FWIW, here are the drawbacks and benefits of my "Special Part Extraction" method over Express Music's "Extract Parts"/copy-and-paste method:
Drawbacks to using SPE: 1) File sizes are a little bit bigger because all parts contain the entire score (in scroll view). Since Finale 2K1, this has really not been an issue due to the drastic reduction in file size, as well as the extremely low cost-per-megabyte of hard drive space compared to the 90's. 2) People "out of the loop" might be confused when they see the entire score in scroll view, yet only one part in page view. Benefits to using SPE: 1) Layout from part to part is preserved, including staff indentation. 2) The position of score expressions is preserved. You'd be surprised how much more efficient it is to format an oboe part from a flute part with an entirely different bar-to-staff layout compared to doing it from scratch from an extracted part. A lot of little tweaks are preserved -- and if you strategically work through instruments in order of transposition, your beginning-of-staff rehearsal letters and other score expression positions are maintained. 3) Text is managed much more easily. For instrument name, I use a field in "File Info" (like "description") and use it as a text insert in page view text blocks. Then every time I create a new part, I simply change that field in File Info and it changes in every occurrence in the part. 4) The biggest advantage of all: you save time! I am able to extract and lay out all 30 parts of a 150-measure orchestral score in under 3 hours, and these parts are professionally tweaked to LA studio standards. I would be willing to go head-to-head with anyone using the Express Music method in a time test to see who's faster. One more note: Christopher BJ Smith mentioned the fact that when you change a part in SPE it doesn't update the (separate) score file. How does using a "normal" part extraction method differ in this regard? Also: if you're working on a copy of your score file, why does it matter whether or not Special Part Extraction saves your original score layout when you turn it off? What other method of part extraction in Finale would enable you to do this? Inquiring minds want to know! Brian Williams > Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 00:23:40 -0400 > From: Christopher BJ Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Finale] Re: Special Part Extraction (was Layout Question) > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Finale Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > > Well, then, I take back what I just said in my previous message about > nobody using Special Part Extraction! But there IS one flaw in this > method: you still don't have ONE place where you make a note change > for it to be reflected in all the other parts immediately. You would > have to change ALL seventeen parts in seventeen different files if > you wanted to change the A in bar 6 to an Ab in every part. > > Christopher > > > At 5:55 PM -0700 6/04/04, Brian Williams wrote: >> Actually, if you really want to save keystrokes while conserving layout >> tweaks -- without going through that tedious Express Music process -- you >> can do what I and a number of other professional LA copyists do and use the >> "Special Part Extraction" feature. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
