I had a post on this not long ago. I think I can explain -- not justify -- some of the plugin's mysterious behavior. I do encourage everyone to write MacSupport (and WinSupport) about this. The Cautionary Accidentals plugin has never worked properly, even after Coda adopted Tobias's improved version. And the first option in the dialog -- potentially useful for atonal/chromatic passages where you want every sharp and flat signed -- is especially problematic.
Anyway, when I was having this problem a few weeks ago, I discovered that all of the random-seeming parenthesized accidentals were actually parenthesized naturals that were canceling a sharp or flat earlier in the measure. This may actually be desirable behavior in some styles, but it's *extremely frustrating* that there's no option to turn it on or off. It makes the plugin effectively useless to those who don't want parenthesized naturals everywhere.
This explanation wasn't immediately obvious to me -- in fact, one of the things that puzzled me and contributed to the impression of randomness was that the plugin would treat identical passages in, e.g., flute and clarinet differently. Then I remembered that the plugin does not adequately account for chromatically transposing instruments -- a *longstanding* (and, again *extremely frustrating*) problem. What happens is that when using chromatic transposition (instead of key sig. transposition, which of course you would naturally do in an atonal/chromatic context) the plugin calculates everything based on the concert pitch instead of the transposed pitch -- even if you have "Display in Concert Pitch" turned off, and even after you've extracted the part! So, for example, if you have the following notes in the clarinet (in Bb):
F - F# - C - C#
The plugin believes that what you *actually* have is:
Eb - E - Bb - B
So, if you apply the Cautionary Accidentals plugin, with only the first option checked ("Courtesy Accidentals," which is supposed to sign every sharp or flat), and parentheses *off*, here is what you get:
F - (F#) - C - (C#)
This is because the plugin thinks that the F# and C# are "really" E nat. and B nat., and it puts parentheses around those accidentals because it believes that they are canceling the "Eb" and "Bb" earlier in the measure. There is currently no way to tell the plugin *not* to parenthesize these notes.
(Also, I hate to break it to you, David, but Tobias's plugin has exactly the same problem. In fact, since Finale 2003, there is absolutely no difference between Coda's "Cautionary Accidentals" plugin and Tobias's "Cautionary Accidentals TG" -- Coda simply adopted Tobias's plugin to replace their own.)
As for the problem with the repeated notes, this is not something I've encountered. Do you have "Auto-Freeze Accidentals" turned on? (You should.) You might also try using the Canonic Utilities plugin to clear all frozen accidentals prior to applying the Courtesy Accidentals plugin.
So, Coda people -- still with us? Here's what we'd like fixed:
[1] The Cautionary Accidentals plugin needs to take into account the *displayed* pitch. When "Display in Concert Pitch" is turned off, or (especially!) when you're working with the extracted part for a transposing instrument, the plugin shouldn't keep basing all its calculations on the concert pitch. That's no good at all.
[2] The first choice in the Cautionary Accidentals dialog ("Courtesy Accidentals") needs two new sub-options -- "parenthesize naturals within the same measure" and "hide all naturals". Both of these should be *off* by default.
[3] It would be nice if there were a checkbox in the Cautionary Accidentals dialog to "Clear frozen accidentals before applying changes." This would avoid having to invoke the Canonic Utilities plugin first.
[4] All of those are highly desirable short-term bugfixes, but having to use a plugin for this sort of thing is a bit of kludge in the first place, even if the plugin did work as advertised. What would be far preferable in the long term would be the ability to specify an accidental style *before* you enter the music. The style would then be applied automatically as you enter the notes in Speedy or Simple Entry.
For example, here's a rough mockup of some possible options in an "Accidental Style" dialog box:
[ ] Show Accidentals On Every Note
[ ] Except Repeated Single Notes
[ ] Except Repeated Notes in Chords[ ] Show Naturals On:
[ ] All Natural Notes
[ ] Cancellations Within The Bar
[ ] Cancellations Within [X] Bar(s)[ ] Cautionary Accidents On Tied Notes:
[ ] Never
[ ] Only Across System Breaks
[ ] Only Across Barlines
[ ] Alwaysetc... and every option should also have a "parenthesize" checkbox next to it.
So, basically what I'm asking for, long-term, is for the Cautionary Accidentals plugin to be supplanted by a Document Options dialog box called "Accidental Style" (this could be added to the existing "Accidentals" Document Options) that would let you make these sorts of changes globally, without invoking a plugin. This would affect both the music that has already been entered and music yet to be entered. And, of course, this would all work correctly with staves set to chromatic transposition, and it would adjust automatically when you turn "Display in Concert Pitch" on and off.
Best regards, and thanks for all your hard work,
- Darcy
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn NY
On 21 Mar 2004, at 12:47 PM, David Froom wrote:
Hello,
The cautionary accidental plug-in in MacFinale 2004 seems not to work. I
run it, in an atonal context, asking for accidentals on all flats and
naturals except immediate repetitions, and no parentheses. It gives me
random parentheses on accidentals, puzzlingly, on new accidentals in a
measure. It also places, once again randomly, accidentals on some, but not
all, immediately repeated notes. These mistakes make me question everything
it does. What is it missing? What is it adding that I don't catch in
proofreading? This is such a mess that the plug-in to be much worse than
simply not using it -- since I am required to check everything it does
carefully, looking for odd and inconsistent behavior.
I am copying this note to the Finale listserv -- and I would encourage
anyone reading this to let MacSupport know if you are experiencing similar
problems.
Tobias, if you are reading this, could you consider updating your cautionary
accidentals plug in for Mac 2004? It always worked flawlessly.
David Froom
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