>Is there a way to flatten long slurs easily? I know it's been discussed >here in the past, but I don't think a solution was given.
This has for many many years been one of my main complaints (and feature requests) for Finale. The problem is that Finale relies on a Bezier curve for all slurs. The Bezier equation is a powerful one and can achieve many shapes, but it can't match everything and one thing it simply can't do is have a long straight section in the middle while maintaining soft curves at the end. I'm only familiar with Finale. Does Sibelius or any other engraving program use anything other than Bezier curves for slurs? The solution, mathematically, is to add another variable to the equation which specifies a length of line segment to interpolate in the middle. The drawing routine would then not just draw a Bezier curve; rather, it would draw a Bezier curve, cut it in half at the midpoint, insert a line segment of length x centered at that midpoint with the same slope, and attach the two halves of the curve at either end. >From the user's point of view, this would involve little change. All slurs >currently possible would fit into this standard with a line segment value of >zero. A new handle or other input could be added to let users tweak this new >variable, but the others would still be in place. Users could play with the >new handle if they like, or they could ignore it. For most of us, we would >ignore it except when there's a long slur that looks ugly, in which case we'd >stretch out the middle until it looks good. This scheme, by the way, exactly parallels what engravers have traditionally done for generations. Slurs were drawn with a curve template, but when they are particularly long one would use the curve template at both ends and draw the middle part with a straight edge. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
