Since playback issues and VST/AU seem to go hand in hand, I decided to just write up a quick post detailing one way to eliminate extraneous memory waste.

The Kontakt Player 2 is a memory hog. Had to be said.

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Let’s say that even after the below steps, Finale still crashes after you start playback or enter a few notes.  What could the problem  be? Continued

Realtek has recent driver/audio codecs updates for their soundcards. These were updated around 10/9/2007.Being one of the worlds largest, low-end, sound card manufacturer’s, this could create a playback issue for many Finale users.The new driver number is 5.10.0.5559 for XP, and 6.0.1.5559 for Vista.You can check your driver version by using your device manager(here is an article about the Device Manager from Microsoft),don’t let the device manager search the web for the driver as it will rarely find the correct file,by accessing the Realtek HD Audio Manager that may be installed on your machine or by running a DXdiag (system profile) of your machine.Realtek has a README file that is available along with the driver download.It contains the detailed instructions for downloading, uninstalling and reinstalling the newest driver.Here are the links:Realtek Site: Realtek AC 97:Realtek HD:Remember - Finale will only perform as well as your machine will allow.

Ever been using Finale’s “SmartMusic SoftSynth” (Midi) sounds and wished that you could just have some different sounds? Well - you can. And you can use them when you create the Audio Files from Finale. As long as they are in sf2 format you can certainly use these sounds.Here’s how: Continued

Finale is the worlds leading general music notation program. With that being said, what it is not is the world’s leading audio creation or editing program. There are many out there that become frustrated with Finale out of their own expectations for the program, expectations that are often times out of the true scope of the software. Finale has a playback feature - that’s right, FEATURE. Though there have been marked improvements made to this feature within the last three years, if you are looking to create great audio of your compositions or arrangements, Finale just can’t do it alone.

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