# Finale with sample libraries and key switches



## Composer 2021 (Feb 15, 2022)

I decided to do something crazy: Persist in trying to compose in Finale using my third party libraries. I know it's the most unrecommended thing in the world. But every alternative to Finale that I've tried just isn't doing it for me in terms of being able to get stuff done.

I know Kontakt libraries work. However, I'm not sure that other players can support enough instances to reach a full orchestra (like BBCSO). AFAIK, you have to stack Kontakt instances with multiple patches because there are only 8 instrument slots and each one takes up 16 banks. Does the Spitfire plugin let you have multiple patches at once?

If anyone has any tips for this, or human playback files (Finale's expression maps) for you libraries, post them here.


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## dtoub (Feb 21, 2022)

I've been readily able to use both Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 and NotePerformer 3.x with Finale for any number of instruments; I'm not aware of any limits. I have several works for string orchestra (with multiple voices/divisions) that play just fine, especially with NotePerformer. I don't write for full orchestra; haven't since I was a composition student before 1979. But you certainly should be able to use any number of staves and instruments.


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## Composer 2021 (Feb 21, 2022)

Number of staves certainly is not an issue. The issue is that Finale appears to have a hard-ish limit on how many plugins can be used at a time.


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## benwiggy (Feb 22, 2022)

It's beyond hard-ish. Finale has 8 'banks' for VST/AU plug-ins.







Some plug-ins can hold multiple 'sample instruments' on multiple MIDI channels, but others, like BBCSO, only hold one sample instrument, and so you need one plug-in for each stave.

You can argue that the plug-ins ought to be multi-channel, but I imagine there are reasons for not doing so.

Coding an arbitrary maximum limit always ends in trouble, as it inevitably become insufficient as time marches on.


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## wcreed51 (Feb 22, 2022)

In ancient times where MIDI was all hardware, 8 was the maximum number of MIDI ports available on an interface. Finale never moved past that limit.

The best solution here is to use Vienna Ensemble Pro (yes, $$$) to host plugins outside of Finale. Then you can get 16 instruments per port, just as you can with Kontakt.


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## dtoub (Feb 22, 2022)

But at least for the Aria player, each bank has 16 slots.








I can load a bunch of audio plugins in each bank. That would give me the full 8x16 or 128 possibilities.


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## Composer 2021 (Feb 22, 2022)

Looks like the idea of using BBCSO on Finale is toast, and I would have to only use Kontakt libraries instead.


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