Robert makes a really good point below. I'd add (in reference to an earlier post from a member who received a file with expressions added as text blocks) that when I compared Finale and Sibelius for my book, I sent a preprint to both Coda and Sibelius. A Sibelius representative (actually the owner of an engraving shop who was asked by Sibelius to critique the review) mentioned that he believed one of the advantages of Sibelius in a shop employing several engravers is that it is almost impossible to do most things in non-standard ways, which saved a lot of time over Finale, where almost everyone finds their own workarounds.
While I'll concede that he had an interesting point (the text blocks above being a good example), the fact that Finale allows so many things to be done in ways that suit the user is a positive point in its favor from my perspective. It is undeniable that Finale has a longer learning curve than Sibelius, but once you learn it, I find it is usually faster to work in. Steve Powell DVM Publications www.dvmpublications.com _______________________ > > On Sat, 22 June 2002, "Michael Edwards" wrote >> I've heard comments from various people >> which seem to indicate that Finale is not easy to use; > > We should draw a distinction here between easy to use and easy to learn. I am > not qualified to comment on either Igor or Sibelius, but I will say that using > late versions of Finale, combined with various 3rd-party plugins, I have > achieved a productivity level that I can't imagine being much faster. However, > the learning curve to this point was long. > > The questions you should answer for yourself are: > > 1. How exacting are your notational requirements? > 2. How much time will you be spending with the program? > > If your notational requirements are exacting and you will be spending a great > deal of time with it, then assaying a learning curve is probably worth it, and > Finale would seem to be the clear choice. If you are investing a lot of time > into the program, the initial struggle to learn has a payoff in high quality > results and increased productivity on the back side. > > Contrariwise, if your notational requirements are light or if you won't be > spending much time with it, then perhaps the learning curve is not worth it. > In > this case, another program may make sense. > > The main point to take away from this is that just because a program is easier > to learn on the front end does not mean it will be the easiest or most > productive program in the longer term after you've learned it. > > -- > Robert Patterson > > http://RobertGPatterson.com > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
