On Apr 12, 2006, at 7:49 AM, Greg Scheer wrote:
Hi,
I thought I'd chime in on the issue of document options, default
files/settings and templates. I've been using Finale a long time, but
it's
time to bump it up to the next level. Does anyone have recommendations
about
fonts (Engraver? Maestro? Word typefaces?), settings or libraries that
would
help me get a better looking score faster? I've been especially
frustrated
with music spacing lately. Andrew, before I start changing settings,
what
are the settings below going to do? Any sage advice would be
appreciated.
I've been chasing options around the page for far too long!
By the sounds of things, you seem to be doing music with lyrics, am I
right?
Finale's treatment of spacing when lyrics are involved is still very
primitive, for instance, if you have a long syllable like "through" on
a short note value like a sixteenth, Finale tries to preserve the
proportional space that THAT sixteenth takes up through the entire
measure.
Mark D. Lew had some interesting tactics for dealing with lyric
spacing, but they didn't involve changing defaults. Since he originally
posted this reply to the list, I'm going to assume he doesn't mind that
I repeat it here.
Christopher
Quote begins
This is a generic problem for Finale's horizontal spacing algorithms
generally. Every element is considered for its width only. If the
right side of one item extends beyond the left side of the next item,
Finale sees that as a collision, even if one is well above the other.
So when you tell Finale to avoid lyric collisions, it leaves enough
space so that the lyric syllable does not extend under the next note
(or accidental, or whatever else).
It's definitely a flaw, but you can easily see why a horizontal spacing
algorithm that takes into account vertical position as well would be a
much more complicated problem.
My usual procedure with lyrics goes something like this:
1. Set all the lyrics about two sizes smaller than they're really going
to appear.
2. Space the music with avoid lyric collisions set.
3. Work out the layout for the entire piece, and lock all the systems.
4. Respace the entire piece with avoid lyric collisions turned OFF.
5. Go back through the piece tweaking all the lyrics (at their correct
size), nudging them for optimal look and tweaking the music spacing
where necessary.
Frankly, I think that spacing the music with avoid lyric collisions is
unacceptable. Even if there aren't collisions or gross spaces, it's
still just an ugly look. I've seen plenty of pop music set this way
and I think it looks like crap.
What you really need is to make the music spacing look as much as
possible like it would if there were no lyrics, then nudge the lyrics
around to fit that, adjusting the music only as much as necessary for
the lyrics -- preferably by stretching the music uniformly in systems
where the lyrics require more space, and nudging notes around only
where necessary for unusually syllable combinations.
Steps 1 to 3 above is really just a shorthand way of setting the layout
so that it provides enough space in each system, adding space
approximately relative to the density of the lyrics in any given
measure. (You definitely don't want to discover, during step 5, that
you've got a system in which the lyrics don't fit.) I've got enough
feel for it now that I can see at a glance how much space I'll need for
a system with lyrics. Depending on the texture of the music, I might
use a different method for steps 1 to 3.
mdl
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