At 9:28 AM +0900 7/13/02, Richard Walker wrote: >Here are some ideas off the top of my head that I would like to see Finale, >Sibelius, another notation program, or a clever plug-in developer (hint, >hint) implement: > >1. Linkage between scores and extracted parts. If I update one, the other >should be updated automatically. Ideally, extracted parts could be viewed in >some sort of pop-up window from the main score--triple click an instrument >name and its part comes up for editing.
Hmm. Intelligent idea (I think David has been talking about this for while now), but I'm not sure I'd like it. It always makes me queasy when the program gets smarter than I am, and starts second-guessing me at every turn. I think I might like my edits to stay in the file that I make them in. I can always easily copy them back to the score (and often do) using the mass mover, if I need them there. >2. Intelligent chord explosion. Currently, if you want to voice sections >without switching from staff to staff, you have to create another staff, >input your chords, articulations, and dynamics, and then "explode" them onto >the real staves (or have I missed something?). I'd like to select a group of >staves (say, a sax section), play a chord, and automatically have the notes >divided up among the targets. Finale already has this, though not the instant you play the chord in. There is an intermediate step, which is either Mass Mover>Explode parts, or else TG Tools smart part extraction, (the latter is preferred if you have a lot of unisons or octaves.) you don't have to create a new staff, simply enter the chords on Alto 1 and then explode them, they will fill up the staves immediately beneath, and leave the top note happily on Alto 1. >3. "Section views." In line with the chord explosion technique above (more >like carpet bombing really), I'd like a function that would toggle sections >between one or two concert staves and individual part staves: i.e., press a >key and the sax section collapses into two concert staves, press it again >and you get all five staves. This might be harder to implement than it seems. Where do you put the cross-over to decide which which staff gets which note? What about different rhythms? What would be done then? Not a bad idea, though. > >4. Intelligent guitar parts. If you have a chord symbol and a slash rhythm, >you ought to hear a guitar playing it with no further effort on your part. >Granted, the voicings might need tweaking. There is a lot that could be done with the Band In A Box technology in Finale. I suspect that better implementation is just around the corner. BTW, I HATE the auto harmonise function, as it gives results that even Schönberg would wince at. THere is another program for the Mac called Harmonis by my colleague Richard Ferland which is ever so much better. Maybe I could slip a message... > >6. Shortcuts for common transpositions. Sibelius does this very well. >Shift-up arrow transposes up an octave, shift-down arrow goes down an >octave. Need a coupling in diatonic thirds? Press shift-3 (main keyboard). >Fourths? Press shift-4. Mass mover has some metatools for this. 6 and 7 are constantly assigned to octave up and down, and I reserve some other keys for common transpositions as I need them. This already exists in Finale. > > >8.5 Automatic cues. Like above. I should be able to link cue notes to the >staves on which they appear, but also continue to be able to edit the target >staff. Once again, I point you to TG Tools, which has the best automatic cue note creation I could ever want. > > >11. Menu or keyboard access to all functions. Things that can only be >clicked on are almost impossible to macro-ize. Oh yeah. I hear you, baby. Though Tempo EZ, my incredibly ancient macro program, recognizes items to click on, and if all else fails, remembers the coordinates where I clicked. Just the same, more keyboard access to menu items would help me quite a bit. I know Peter will chime in here that it won't help me as much as I think it will, but it would make me happy, (even if it only makes me marginally faster or not at all) and that's what counts, isn't it? Happiness? _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
