At 06:55 AM 6/9/05 -0400, Christopher Smith wrote:
>
>On Jun 8, 2005, at 5:53 PM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
>
>> I need to take a lengthy section of mixed note values and rhythms, and
>> change all of them to the same (smaller) note value, filling out the 
>> note's
>> remaining value with rests. (Because of the variety of mixed values, 
>> it's
>> not as simple as making certain notes staccato, saving as Midi, and
>> reloading.)
>
>For a minute, I thought the Rhythmic Subdivisions plugin might help, 
>but no, because it doesn't add rests; it just changes the length of the 
>notes.

Yup. I was there. And also to other plugins that might have a secondary
feature.

>But why doesn't your trick of staccato, save as MIDI, re-load (perhaps 
>mixed with Retranscribe from Mass Edit with different quantize values, 
>applied to Partial Measures as necessary) work? That's what I would 
>try.

It does. But I can re-enter the entire score faster than adding bajillions
of articulations to some notes and not others, changing quantizations,
etc., etc. Plus I still have to deal with dotted rhythms that have to be
changed by hand.

I was hoping, if not a plugin, that maybe there was even a slightly
different entry mode with the latest Finale. We got Speedy Insert a few
versions ago, so I hoped we might have a new change/fill option (something
like: cursor over quarter note, hit '3' and watch it change to sixteenth
note + rests.)

Somewhat OT explanation: Pretty much as usual, I'm composing. I work a
piece out in my head, scribbling on a cheat-sheet of music paper to remind
me what to do at the computer. I circle bits & pieces in the notes with big
arrows and Post-It notes. Then I 'engrave' from mental image to screen,
where copy/paste/drag/drop/alter shortcuts are very handy. Overall, music
programs lack compositional tools, so I'm jumping around with Finale,
Sonar, Midimage, AMG, etc., for some help and using Midi as the transfer
format. For compositional tools, I'm not sure if Finale Script is the thing
to look at, but it sure would be great to be able to do scut-work things
like shorten+fill, split notes in multple pieces (such as turn a quarter
into eights or quintuplets), expand values and tupletize, one-step parallel
motion, explode respecting instrumental ranges, shift areas right without
changing note values, make the score a single measure (to avoid Finale's
measure orientation), etc., etc. The canonic utilities were really a
helpful addition. A good chunk of compositional labor is the busywork of
applying theoretically simple actions to paper.

Dennis


_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale

Reply via email to