A couple of months ago, I bought Bill Duncan's Finale productivity package mostly out of interest in his chord font, which is far more sophisticated than anything I have been able to do with Finale's chord suffix editor. It sat around, only casually read and looking dauntingly complex, for a long time. Then a follow up email from Bill encouraged communication, and I discovered that he had moved from LA and is now living within a couple of hours drive from Bellingham. All this lead (yesterday) to a visit from Bill and a long day's exploration of what is in his fonts and templates. Bill's style is designed for maximum clarity and unmistakable sight reading - LA recording session graphics rather than elegant "Henle" engraving and artistic beauty. Nevertheless, as we explored the things he has done, many generally useful and timesaving devices turned up, and some other things that I find quite beautiful. Besides this, Bill's attitude about his package is that he'd like to make it generally useful to others whose style may diverge from the needs of sight reading/recording sessions. So the five or six hours we spent looking at things and considering what might be changed (mostly to suit my eye for graphic balance and readability) turned out to be very productive.
24 hours later, Bill emailed modified chord suffix elements and slash fonts (to my specifications!), and I am simply delighted at what has turned out to be a level of custom programming I had no idea I would be able to find, let alone just be given in return for my interest in Bill's work and a home cooked meal (thanks to Margot). Bill's chord suffix creator is bug and tweak free and produces what, to my eye, are compact, clear, and elegant results. The chord symbols are a good size, and you can use his existing library or create (easily) any kind of suffixes you like. The results are so much better than what I produced under my own steam (and had accepted as pretty good), that I wish I had found this long ago.
Now there is a plan afoot for us to meet again, and to include Greg Hamilton, a meticulous and experienced Vancouver Finale engraver (and friend/former student of mine), to see what other things might be modified and/or included that would address problems, input speed issues, control of consistency, etc., that might be improved as Bill updates his package to include Finale 2004 changes. (The existing package was designed for 2002.) I thought it might be good to alert interested people to this activity and to the fact that I have found many useful things in this package. This has turned out to be fun. I'll keep you all posted over the next couple of months as things develop.
I know this missive is somewhat in the form of "the dreaded infomercial," so I hope it will be taken in the friendly spirit in which it is offered.
Chuck
Chuck Israels
230 North Garden Terrace
Bellingham, WA 98225-5836
phone (360) 671-3402
fax (360) 676-6055
www.chuckisraels.com
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