Great infomercial, but you left out one important detail: Where can the
rest of us investigate Bill Duncan's package? What does it cost?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Thanks,
David
Chuck Israels wrote:
List members:
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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David H. Bailey
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