GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => Composing and Performing => Topic started by: (poco) Sforzando on December 26, 2016, 01:14:43 PM

Title: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on December 26, 2016, 01:14:43 PM
To the collective wisdom:

To avoid problems with using copyright recordings, I want to input several passages from Beethoven's Kreutzer sonata using simple or speedy entry, and then export to a WAV for playback. I have three problems:

1. The violin sound provided with Finale sounds like crap - weak and tinny. Is there a way for me to get a more realistically-sampled violin sound?
2. If I'm using Finale's violin, for it to be audible I have to boost the dynamic way higher than the piano - fff for the violin to mf for the piano. Any ideas on how to handle the dynamics better?
3. I want pizzicato sounds for the playback, but don't know how to get them.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: TheGSMoeller on December 26, 2016, 01:24:47 PM
Good afternoon,

I use Garritan Personal Orchestra with my Finale. I find the sounds of the instruments to be more on par with the real deal than the default Finale sounds. Although even with the GPO sounds there are still some minor issues that require me to adjust dynamics based purely on the balance of the output, not always how I initially want the composition to sound. For example, I've had to put a Clarinet at mp on the score just to avoid it drowning out all the other instruments at ff.
And the GPO has pizzicato strings, which aren't too bad.

Hope that helps!
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: TheGSMoeller on December 26, 2016, 01:32:20 PM
Quote from: sanantonio on December 26, 2016, 01:30:36 PM

#2. You can also boost the volume by accessing the Aria Player's mixer.  I use a later version of Finale, but the aria player should be basically the same. 


Good point, SA, I forgot to mention the Aria Player, which I could probably get more familiar with myself.
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on December 26, 2016, 01:49:30 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on December 26, 2016, 01:32:20 PM
Good point, SA, I forgot to mention the Aria Player, which I could probably get more familiar with myself.

Thanks to you both. But do I have to buy both of these products to get just one sound sample? Are there no independent violin sounds I could get?
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: TheGSMoeller on December 26, 2016, 03:17:24 PM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on December 26, 2016, 01:49:30 PM
Thanks to you both. But do I have to buy both of these products to get just one sound sample? Are there no independent violin sounds I could get?

Not sure about individual sounds, but Garritan has a variety of different sound bank packages, it's worth checking them out for sure.

https://www.garritan.com/products/
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: amw on December 29, 2016, 07:01:57 PM
You could also just use a CC-licenced recording of the Kreutzer Sonata. For example there are two of them on this page (http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Sonata_No.9,_Op.47_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van)). Unmodified audio clips don't count as making an adaptation, so long as they aren't being synced to a moving image, but you probably would want to use the Share-Alike recording instead of the Non-Commercial one if you're going to be using the clips for a commercial purpose.
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on December 30, 2016, 07:43:28 AM
Quote from: amw on December 29, 2016, 07:01:57 PM
You could also just use a CC-licenced recording of the Kreutzer Sonata. For example there are two of them on this page (http://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Sonata_No.9,_Op.47_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van)). Unmodified audio clips don't count as making an adaptation, so long as they aren't being synced to a moving image, but you probably would want to use the Share-Alike recording instead of the Non-Commercial one if you're going to be using the clips for a commercial purpose.

Thanks. This may be a more productive approach and sounds like it could save me a lot of work. But let me ask the question from the other way around, i.e., not the technique to use but my purpose in needing these recordings. I am producing in early March a play I have written (see my other thread on this board for details), and will need several small sound files: a couple of Chopin etudes, a bit from LvB op. 109, and a few passages from the Kreutzer. I am finding Finale to work fine for the solo music, and the piano sound is acceptable. The actors are not expected to actually play their instruments, but should be able to simulate playing them.

The Kreutzer is more difficult than the solo piano, both for getting an adequate violin sound with pizzicato and for notating the more intricate passagework from the slow movement. Triplets, grace notes, and trills in Finale especially are a bear. (I could of course augment all the rhythms, using 8ths for B's 16ths, 16ths for his 32rds, etc.) I'm not playing the sonata complete, just 4-5 passages of 30-60 seconds each. I will save the passages as WAVs and play them through the theater's sound system as needed.

The theater will be selling tickets at $20 each, so perhaps this qualifies as commercial. But now that you know my purpose, can I use any of your proposed ideas?
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: amw on December 30, 2016, 05:37:42 PM
Sounds like for that you couldn't use any audio released under the "non-commercial" or "no derivatives" licences, as it's being used for a commercial enterprise (a paid performance) and the audio clips are being synchronised with stage action (synchronisation of audio to a moving image or a play counts as an adaptation). That said, any audio that's not nc or nd licensed should be fine.

Another option might be to search for public domain audio, on sites like archive.org, but that's riskier as some material that gets tagged as public domain actually.... isn't. (I did a search just now and found a performance by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin, which I'm 98% sure is still in copyright seeing as it has been much less than 70 years since either of them died.)
Title: Re: Another Finale issue (playback with violin sounds)
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on December 30, 2016, 06:45:06 PM
Quote from: amw on December 30, 2016, 05:37:42 PM
Sounds like for that you couldn't use any audio released under the "non-commercial" or "no derivatives" licences, as it's being used for a commercial enterprise (a paid performance) and the audio clips are being synchronised with stage action (synchronisation of audio to a moving image or a play counts as an adaptation). That said, any audio that's not nc or nd licensed should be fine.

Another option might be to search for public domain audio, on sites like archive.org, but that's riskier as some material that gets tagged as public domain actually.... isn't. (I did a search just now and found a performance by David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin, which I'm 98% sure is still in copyright seeing as it has been much less than 70 years since either of them died.)

Sounds like I may have to stick to my plan of notating through Finale. I wouldn't want "historical" recordings with lots of surface noise and outdated sound.