At 8:44 AM -0500 9/24/02, SCOTT GREEN wrote: >Question for Mr. Smith and the list:
Please, call me Christopher. Mr. Smith is my father. 8-) ><snip> Same for "voices", I learned here >on the list never to touch them, and to use layers instead, even >though it is one of the first topics in the tutorials.</snip> > >But this snip from a very recent post has me scratching my head again. > >I transcribe/arrange/compose for church choral use a fair amount, >and in doing SATB 2-staff notation, there are definitely some times >when the flexibility afforded by voices/layers is required. May I >ask why there seems to be such a prejudice in the list for layers >over voices? Probably due to my lack of skill and experience with >them, I find layers to be difficult to use, mostly because they >introduce extraneous rests into the combined staff parts. > >Sorry to drag up again what must be a well-worn subject for much >more experienced Finale sages. Not well-worn enough. 8-) Layers are more predictable (to me, anyway), even if it means an occasional extraneous rest, which is easily hideable with one stroke of the "O" (oh, not zero) key, or I can drag it down to position with the mouse. Voices are more difficult to edit, and though I was a newbie when I started futzing around with them, the layers worked with a lot less head-scratching and frustration. I could set things to work consistently for the layers, which I never figured out about voices (like vertically offset rests, shortened stems, flipped ties, and the like) and it was easier to remember how to edit these things if I didn't like the defaults I had set. For choral short scores (more so than piano parts) layers are particularly efficient for me, since I can keep the alto stems always down, and the soprano stems always up. Piano parts are a little more finicky, but hiding elements I don't need is very easy. One big advantage of voices, however, is that accidentals are automatically offset correctly when two or more occur between voices on the same beat, but they aren't when they occur between layers, necessitating invoking the Special Tool, which I hate. Actually this advantage alone makes me reconsider my system for piano parts, as it is probably quicker to enter independent inner parts as voices where I don't have to go back and adjust all the accidentals. I'll probably keep layers for choral parts and for two instruments on the same staff in scores, though. If you understand how voices behave well enough to be efficient, then I certainly don't advocate changing to layers. I just found voices harder and slower than layers in my work. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
