Dear Finalelist, I am happy to report that my situation from the summer resolved itself amicably, so thanks to everyone who gave me advice on that aspect. I have a new issue, different, but concerning, all the same. I'm working on engraving a piano sonata for someone who advertised through the Orchestralist that I contacted. Actually, they were looking to have it recorded, and when it was sent, I told him it needed engraving, first. This person seems to be a journeyman composer, and frequently isn't even sure of what he wants, so somewhere along the way he asked me to create MIDI files for him. I told him I would give them to him at no extra charge, but I wasn't responsible for how they sounded, as I wasn't being paid, nor is there enough time in the day, to worry about programming human-style playback as far as I'm concerned. I mean, it's a piano sonata, not an orchestral piece, and these were in preparation for someone making actual recordings. What has happened is he has latched onto the idea that the MIDI is this perfect demonstration of his music, so if anything sounds a little off to him (not note-wise, mind you, but tempo), he goes crazy and starts asking me to alter where things go. I told him, for instance, that a rit. is a rit. as far as Finale analyzes things, that it doesn't know poco and molto unless they're programmed, and, again, I ain't doin' it! So, in one movement, there are tremolos between two chords, and we know how the convention goes for how they are written; these particular ones fill big measures (12/4) bars), so there are lots of double whole notes. Finale looks at these and is literally playing one set of whole notes and then the other set of whole notes, and it doesn't know how to tremolo so it sounds pretty silly. I received this note concerning these bars:
It troubles me a little, however, to have the MIDI misreading your score so that it comes out sounding differently from what I meant. From my corres-pondence with other pianists, I get the impression that they like to rely on the MIDI to help them learn a piece faster. Thus, if the MIDI gives the wrong impression it could confuse them, or cause them to have to unlearn the slow tempo after they have learned it, which could waste a lot of time. Can you find a way to notate it so that the MIDI plays it right? Listening to it a few more times, I think the whole section with the tremolos (meas. 61 to 68) is slowed down to half the tempo I intended. Is there nothing can be done about this? I told him that this would be an issue, and he still isn't listening to me. I really can't believe that the pianists he picked are so stupid (yes, I said it) that they can't learn the music from looking at the score rather than relying on a computer-generated sound file. I'm at a loss to know how to respond; this is probably the fourth time he's told me the MIDI is right and I need to change something to make the MIDI better, that the MIDI is more accurate than I give it credit for, etc, etc. In this case there isn't a thing I can do for him; the convention is the convention. Let me iterate that these are in about four bars of music that is causing this major concern for him. Again, how stupid can these performers be? Count and figure it out! He's given metronome markings, so just play the blasted note values! I censored myself, there, if you hadn't noticed. I'm glad I had the chance to vent; anyone care to comment on this? I'm about to tell him to just forget it as this is taking way too much time for the way too little money I asked for to do this, anyway. Thanks in advance, as always! Michael Wittenburg _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
