Friends...
In meeting your notational and MIDI needs, Fin and
Sib are NOT your only choices. You all owe Overture
a look if you haven't seen it (lately).
Many tedious or kludgy processes in Finale are
trivial in Overture (beaming across barlines, for
ex.).
Playback is a breeze and infinitely
controllable--ANY dynamic can be INDIVIDUALLY or
UNIVERSALLY mapped to volume, velocity,or
modulation, with the values esaily definable.
Hairpins, too, work this same way!
Accel and rit--and any other controller info--are
trivial using Overture's "Graphic Window," a
mini-sequencer in which you can draw the info
without the complexity of executable shapes.
Moving ANYTHING on the page, including notes, is
trivial
I ran some stuff by some people who hire me, and
they were indifferent between Overture and Finale
output. Furthermore, an Ove user can map almost any
music font to use in Overture if (s)he desires a
particular look.
I started playing with Overture when I got my copy
of Garritan Personal Orchestra. I had seen Overture
earlier when it was still a Cakewalk product and
dismissed it. It is now an independent product, no
longer affiliated with Cakewalk, and it has improved
markedly.
I don't work for them; I just want to tell people
that there's another major player in the game
besides Fin and Sib. I understand that some houses
on the left coast have started doing their scores in
Overture 3. I'm not abandoning Finale yet, but
every annoyance that comes up, and every nonsense
add-on that increases Finale bloat and cost, I gotta
wonder.
No rhyming dictionary in Overture, no micnotator, no
iffy scan-in option, no auto-harmonizer, etc.
In their place are solid notation, a useful
mid-level sequencer for expressive MIDI playback,
seamless integration with GPO and GPO Studio,
reliability (no crashes in 7-8 weeks of use with
straight-ahead scores), etc.
It may not do the Jef Chippewa-type stuff--graphic
scores, etc., but I'm not sure how many of us other
than Jef do that. ;-). It may--I just don't know.
All I know is when I loaded the program, I tried a
lot of the stuff that is still a PITA in Finale & it
was simple in Ove.
So...just a note to tell people that there is indeed
another major player in the game, so don't limit
your universe to Fin and Sib!!
Regards,
Jim (Finale since 2.2 on Win 3.1)
