--- Richard Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Mark D. Lew asked: > > > Does Sibelius have a good method of entry with the > Qwerty keyboard? If > > not, that would be a big negative for me. > > Sibelius has always had an elegant set of keyboard > entry tools They appear > to have been the model for the ones introduced in > Finale 2004. After an > initial adjustment, I think you'll find them more > versatile and more > flexible than Finale's. Finale 2004 and 2005's Simple Entry were designed to outperform Sibelius' similar entry system in many ways. Sibelius still has some advantages, but it's not a simple matter of stating that Sibelius' entry is more flexible than Finale's. In many respects the opposite is true. > Highlight a measure or a beat by a mouse click (no > speedy entry window is > needed), select a rhythm (it will stay elected until > another selection is > made) type a pitch from the keyboard (or touch a > midi key), and the note is > entered. You can navigate between notes with the > left and right arrows. Comparing Finale and Sibelius, choosing a duration in Sibelius always prepares the next note's duration whenever the entry caret is present (and this is always present when you're entering new notes). Finale does this as well, but offers the option of holding the Alt key while pressing the duration to change the last entered note's duration without first backing up to it. Essentially, this makes it quicker in Finale to correct mistakes, since you don't backtrack. > While a note is highlighted, it can be moved up or > down with the arrow keys, > displaced an octave (ctrl arrow up or down), > re-pitched by re-entering the > keyboard pitch, added to with the top row number > keys (3 adds a third up, > shift 3 a third down, 4 a fourth up, ect), and > repeated by pressing R. Finale has the same options except for the very handy Repeat command. That's one that Finale should add in the future. In Finale's favor is the ability to either select the octave for the last entered pitch (as Sibelius does) or select the octave for the coming pitch. It is the same number of keystrokes either way, but for myself and other people, it just feels better to not have to enter the note in the wrong octave first and then correct it. This brings me to another point. When designing Finale's entry system, MakeMusic considered the way people enter certain notational elements by hand. Most people write a notehead on the page before writing other elements, such as articulations, augmentation dots, and even accidentals. Sibelius asks that you define these properties of a note before you enter the note itself. I've talked to seasoned Sibelius veterans who say this still causes them to make mistakes from time to time. Finale on the other hand gives you the option, but defaults the simplest keystrokes for these elements to adding the elements after the basic note has been entered. This requires the user to remember fewer things and make fewer simultaneous decisions. It may seem subtle, but it really does help people make fewer mistakes. Try it - I think you'll curse less in Finale's entry. There's another major advantage to Finale that lies in this ability to select elements before or after entering a note. It's what is referred to as "Sticky" in Finale. In Finale you can add elements to the last entered note only, or you can lock on these elements (such as tuplets, grace notes, augmentation dots, articulations, and even accidentals) so that they are attached to all notes you enter from that point until you disable the element(s). Sibelius is one way or the other. For example, you can not turn on a consecutive tuplet feature in Sibelius. And articulations are always sticky, meaning you will need to turn off the articulation when you don't need it (not tough to do, but an extra step). > Back space creates a rest from a note. > Articulations, bowings, accidentals, > grace notes, tremolos, ect. can all be added to a > highlighted note(s) with a > single touch to the ten key pad. The best way to create a rest in Sibelius is usually to hit the 0 key on the numpad. This enters a rest of the current duration, and is one step instead of the two that hitting backspace requires. I kind of get a kick out of this shortcut, since it's new and was just copied from Finale. Before this, the Space Bar did this in Sibelius - not very handy for people using a MIDI keyboard. Sibelius prides itself on a feel of modelessness (even though it's not modeless). The articulations in entry are a good example of where this fails. If you need an accent or a staccato, great - it's on the first keypad. But if it's a fermata, you're going to go hunting for it on a different keypad. Sibelius just runs out of convenient shortcuts. Finale doesn't fight its modal nature. You press the asterisk key on the keypad after entering a note, then press the metatool letter for the articulation. 2 keys for any articulation. 2 keys for any expression. 2 keys for any key sig, time sig, or clef. You're going to have to type the expression in with Sibelius, and the keys, times, and clefs will require a dialog box visit. Finale can't keep pace with Sibelius' selection in entry. If I want to repeat a measure I've just entered in Sibelius, it's ctrl+shift+a r. No tool switching, no mouse grabbing. It's done. If I want to select a few beats to copy, I hold shift and walk over the music until I've got what I want. If I want it right after the selected notes, I press r. Otherwise I use the mouse or direction arrows to copy it. For Finale users, I recommend that they pick up a mouse that has a keypad built into it so that they have fast access to copy and paste, and then program a shortcut to get back to Simple. It's not as fast as Sibelius selection, but it shortens the gap. I'm faster with entry in Finale. I learned Sibelius entry first and got comfortable and quick with it. But I just make more mistakes with it because of some of the things I mentioned above. I've also gotten fast enough at accessing selection in Finale to negate this disadvantage. And the type of music I enter takes advantage of enough of the unique Finale strengths I mentioned above to make it faster for me to get my work done in Finale. Tyler __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
