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Mac System requirements

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Pyro_329930000 2024-08-02 20:54:14
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  • Pyro_329930000
    Joined: Jul 2024
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    Location: Canada
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    2024-08-02 20:54:14
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    Hello, I am very new to Finale and just doing this as a hobby. trying to get this working on my macbook air.

     

    I have it running via parallels. It runs but is a bit choppy on default settings. I can change the render settings to get it to be fairly smooth but I give up a lot of resolution in doing so.

     

    Just curious if anyone has any luck running Finale 3D on mac laptops? If so, what hardware stats do you have?

     

    May look at upgrading sooner than later.  An air would be ideal but interested to hear about pros as well.

     

    Thanks, Jamie

    Dirk Enders – PyroOffice
    Joined: Nov 2018
    Posts: 48
    Location: Frankfurt / Germany
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    2024-08-03 16:47:19
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    Hi Jamie,

     

    i think it depends on which macbook air you are running – an M1, M2, M3 or even an older Intel besed one ?
    I peronally run Finale on an M1 Pro with 16GB of RAM . The speed is good enought to script small to mid size shows (like Pyrojam) without a lot of 3d Models.

    For me this is enough because most of the time i do support issues with addressing and racks so i am fine with this excellent computer ! Because i also do some Finale videos this is he richt laptop for me because you never heard the fans 😉
    But i will switch to a M4 Pro as soon as it is available to be prepared for the future.

    A lot of my customers ask me if a mac is a good choice for finale. It is hard to give. a general answer here because it really depends on the shows you are scripting.

     

    I thougt we should share a kind of demo show and users should answer how much time their pc or laptop need to render this show. So we got a first impression about the finale speed of a computer .

    Dirk

    Pyro_329930000
    Joined: Jul 2024
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    Location: Canada
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    2024-08-05 14:34:38
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    Thanks for the answer, I am currently on a M1 air with 16gb of ram. at this stage I am doing pretty basic designs and definitely nothing larger than pyrojam.

    PyroScott
    Joined: Sep 2019
    Posts: 8
    Location: Cerritos, California, United States
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    2024-10-25 04:55:35
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    Good evening.

    I currently have  a 2017 MB pro that I run Finale 3D on.  When I was deciding on using a virtual machine program to run the Windows program on I was given a little bit of advice.  Since Finale 3D using a lot of processing power from the computer it was better to run Bootcamp on the laptop. That is an apple program that you partition your hard drive and then it runs windows on your same hard drive.  When using Bootcamp you get all of the performance of the Mac computer.  When on a VM you are using a lot of the computers processing power on that.

    I hope that helps.

    Dirk Enders – PyroOffice
    Joined: Nov 2018
    Posts: 48
    Location: Frankfurt / Germany
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    2024-10-25 05:33:19
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    Hi PyroScott,

     

    Bootcamp is a very good option for Itel based macs. But since Apple switched to the ARM silicion with the M series processors on this computer Parallels (or other virtual machines like VMWare) is the only option. Depending on the price i will buy an M4 next week and will make a video abou a speed comparision about M1 Pro and M4 (pro) running with Finale on Parallels.

     

    Dirk

    Pyro_Gweedo
    Joined: Dec 2022
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    Location: Everett, Washington, United States
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    2024-11-02 00:32:28
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    Is there a step by step guide to setting up Finale 3D on a parallels Apple air M2 laptop? I loaded parallels and Windows 11. Then downloaded Finale 3D via windows and got a lot of errors and now Finale does not work. Please send a guide. I think Finale is not reaching all the files from the download. Is there a particular place to put the Finale load file rather than launch from the download file location?

    Dirk Enders – PyroOffice
    Joined: Nov 2018
    Posts: 48
    Location: Frankfurt / Germany
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    2024-11-02 12:29:14
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    Hi Pyro_Gweedo,

     

    you cyn download Finale also via Mac. There is a shared folder for downloads that is accessable from Mac and windows. I do it always thsi way and never had an issue.

     

    Dirk

    DrewFinale
    Joined: Dec 2019
    Posts: 629
    Location: United States
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    2024-11-02 20:49:21
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    Pyro_Gweedo wrote:

    Is there a step by step guide to setting up Finale 3D on a parallels Apple air M2 laptop? I loaded parallels and Windows 11. Then downloaded Finale 3D via windows and got a lot of errors and now Finale does not work. Please send a guide. I think Finale is not reaching all the files from the download. Is there a particular place to put the Finale load file rather than launch from the download file location?

     

    Hi Pyro_Gweedo, it sounds like you may be missing some Windows components that Finale 3D requires. If you can provide screenshots of the specific errors you’re seeing, we should be able to give you step by step instructions to resolve the issue.

    Pyro_Gweedo
    Joined: Dec 2022
    Posts: 10
    Location: Everett, Washington, United States
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    2024-11-03 17:17:11
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    Thanks Drew!

    The entire issue was that I had to sign into my MS account in order to even see the system file/activation.
    I also found that unless I put exe files in with the MS file system files it would not work, ie, can’t just run /open the exe files from the download file location.
    all kinda obvious now 🙂

    AviatorRuss
    Joined: Feb 2025
    Posts: 7
    Location: Alexandria, Virginia, United States
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    2025-03-11 02:05:20
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    Just adding my experience with a 2021 M1 Pro, 16GB RAM on Parallels 20 PRO, running Finale3D. I think I read somewhere on Parallels…that the PRO version initially allocates 8GB RAM to the Virtual Machine. This is changeable in Parallels PRO version, but NOT the basic version.

     

    I noticed zero issues with about 10min of music and maybe 30ish effects and about 250 cues. So that matches Dirk’s description above.

     

    But now I’m at 18min of music, 65 effects, and about 550 cues, and the rendering is definitely having issues. If I start the show, it’ll play fine until it gets to a big “hit” where multiple slices, comets, mortars are going off…and the visualization will just freeze. The music continues to play, but the rendering freezes. Then, after it coughs (.5sec to a couple seconds), the rendering immediately catches the music and works until the next big hit. Pretty unscientific data here…so take with a grain of salt.

     

    BL: an M4 PRO w/ 64GB RAM is on the wish list…but this M1 PRO will get me through this years 4th of July show.

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