Hi Chuck,
I wouldn't want you to get the idea that I didn't appreciate the heads-up. I was just initially frustrated that the first page linked to from here gave only a vague idea of what you actually got for your $150. The font pages are a little better, and of course having the fonts individually available is nice, though some of them (not the chord fonts) are still awfully pricey for what you get, IMO. I also think Bill *really* ought to have web pages showing all the glyphs for each font, not just "highlights" -- and, once I discovered that the "highlights" graphic was clickable, lo, it turned out that he *did* show the entire character set for at least some of the fonts.
I did end up sending Bill an email asking if I could look over the PDF of his chord font character set. The examples generally look good, and if he's willing to accommodate my request, I will probably end up buying it. I just want to see what I'm getting first.
Cheers,
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn, NY
On 23 Jun, 2004, at 02:06 PM, Chuck Israels wrote:
Darcy, Chris, Allen, et al,
Never occurred to me that there might be anything illegal in what Bill is selling. Whether or not it's "worth it," depends a lot on your economic circumstance. YMMV. Seems to me there's a tremendous amount of work involved in creating the templates, and they look terrific for doing a certain kind of work (though not so much what I do). It was partly the addition of the geometric symbols and lower case superscript to the chord font that Bill wrote for me overnight that impressed me. I feel well responded to when anyone who sells me something will customize it for my personal needs so quickly. Anyway, those symbols are now included in what Bill has given me, and I am sure they will be included in the 2004 version he is preparing.
I am partial to putting a triangle where one would say "major" - in relation to lower partial triads and to 7ths. Bill has a large, baseline triangle that looks good if you want to use it as the basic "Major" symbol, and he has added a smaller, superscript one that I used to construct a minor/major 7th chord symbol that looks well proportioned (and still compact) to my eye. This is a little different from the way I was able to construct these in Finale's chord suffix editor, and it looks considerably better to me. I also commented to Bill that the upper case SUS and ADD letters that were in the superscript suffixes blended in with the preceding and following numbers, making the suffix hard to decipher quickly. The lower case superscript he added was in response to this, so that I could construct a superscript 7sus4, instead of 7SUS4. If you think (as I do - in most circumstances) that the parentheses around flat 5's and flat 9's in Bill's suffixes are extra clutter, and maybe even intuitively misleading, you can build some without them that look just fine. Since I use chord symbols in a great deal of my music, I think this level of control will make a substantial difference how I feel about the results.
I have no idea, or opinion as to whether or not the package is worth the price. Frankly, though there are many useful things, and some shortcut operations that I am sure I won't want to give up, once having gotten used to them, a lot of what's in the package is directly related to a kind of "TWENTY, Count 'em - 20" Ringling Bros. graphic style that seems a bit much to me. If everything is "IMPORTANT," then you get inured to it and stop seeing it. This is not a criticism of the style, which is developed from daily experience in expensive studio sessions where misinterpretation of graphics can be costly. I just have a different sense of graphic proportion in my music, so I must modify Bill's templates to suit my needs. I'm experimenting with that now, and I think I may come out with a style that's improved over what I could have done on my own.
I think the chords are very good. I have yet to see better. They are larger than what I have used - based on 16 pt. rather my old 12 pt. roots and 9 pt. superscript suffixes, but they are horizontally compact enough that I think the increased readability at that size probably outweighs the extra space they occupy.
I'm not suggesting running out and buying this. I agree, it's not a TG tools package. But there are things here that I am finding informative and useful, and don't think Bill's work is generally known. I thought I'd share my (sometimes naive) experience.
Chuck
Chuck Israels 230 North Garden Terrace Bellingham, WA 98225-5836 phone (360) 671-3402 fax (360) 676-6055 www.chuckisraels.com_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
