On 20 Jul 2005 at 13:19, Tyler Turner wrote: > --- "David W. Fenton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > >From what I can see, HP is just not all that useful > > as anything but > > aural proofing. If you really want to produce a MIDI > > performance from > > Finale, you have to do it the old-fashioned way. > > It depends on the music. I've had some composers think > HP performances were real orchestral recordings. This > is the exception rather than the rule, but it does > indicate that context is important.
Well, for me, there are too many aspects of HP changes over which I have no control, and the defaults are unacceptable (such as the excessively portato performance of non-slurred notes), so I have to turn off large areas of HP features (e.g., note length effects). This is too bad, because I really like the slurs it creates. I also don't like the one-size-fits-all implementation of fermatas, which I've had some problems with in a minuet and trio, where the fermatas are used to indicate FINE (and so I don't want them actually treated as fermatas at all). I'm also not thrilled with the trills. They are OK for proofreading, but they aren't great. And the fact that you have to set the HP style to Baroque to get proper realization of the classical appoggiatura figure (16th-note grace note followed by 8th note followed by two 16ths) is just wrong. Well into the 19th century, most grace notes were still on the beat, and always so in that particular figure. Likewise, I'd like to be able to add items to its dictionary of expressions/articulations that it performs. For instance, the turn symbol included in Finale is wrong for large swaths of the repertory I use (it's turned in the wrong direction), and Finale lacks the slashed turn figure. I use those two from a different font, but Finale HP doesn't know what to do with them. That's just a couple of examples of things that just don't work the way I want. This means I'd have to do nearly as much tweaking of the HP data as I have to do from scratch, creating it myself. Since it's often easier to build a new house than to remodel an old one, I just think I'll not use HP that much. Actually, the one thing I really do like is the way it does the dynamics, and the swells. I've never found Finale's tools for continuous data to be satisfactory, so getting hairpins right as well as having nice swells on long held notes is quite satisfactory. I'm not entirely sure about the tempo randomization in slow tempos, but that's a parameter that one *does* have control over, so I could probably adjust that to suit. So, I'll revise what I said: Most of HP is not going to help me, but some of it definitely will. I think I won't use any of the changes of note lengths, but will use the dynamics and tempo, as well as the ornaments. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
