Thanks, Jari. Please see my responses inserted below. Generally, please remember that lots of information has to be crowded onto a single page for marketing purposes simply because ChordSymbol 2 contains lots of stuff. When I have time I'll provide more contextual samples of what's in the font package, including real lead sheets, figured bass in an actual score, and chordal analyses of music from the literature. Those will be posted at our web site soon after JazzSymbol is released in March. Best, jrc
Dr. John R. Clevenger, Manager The Virtual Conservatory 50 S. Patterson Ave., #203 Santa Barbara, CA 93111 Phone and fax: (805) 964-7988 (for fax, ignore answering machine) Email: _jclev...@aol.com_ (mailto:jclev...@aol.com) Web site: _www.virtualconservatory.com_ (http://www.virtualconservatory.com/) In a message dated 1/9/2010 10:00:32 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, finale-requ...@shsu.edu writes: You're talking about something like 2000 symbols, how do you access all those "in one click"? In Finale's Chord Tool, entry is palette-based (one click). This is also done in other applications using such as the Mac Character Palette. If as MakeMusic brings Finale into the Unicode age they are willing to coordinate the design of their chord entry mechanism with my fonts, chord symbol input will be vastly easier and faster than has ever been possible in any application, including Sibelius right now. By the way, I formatted 2000 pages of musical examples and scores in Finale as part of our development effort for our print-digital music theory text, Understanding Tonal Music, and its accompanying Anthology of Tonal Music, so I'd be delighted to work with MakeMusic in coordinating my fonts with Finale, if they so choose. Otherwise I may end up switching to Sibelius, taking tens of thousands of music students along with me eventually. Also, I have some questions regarding the flyer for ChordSymbol 2: http://www.virtualconservatory.com/ChordSymbol_2_Flyer_090509.pdf * Why don't the figure bass examples use line spacing? I'm not sure what you mean here, beyond the general need to pack lots of stuff onto one sheet. But one related point is that ChordSymbol actually consists of two fonts, CSTwo (which has two rows of figures but narrower line-spacing for use in text documents, a unique feature of my fonts--what used to be called CSTimes, much loved by music theorists and musicologists) and CSThree (which has three rows of figures and wider line-spacing, disruptive in text documents). Importantly, the two fonts map the same, such that you may globally change from CSThree to CSTwo if you realize you didn't need that third row of figures in a text document after all. * In the roman numeral and Schenkerian analysis examples, why do the horizontal brackets collide with the parenthesis? They don't overlap, but they do meet. If that bothers users, I can add a little space there for ChordSymbol 3, though at the expense of slightly wider line-spacing. But the main point is that ChordSymbol provides such horizontal connecting elements in the first place. That would normally require a graphics program and is handy to have available just within a font when you're preparing analytical papers or homework assignments. * It seems that the many chords seems strangely kerned and aligned/spaced, like the "Bbm7/Eb", the "F#/C" and "G11(OMIT9)". Are these chord samples a good representation of the general kerning and spacing of the font? The Eb preceded by a slash is an alternate bass, intentionally aligned below the baseline as in other jazz fonts. The F# over C is a compound chord done on two lines with CSTwo; one could left align the F and the C if one prefers. I don't see anything wrong with the G11(OMIT9), but I welcome specific criticisms on such details as center-aligned versus left-aligned figures, the fact that with these OMIT or ADD indications the numerals are set larger than the letters, and so on. All such details that really prove objectionable can be rectified in later versions of ChordSymbol, and in fact in the initial version of JazzSymbol, since I will rebuild that font from scratch. Jari, I sent you the PDF of the commercial range from ChordSymbol, and I welcome your input on what exactly you'd like to see adjusted in JazzSymbol. The pickier the better, as that will also drive improvements for later versions of ChordSymbol. I'll also be happy to send along initial prototypes from JazzSymbol, if you'd like to see those. * Is the product name ("ChordSymbol2") with the "2" as superscript or not? Is it space between the "2" or not? For my mostly music theorist users of ChordSymbol 1, that superscript was intended to show graphically the difference between that old TrueType font (256 characters) and the new Unicode font (2200+ characters): "ChordSymbol squared," as it were. But yes, the 2 refers to the version number and is usually written normally, as ChordSymbol 2. This is a product related to typography, so I would expect all those kind of things to be logical and consistent. And to market a serif font by using a very similar font for the text information seems strange to me. Also, the general overuse of fonts, font styles, alignment changes in the flyer make me stay away from the font itself. Except for our logo, the entire flyer was created using CSTwo and CSThree, both of which also contain complete alphanumeric characters, including diacritical accents. I bet you couldn't tell the difference between that and Times New Roman--which means that FontLab has really good kerning controls allowing a detail-oriented music theorist like me to create a generally nice-looking font. As I often tend to do myself, though, you're sort of missing the forest for the trees here, as there's a lot of good stuff, such as the slashed figures and hundreds of prebuilt figure combinations and jazz chord suffixes enabling that helpful one-click entry, as well as customizable graphic elements like comment boxes and matching horizontal brackets, ties, and even an extensible Schenker slur. And although some basic decisions (such as center-aligned figures) could be questioned and ultimately changed, if need be, the design of the font is totally logical and consistent. For example, all alignments within the font are precise to 1/2048th of an em. And with 2200 glyphs, some combining 12 or even more different characters, that took some doing, believe me. In sum, this is an exceedingly intricate font resource, but one that can and will be further perfected through thoughtful input like yours. All such input is entirely welcome, as it will help me get it totally right. Incidentally, the PDF creator I used left some imperfections beyond what you cite; we'll fix that when we have a chance, as we will any remaining imperfections in the font package itself. Best regards, Jari Williamsson Thanks again. For those wishing to delve into the nitty-gritty, I'll be happy to send the ChordSymbol Jazz Range PDF to you, and we can correspond privately on matters of detail as I work toward making JazzSymbol the best it can possibly be. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
