> On Tuesday, July 16, 2002 12:43 PM, David H. Bailey > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >Finale is a music program -- not merely a word-processor for notation. > >Finale is a lot more like a full-fledged page-layout program than it is > >like Word in your analogy. Being deprived of being able to hear full, > >accurate playback of all notation is like a page layout program putting > >the word GRAPHIC inside a big box instead of letting you see the entire > >page with ALL its contents. > > Okay, in a full-fledged page layout program you can can place > graphics and do simple cropping and resizing. But if you want to > do some minute altering of the graphic, you use a program > designed for that use. So let's say that Finale midi is like a > graphic in PageMaker. Gee, Finale is a music program - why can't > it play my flute for me? > > > >Music is NOT just images on a page the way a magazine is. Music is > >about SOUND as well, and I for one don't see why people have such a hard > >time wanting to be able to HEAR the music from inside a music program as > >well as SEE it. > > We do get to hear it and I would not want Finale to have no midi > output. And I do use it for proof listening/reading to catch > pitch or rhythm errors that my eyes missed. But if you want > production quality midi use a full fledged sequencer - the right > tool for the job. > > > >But if you don't think any more money should be spent in developing midi > >in Finale, then why do you think it should be spent to get midi working > >under OSX? Why is YOUR midi wish valid and those of others > >less valid? > > > Because Finale in OSX (or running classic from within OSX) has > zero midi capabilities. And to me the real problem is not > playback (although, as I said basic playback is good and > necessary tool), but midi can't be used for input either. Speedy > entry from midi keyboard is a major input method, as is the > transcription tool. > > I'm certainly not advocating no midi in Finale. It is needed for > input and basic proofing. But if you want production/performance > quality midi, there are other tools for that job. After you > import the Finale midi data, you can tweak to your heart's > content. Finale is first and foremost a music notation program. > Or as Coda themselves put it, Finale: The Art Of Music Notation. > > Harold
I'm with David. Your view of how Finale should balance features and spend development time is not the same as mine. But I think what is most telling are the perceived (correctly or not) competitive disadvantages of Finale compared to its main rival, Sibelius. Those happen to be ease of use and MIDI playback. Coda has gone a long way toward improving ease of use. The MIDI implementation, though strong feature-wise, has major UI problems, and is arcane and awkward to use. Like it or not, this is a strong comparative selling point for Sibelius, and my guess is that Coda understands that they have some work to do in that area to gain market share. Personally, I would much rather they had spent time on that than creating multiple sets of icons that are too big and too hard to discern. To be fair, improving the MIDI user interface is several orders of magnitude more time consuming than creating some new eye candy, but the time is long overdue for a MIDI overhaul. -Lee _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
