God I'm glad I started this thread. Really - how about MakeMusic and Sibelius sitting down and discussing their future. I mean, they share most of the professional (and many less professional, no qualification intended) users wanting to notate musical scores.
Thinking about some file compatibility might help the daily work of both Sibelius and Finale users. In fact that would be the one point where both programs could profit both in quality and popularity. Everything else, alas, is competition and "pushing" features - a war we all know from cars to TVs to cell phones to microwaves to software to operating systems to ourselves... Competition is a concept that works fine for evolution - but when it comes to quality and specification, it does not always work. Imagine this fox with the antlers and the "new" "cool" wasp sting in the newest and hottest "porcupine" version - Does he really need it? Do we need it? What do we need? A means to an end - A version of Finale that works reliably, giving us the best results with only basic inputs, which is open to to be opened by similar software on any operating system. Minimal input, maximum quality output, be it PDF, Sibelius, printing, Midi... I wish our list could be strong enough to DEMAND this. Kurt > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- > Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im > Auftrag von David W. Fenton > Gesendet: Samstag, 22. September 2007 23:41 > An: finale@shsu.edu > Betreff: Re: [Finale] Converting from Sibelius to Finale > > On 22 Sep 2007 at 4:26, dhbailey wrote: > > > The only way that files will ever be truly convertible with complete > > perfection and complete transparency in the process will be when the > two > > companies sit down and agree on a file format that both will use. We > > know that will never happen. > > That's not a true statement (the first one, not the second one) -- > there are plenty of file formats for which there is perfect > conversion between them. True, most of them convey data that is not > as complicated as music notation, but, nonetheless, it is possible. > > The key is that the converter has to understand the native methods > for each part of the conversion. If Sibelius has a native figured > bass capability, then the converter needs to take Finale figured bass > and convert it to that. The problem with Finale is that there are > multiple ways to implement figured bass (expressions, articulations, > lyrics, chords), and there's no way an converter could figure out > which is the right way. That is, you'd have to tell the converter > "the lyrics in verse 4 are figured bass, so encode them accordingly." > > As long as the same things are supported on both sides, then it > should convert. > > Kim's example of + trills is a good one. A really great converter > would ask "what does that mean?" and then convert it accordingly. Of > course, I don't see why Sibelius can't just use a custom articulation > (whatever they call it), but apparently that's not the way Sibelius > works (?). The key thing is that *Finale* doesn't know what the + > trill means, so there's really no way for a converter to know. > Sibelius is more restrictive in how it handles text and > articulations, and because of that, it's easier for a converter to > know what to do with it. > > But it's all theoretically possible, though David B. is probably > correct that perfect conversion is probably a goal that will never be > reached. But all that's needed is about 99% (anything less than that > is an awful lot of work), not 100%. It could easily take 99% of the > work on a converter to get that last 100%, and that means it's > probably never going to happen (unless some crazy person starts > working on the converter!). > > -- > David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com > David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
