I have been working on orchestrating an enormous opera score in Finale 2002a, Mac version. Act One is nearly 1700 measures long and broken into 6 different files. Due to the way the composer worked, we basically pieced the score together. IOW, we started orchestrating a middle section, and worked our way jumping thru the score via different sections, based on how he was motivated at the moment. Because of this methodology, I had to enter notes, articulations, slurs, lyrics, etc., you name it, and then prepare score pages in PDF to email him for proofing. The orchestration at times was extremely dense and complicated, forcing me to have multiple staves of instruments for rhythmic clarity, and to facilitate part extractions later on. So, staff optimization was critical when doing the page layout.
All along the way, there were constant edits to the framework of the score, dictated by the composer and the opera company who will be performing it. Massive rewrites created cuts and inserts that were often more than a mere few measures here and there. Weıre talking 50-100 measures at times. Plus, he often completed the back end of a section before the front end. Once we were in the proofing stage, I found that all the tedious, time-consuming staff optimizations were toast. For example, 46 measures from the beginning were cut completely so an excerpt could be created for rehearsal preparations. This meant all the staff optimization was lost since what was system 12, was now system 1. I would like to see Finale be able to lock in staff optimizations, perhaps via system number, much the same way weıre able to lock staff systems currently. Then, when large cuts or insertions are made, Finale would automatically know what systems to lock in optimizations for, and maintain them during editing. Also, it would be quite useful to be able to apply Staff System Spacing to only selected staves in any system. As it stands now, Finale will apply the variables from the Respace Staves dialog box to the entire staff system selected. I found myself using the percentage variable over and over, but it always applied it the all the staves in the current system(s). I would like to be able to select the bottom handle of certain staves, and have Finale apply the spacing to only those selected staves. Another issue Iıve been rankling about for years is the Text Expression dialog box. There is no real way to sort things other than the move up and down buttons, which are absurd for sorting. In each of these files I have hundreds of various text and shape expressions, and sometimes finding one without a metatool assigned is a total exercise in frustration. Plus, the dialog box itself is not resizable. Almost all Mac dialog boxes can be resized now. Can we address that issue as well? On a final note (for now), could we please get the Cancel button back into the Too Many Beats In a Measure dialog box? I spoke to Randy Stokes about this and he said it was a complicated programming issue, arising from an inconsistency in the GUI. I donıt remember anything inconsistent when it was there. Not having it is unconscionable IMO. After all, how many dialog boxes in the Mac GUI donıt have a cancel button? Not many. I logged more than 100 hours in Finale last month, and that was an average month for me. So I know my way around the program and without it, I wouldnıt be earning a decent living. Itıs a great, indispensable program. It just needs some helpful tweaks. J.D. Thomas ThomaStudios *************************** J.D. Thomas ThomaStudios West Linn OR http://www.thomastudios.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] *************************** Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
