Finale Forum

Hello, I've just started inputting PSY by Peter Eötvös into Finale 2014 on Mac and am having some difficulty just 2 bars in.

-The time signatures are displayed as a single number - 4, 3, 5... how might I accomplish that in Finale?

-In the second measure, the time signature says 4, but there are notes without stems, as well as at least 6 beats. In multiple places, the number of beats doesn't seem to match the time signature suggested.

Photo attached.


Thanks in advance.

Time signature: In document options, change the bottom number location to something big enough to shoot it off the page, and tweak the top number to the desired position.

I used JW Change to convert grace notes to stemless and beamless, as well as increasing the notehead size just a bit.

I have no idea what's going on with the beats per measure. My first thought was hidden tuplets, but he has some conventional tuplets, as well.

Finale can't do those arched beams, as far as I know.

miker wrote:Time signature: In document options, change the bottom number location to something big enough to shoot it off the page, and tweak the top number to the desired position…

The top number should be positioned vertically at -6 Points.

Explanation: The staff height is 24 Points, hence the distance between the staff-lines is 6 Points (= 2 scale steps).

miker wrote:…I have no idea what's going on with the beats per measure. My first thought was hidden tuplets, but he has some conventional tuplets, as well…

I think that the vertical, dotted lines indicate the four beats in 4/4.
You can enter the notes as non-displaying tuplets.
Once you know the Tuplet Tool, you will see that the Tuplet Tool is a very powerful tool.
You could e. g. enter the first two beats as a (non-displaying) 7-tuplet:
7 Eighths in the space of 4 Eighths - where the first Eighth contains a triplet of 3 stemless notes.

haha oh boy this sounds like this one is gonna be quite the headache.

will try your suggestions in 2 hours, will most definitely be needing more assistance as I get through this one - like I said that's only 2 bars in!!!

Thanks so much

miker wrote:
I used JW Change to convert grace notes to stemless and beamless, as well as increasing the notehead size just a bit.

JW Change.... What's that?

Peter Thomsen wrote:

miker wrote:Time signature: In document options, change the bottom number location to something big enough to shoot it off the page, and tweak the top number to the desired position…

The top number should be positioned vertically at -6 Points.

Explanation: The staff height is 24 Points, hence the distance between the staff-lines is 6 Points (= 2 scale steps).

miker wrote:…I have no idea what's going on with the beats per measure. My first thought was hidden tuplets, but he has some conventional tuplets, as well…

7 Eighths in the space of 4 Eighths - where the first Eighth contains a triplet of 3 stemless notes.

I don't believe I have figured out how to remove the stems for anything other than a quarter note... what am I missing?

notedgirl wrote:JW Change.... What's that?

JW Change is one of the many most useful Finale plug-ins developed by Jari Williamson.
You can find the plug-ins on Jaris web site:

finaletips . nu

notedgirl wrote:I don't believe I have figured out how to remove the stems for anything other than a quarter note... what am I missing?

I think you are missing, that you can remove stems with a custom staff style.
In the Default Document there is a ready made staff style for Stemless Notes.
If you try to edit the staff style, you will see how the staff style is set up.