Re: Long slurs -- Re: [Finale] Finale's output quality

[Mark D Lew]

On Jul 24, 2005, at 9:43 PM, John Howell wrote:

Keeping in mind that there was an awful lot that Mosaic couldn't and 
still can't do, and that MOTU has stopped development, they had this 
feature from the very beginning.  Every slur has not 3 but 4 
adjustment points and is almost infinitely adjustable.  I also 
discovered that you could grab the slur at any point to adjust it, not 
just on those 4 points.  Just like linked scores and parts, these were 
in the program at least as early as 1992.  Were Mosaic's programmers 
smarter than Finale's or were they just pursuing different goals?  Or 
maybe working with better consulting musicians at that time?


Dunno.  It's not like there's anything high-tech about adding a factor 
that extends the middle of a slur.  It's a bit of math, but that's 
elementary for the computer, whether today or 10 years ago or even 20 
years ago.


I think the Bezier curves are extremely powerful for such a 
straightforward equation, but it really needs that option to stretch it 
in the middle.  Do that, and you'll have everything you need for 
professional looking slurs, I think.


mdl

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Re: Long slurs -- Re: [Finale] Finale's output quality

[John Howell]

At 4:34 PM -0700 7/24/05, Mark D Lew wrote:

It doesn't seem like it'd be that hard to fix.  As I understand it, 
slurs are current drawn as a Bezier curve (actually, the space 
enclosed by two almost-parallel Bezier curves) and the slur tool 
gives the user access to the control points.  Why not just introduce 
one more value that calls for x distance of straight line inserted 
in the middle of the slur?  The midpoint and slope of the curve(s) 
is easily calculated. The program could just calculate the curve as 
if the control points are all displaced by a distance of x/2 inward 
toward the midpoint, split the curve in half, draw each with the 
actual endpoints, and then fill in the middle with a straight line 
-- pretty much the same thing that pre-digital engravers with their 
curve templates did for long slurs for decades.


Keeping in mind that there was an awful lot that Mosaic couldn't and 
still can't do, and that MOTU has stopped development, they had this 
feature from the very beginning.  Every slur has not 3 but 4 
adjustment points and is almost infinitely adjustable.  I also 
discovered that you could grab the slur at any point to adjust it, 
not just on those 4 points.  Just like linked scores and parts, these 
were in the program at least as early as 1992.  Were Mosaic's 
programmers smarter than Finale's or were they just pursuing 
different goals?  Or maybe working with better consulting musicians 
at that time?  Really good looking defaults (except for note spacing, 
like everybody else), linked score and parts, adjustable slurs. 
1992.  What can I tell you!?


John


--
John  Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411  Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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