> >Sure, it would be great if the machines could read our minds or > >automatically, somehow, understand that the "flutes 1 and 2" part > >should be made into two individual pages, with the correct instrument > >label, all the "a2"s and "solo"s etc. intact, perfect cues, and so > >on. > > Yes it would. And if there were a true "part" feature in Finale, it could > work effortlessly. Like a staff, a part would follow through the score. > Something like "show selected part" would grey out everything else, and > might even reveal missing 1. and 2. and a2. indications. A part could > travel from layer to layer, staff to staff, and never be lost. > > I agree that we've already got great features, but in terms of things like > creating proper extracted parts *and* proper Midi demos, a true "part" > would work wonders! > > Dennis
Dennis, it sounds like we have very similar goals for what we want out of Finale. For me, the "part" feature is absolutely solved by the TGTools "Smart Explosion" and "Smart Distribution" features. The score is the way I want it (multi-part staves that sometimes split into multiple staves or even extra staves, like solo violin in a Violin I part), and extracting parts is reliable and requires little if any additional work (not including the usual time spent on parts to respace, add cues, do page turns, fix wrong-side articulations, etc.). As for MIDI, I find it comfortable to do a moderate amount of MIDI editing with Finale to controlling a base-level external box (Emu Virtuoso 2000). I use this mostly as a compositional tool, but sometimes it can produce a passable MIDI demo. For a higher quality MIDI demo, I can take the MIDI sequence into Sonar and spend not inconsiderable effort "properly" tweaking it for real samplers, etc. Eye of the beholder and all that. Don't get me wrong; although I'm used to Finale's MIDI implementation, it is arcane and caveman-like, and could use a thorough redesign (this would be #1 on my Finale wish list). But through work-arounds and add-ons, I am fairly pleased with my productivity level on Finale. -Lee _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
