes I want to slur...

mmm... I fear that the lack of a good legato is a limitation of the library, if not of all string sample libraries... the legato does nothing more than join the end of the previous note with the beginning of the next one, but in fact, the sample used belongs to two different bow strokes. Probably an unsolvable problem... if you have the full version of Kontakt, you can do something by activating specific scripts (SIPS) which, even if not perfect, improve the legato effect.

No, I don't have Kontakt. I took an exam using another program, Pro Logic, a twenty-hour course in which I realized that the application has immense possibilities, but certainly not ones that I could master within the course itself. Maybe by exporting an XML file from Finale and working on it with Pro Logic, who knows. Furthermore, I must say that my need is not to create a perfectly realistic audio file, but only to be able to give an idea of the impact of the piece, which is intended to be performed live by flesh and blood performers.

However, I was strongly intrigued by that friend of mine who uses Sibelius, has abandoned Finale, and says that it can be done there.

I haven't quite framed the problem yet, it really seems to me that Finale even makes the phrasing/slurs audible. Do you use Garritan?

Hi Frank, since I installed Finale 2014 I haven't been able to load the Garritan for Finale sound library anymore. If I go to Audio Units Banks & Effects I only see instruments for Finale 2009, Aria Player, Kontakt Player2, Smart Music Soft Synt, DLS Music Device, Midi Sinth, AUSampler and until recently if I tried to select Aria Player it would freeze and close on its own. Now, inexplicably, I can at least use those, which by the way are also from the Garritan family I believe. In the applications folder I have the Garritan for Finale folder but it doesn't load for me. To tell the truth, the Garritan Aria Player and Garritan for Finale folders are both in the Applications folder, but outside the Finale 2014 folder, where there is only the application file itself of 193 MB. Should I try to put them inside its folder? Besides, it sees Garritan Aria Player even if it's outside and makes it available to me as a library. Are the "real" Garritan sounds that I should be using Garritan for Finale? Should I try to load it somehow? (it's not that I'm an expert in IT aspects)

(I had old versions of Finale, 2008, 2009, 2011 and I moved them from the computer to an external hard drive that I use for periodic backups, along with two residual folders "Garritan instruments for Finale" and "Garritan Instruments for Finale 2009". Could this perhaps cause some conflict? It is a hard drive that always stays on and is connected to the iMac when I turn it on. Or did I not complete the loading of the Garritan for Finale library when I installed the 2014 version? Well... you can't know everything in life...)

The way I solved the problem (with Finale's VST management being limited and not always reliable) is to use Finale as MIDI and, through virtual MIDI cables, have it play VSTis loaded in a solid and reliable host like Cantabile. Among other things, with the advantage that this way I can quickly switch from one score to another and the sounds are always there ready to play. And if Finale crashes, I don't have to reload the sounds... just restart Finale. However, I am on Windows, and it seems to me that you use Mac

Yes, I have an iMac without a sound card; in effect, I essentially use it as notation software and for convenience, I listen to things in playback without worrying too much about acoustic fidelity. I write atonal music, but occasionally on commission, I also use other linguistic codes and styles, and in this case, I have to let a person who needs to approve a project hear a piece of the string orchestra genre, and I would have liked to give the audio file a greater semblance of realism. Just yesterday, I heard incredible things being done with the applications used for Hollywood soundtracks, working on every aspect of the waveform of every sound—stuff that makes you jump in your seat. Then I re-listened to my file, with all those impulses at the beginning of every note, where you can really hear the draw of the bow marking the start of every sound as if they were all played from the heel, only slightly mitigated if I add an expression slur, and it made me feel a bit melancholy. But it doesn't matter, after all, the destination of the piece, if it is performed, is to be played live. I hope for the imaginative capacity of the person who will listen to it; after all, with human playback, there is still a bit of color, though clearly to the ear of an experienced musician, it remains a surrogate, especially because it was put together by someone like me who doesn't know much about MIDI. Thank you all in the meantime for your attention and availability.

if you are not in a huge rush I can do it for you, send me the score...

I thank you Crisantemi, but I have the meeting tomorrow morning; the damage is already done. I really appreciate your very kind availability.

The truth is that the score is one thing and the audio is something else entirely. If you want to give your scores a semblance of realism, it's better to create the audio in a DAW, like Cubase, Logic, etc.; Finale is not a DAW, it is a music notation program, and wasting time and health in Finale to improve the resulting audio (especially with Garritan, which is a crappy library...) would be like trying to refine the nose of the Venus de Milo with a blast from a machine gun; I hope the comparison gets the idea across. Maybe tinkering with Garritan is fine for practicing on controllers, MIDI channels, etc., but as Simone used to say, if you want to make meatballs, you have to provide the meat; if you only add bread, they will never be meatballs.....