John Howell wrote:
At 5:43 PM -0700 8/1/08, Chuck Israels wrote:
BUT, time value selection precedes pitch (and that's the only way it
can work in Sibelius), and that is a deal breaker for me. When Finale
catches up (as it seems to have done pretty well in Simple Entry) AND
provides the same functionality either in Speedy, or in Simple with a
pitch before duration option, we may have the best of both worlds.
Greg has become fluent in data entry in Sibelius, but he is copying
existing manuscripts, so the "thought process" order doesn't matter.
He can enter the duration first with no hitch in his thinking. For
me, as a composer/arranger, that doesn't work, so I don't get the
conventional wisdom that Sibleius is for composers and Finale is for
copyists.
You know, I've really tried to understand this particular complaint, and
I'm afraid I really can't. When we did everything by hand we all,
always, entered duration and pitch simultaneously, right? (Placement on
the staff = pitch; note shape/color = duration.) Which means that ALL
the computer programs have taken a single act (but one often requiring
several pen strokes) and divided it into two separate acts, right?
So why should one way be "better" than the other (whatever "better"
means)? It isn't as if we're hardwired by nature to think one way or
the other, is it?
Maybe I don't see a problem because I came from Mosaic, in which you
selected duration first, and it never bothered me a bit. So although I
didn't LIKE Sibelius' entry methods to start with, I had no problem
learning and using them.
Now that you mention Mosaic, as I think back to
MusicPrinterPlus, the program I moved to Finale from, I
realize that with MPP I could do either -- the note
placement was done with the cursor keys and the cursor
changed to reflect the note about to be placed by hitting a
keyboard key (q=quarter note, h=half-note, etc.) so I was
working in whichever method suited me at the moment --
sometimes I changed the cursor to the next note value and
then moved it to the staff line/space, and other times I
moved the cursor first and then changed the note value. I'd
never thought about that -- perhaps that's why I've had as
easy a time as I've had in learning both Sibelius and
Finale! Interesting.
As for neither being better or worse for composers as a
class of people, I quite agree with you -- we all think and
work differently and so probably the split as to which comes
first (rhythm or pitch) is quite likely 50-50 or close to that.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
