Hi Tyler,
100% agreed.
Feature bloat has long been a problem in Finale. Most of their
streamlining choices over the years have been good ones (merging Note
Expressions and Staff Expressions into a single Expression tool,
replacing the Mass Mover tool with the Mass Edit tool, then merging
the Section Tool with Mass Edit, etc.) -- although as the article
Aaron linked observed, this kind of consolidation is extremely
difficult, as users get set in their ways.
That said, limiting users to four staff lists is a *terrible* idea. I
understand the impulse behind it, as it's much better to try to push
users towards drag-enclose expressions. (I still get sent a lot of
scores where all the dynamics are measure-attached, and they are
always a nightmare to fix, even with TGTools). But there are was to do
that that don't involve taking away staff lists.
Cheers,
- Darcy
-----
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brooklyn, NY
On 29 Jul 2008, at 12:26 AM, Tyler Turner wrote:
--- On Mon, 7/28/08, Robert Patterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
What augers worst for me in this attitude is the clear
Sibeliusation
trend. Sibelius always took knocks because it wasn't as
flexible as
Finale. When the Finn brothers were in charge Sib was
willfully
inflexible. Now MM seems to want to throw away their
competitive edge
with both hands and embrace the Finn brothers' ideas
about
flexibility.
Sibelius' lack of flexibility is really the thing that allowed it to
survive and make it in this market. Flexibility only works in
Finale's favor if the implementation always makes it clear what the
BEST method is in a given situation. And that is the single largest
problem Finale has faced all along. Finale's flexibility is really
only attractive to a fairly small (but important) percentage of its
users - for the rest, it has served as a stumbling block that makes
the program take longer to learn and slower to use. Inevitably,
people end up using less than ideal tools for completing their work
in Finale, and that goes for people of all experience levels. I've
never seen anyone who truly uses the best tool for the job in Finale
100% of the time. Sibelius isn't perfect that way, but having fewer
ways to accomplish most tasks has definitely helped them funnel
people into techniques that are often more effective than the ones
people stumble upon in Finale.
Sibelius' lack of flexibility (especially early on) may have given
it a slow start with engravers, but it was exactly the thing that
brought it success with college students and other new users that
join the market each year.
_______________________________________________
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
