Finale Notepad is inventing beats that do not exist

Discuss Coda's Notepad here.

Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker

Alto
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2012 6:47 pm
Finale Version: Notepad 2012 PC

Post by Alto » Wed Oct 03, 2012 7:18 pm

Hi all, I'm new to Finale Notepad, but have been reading music since I was seven. I now read it as well as most people read their own language. However - I am going to seriously fall out with Finale Notepad.

I thought that Notepad would be perfect for writing the reduction of a copy I have of Claude Debussy's piece "Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder", which is one of his "Trois chansons". It is a lovely piece, and I want to be able to teach it to amateur singers who do not read music. It is very difficult to read anyway, with lots of counterpoint rhythms, so I thought Finale Notepad would be ideal. If you want to hear it (which might give you an idea how tricky it can be, but also why it is so beautiful!) listen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22HeyKRXKkM

I want to write out the piano reduction of four vocal parts, then make a separate sheet with each line written out on top of the piano score as a vocal part. This way, I could send each singer his or her part with the piano accompaniment underneath for them to practice and gain confidence.

Well, even with the layers Finale is playing me up. The music is in 3/4 time, and written out in quavers (you may call these 8th notes) and has regular 16th note triplets scattered about the parts. So if there are two quavers followed by a 16th note triplet run (which should take the same time as a quaver) then another quaver then another 16th note triplet run then another quaver, that is the bar or measure full. Not in Finale! It keeps adding one or two 16th note rests, or refusing to put in the final quaver.

I am writing this out from a professional score, and I know it is right. So why is Finale getting the musical maths wrong?!

This is the piece of music I really needed Notepad's help with, because of the clever playback function. I love the fact that I can write music out more tidily and speedily, but the software fault is driving me insane... Please help. :?


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Peter Thomsen
Posts: 6601
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:47 pm
Finale Version: Finale v27.4
Operating System: Mac

Post by Peter Thomsen » Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:42 pm

There is definitely something wrong with your document.
The rhythm you describe, should work without extra beats.

Without seeing an actual .mus document we can only guess.

I suggest that you attach a (small) .mus document here for the gurus to examine.
Before you can upload a .mus document to this forum, you must compress it, e. g. as a.zip file.
And the file size must not be more than max. 100 KB.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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miker
Posts: 5993
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:28 pm
Finale Version: Finale 27.4
Operating System: Mac

Post by miker » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:17 pm

I had no trouble doing this in NotePad. So like Peter, I would like to see your document.

It sounds to me like the triplets are not being entered properly. Can you describe for us EXACTLY the steps you're taking?
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Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
Mac OS 13.2.1 Ventura
Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society

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