For ensemble playing, computer generated staff notation is a major time saver (Finale, in my case). It's not just the time it takes to enter the notes. I've obtained a number of pieces from Werner Icking for our loud band, and discovered that they didn't quite fit on one or more instruments. Transposing the piece up or down, adjusting line or page breaks, breaking the piece out as parts, switching the tenor part from Treble to Bass clef to accommodate the sackbuts, takes almost no time. The MIDI playback is also a very useful feature for catching entry mistakes. I find it a lot easier to spot a wrong note by listening (even if the sound is rather tinny) than just peering at the text.
BTW, Finale has several SKUs, with increasing feature sets. PrintMusic, which is around $100, works fine for me and is a good bit less expensive than the full-blown version. Guy -----Original Message----- From: alexander [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 5:30 AM To: [email protected] Cc: 'Lute Dmth'; Eugene C. Braig IV Subject: [LUTE] Re: Staff notation software - views? If saving the time is at issue, by all means - computer way. I used pen (actually - pencil - much faster) - paper - copier for years and years. To produce a one average 12 stave page simple part with a fair number of 16ths than someone else besides self will be able to read took about 30 minutes. Then i tried a few programs, and went by reducing the time needed, with results improved. The same part on Lilypond takes me now under 5 minutes (no bluffing here, - i have set the keyboard with note names under left fingers and values in the right, and have templates for every possible set-up prepared, just enter the notes). The learning curve (though the improvement never actually stops) to produce the very first good part, was about two - three hours. The advantages are: an immediate redesign of number of pages, sizes, line breaks, bars- no bar lines, ad intinitum, and the whole library of music on a flash drive. Now i just keep a printer in the rehearsal room, and no one complains about my handwriting! alexander On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:43:43 +0000 (GMT) Martyn Hodgson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Thank you Eugene, > > I use pen and paper copies now but, since so many collegues seem to be > producing computer set parts these days, thought that using the > appropriate software might not be as time consuming as I feared (I > can't quite believe that it takes less time to enter a note via a > keyboard than by writing it). I might stick to photocopied MS > parts........ > > Martyn > --- On Fri, 13/2/09, Eugene C. Braig IV <[email protected]> wrote: > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
