Has anybody heard?

[ebiggs1]

Has anybody heard a peep out of MM or Jari Williamsson ?

[Bill Reed]

You're not going to hear a peep out of MM on here; they're peeping on their own forum

[ebiggs1]

Maybe not here but nobody has heard anything? I know I haven't. I can't believe how close I was with Justin, Yvonne, Carla and the others and now nothing.

[miker]

Justin and Carla really seemed to care about the users.

The new "customer success" crew? Not so much.

[N Grossingink]

Justin and Carla really seemed to care about the users.

The new "customer success" crew? Not so much.

In all fairness to these folks, they are likely far from being the people making the decisions and charting the course of the company. One of the stated goals of the new Make Music forum was the participation of their staff, which happens only sporadically. There's a lot happening under the hood - maybe eventually they'll discover that they are not taken very seriously, especially by professionals in the music industry.

N.

[motet]

I occasionally look at the new Community site and see lots of unanswered questions and feature requests and not much happening, so I wonder if Finale is long for this world. Jari may know something we don't!

[BuonTempi]

I remember people being just as dismissive about customer service in "the good old days", complaining about boilerplate responses that "the defect has been scoped", and that the respondent didn't seem to know much.

And as for rumours of MM's demise, they've been ten a penny for as long as I've been using Finale.

[NickG]

I remember people being just as dismissive about customer service in "the good old days", complaining about boilerplate responses that "the defect has been scoped", and that the respondent didn't seem to know much.

And as for rumours of MM's demise, they've been ten a penny for as long as I've been using Finale.

That was before Dorico came into the picture. Check out the Dorico Forum.

[ebiggs1]

"And as for rumours of MM's demise, ..."

That was than, this is now. There is no comparison to the ole MM and the new MM.

[Bill Reed]

Michael Johnson's last response on the feature request page was on 2/9. Not exactly forever...

[motet]

Michael Johnson's last response on the feature request page was on 2/9. Not exactly forever...

To me, that seems like a long time, discouraging rather than encouraging.

[MikeHalloran]

I would much rather have well-written, accurate documentation than lots of active participation from MM staff. Of course, we have neither.

Having said that, I am having no problems with the current build of Finale. I don't use it as a substitute DAW and no longer have the need to sync with film or AV, however.

I have absolutely no use for Dorico in its present or near-future state. Of the other active licenses that I have, Encore is still best for 'down 'n dirty' tasks such as lead sheets and praise band charts that will never be published. Overture 5 shows promise and I am using it more these days. Large scores are for Finale and I am liking 25 a lot.

[miker]

Mike,
I'm curious. For your simple stuff (lead sheets, etc.) in what ways do you find Encore better than Finale?

[MikeHalloran]

Mike,
I'm curious. For your simple stuff (lead sheets, etc.) in what ways do you find Encore better than Finale?

Good question.

I find Encore much faster than Simple Entry. It's layout functions are simple—again, they're fast. No Edit Menu—click on the selection tool, then the notes etc. and do what you need. Major time and keystroke saver.

Bugs in 5.0.7 for the Mac are very few and the workarounds are easy. It supports real time entry but it's simpler than Finale. It looks good enough. It supports MusicXML 1.3 only so, if I am doing quick entry for what I will finish in Finale, I export before lyrics.

Its MIDI import is more accurate than Finale—always has been. I often use it for that, export to XML for import in Finale.

The installer is 74MB. More than once, I have been engineering a session, when there was a need for a quick chart, I was able to install Encore and knock out the chart before the leader and bass player had finished arguing over how something should go.

I should also explain that, due to a massive stroke I suffered 8 years ago, I do everything one-handed and it's the wrong hand. If I have to depress a key while using the trackpad, I have to position my left hand with my right first. Encore has no commands that require two keys and a mouse simultaneously.

Encore 5 doesn't look that good but earlier versions were pretty bad. The simple layout functions are a major shortcoming but not an issue when the charts are for myself or my band.

It no longer installs properly on the latest OS but works if installed on earlier systems and upgraded. Windows users are at a disadvantage, especially as that OS is updated. They never got as bug-free a version as Mac users have. Support is pretty much nonexistent. A couple of us drop by the user forum and offer a bit of help as we can. I'm really good on the Mac side but it's a losing battle.

The trend to use notation programs as substitute DAWs? Forget that with Encore. A lot of the functionality listed in the manual doesn't work or, in the case of VSTs, used to work in 4.5.5 but no longer does in 5.x (I don't miss it). Encore is pretty much dead and I won't recommend it to anyone. It would have to be upgraded with better fonts and MusicXML 3 support and the VST functionality back and all those Windows bugs fixed to be relevant going forward. No one is holding his/her breath.

I'm looking for a replacement. I keep trying to make it Finale but...

I have Notion 6, MuseScore and a few others. Overture 5 is coming along and Don wrote Encore 1.Overture's not quite ready for prime time (yet?). If I can't make Finale work for the simple things as fast as I'd like, I'll probably stay with Overture.

At the moment, I'm in the middle of archiving a band I sometimes play in. I'm about 2/3 through nearly 250 charts (glorified lead sheets) and that took me about 4 days. I'll finish this weekend. I did 10 in Overture and the rest in Encore so far. I will do 10 in Finale 25 just to see how long it takes.

As I posted earlier, large projects, say anything over 8 staves or 4 pages is done in Finale. I don't recall the earliest version except that it was on my Mac+ .

[miker]

Thanks for that!

[ebiggs1]

One thing about Dorico, you can't edit parts. One thing about Finale 25, you have to edit parts!

[motet]

Sibelius looking better and better?

[ttw]

I have to agree about Encore. I used 4.1 until computer hardware and software changed out from under me (and MM offered me an educator discount on Full Finale). It was really easy to enter notes; not so great on playback and engraving. I tried demos of Sibelius, Igor, Mozart, and several others; none were up to Encore's ease of use. The closest has been Finale Simple Entry; I haven't tried Speedy much as it seemed to slow for what I do.

I was hoping MM (or Coda?) would buy Encore but Guitar-Vox outbid them. Unfortunately Vox hasn't kept Encore up to date.

[OCTO]

One thing about Dorico, you can't edit parts. One thing about Finale 25, you have to edit parts!

[NickG]

One thing about Dorico, you can't edit parts. One thing about Finale 25, you have to edit parts!

I think you have a few typos. Should be:
One thing about Dorico, you can edit parts (but seldom have to). One thing about Finale 25, you always have to edit parts.

[ebiggs1]

"One thing about Dorico, you can edit parts (but seldom have to)."

The demo I tried didn't have the ability to edit parts at all. Want to or not!

[NickG]

"One thing about Dorico, you can edit parts (but seldom have to)."

The demo I tried didn't have the ability to edit parts at all. Want to or not!

Well, it does, and may I add, it does it very well.

[N Grossingink]

Nick, it appears you are using Dorico and seem to be enthusiastic about its present output and its potential to become a top music engraving application.

Do you know whether Steinberg offers samples of Dorico's output as regards "real world" music engraving? I'd like to see, let's say, several score pages of a Brahms symphony and a few pages of a 1st Violin part. Or, any other music of comparable density and style of notation. Thus far, I have found it difficult to find examples that truly show the software's capabilities.

N.

[OCTO]

Nick, it appears you are using Dorico and seem to be enthusiastic about its present output and its potential to become a top music engraving application.

Do you know whether Steinberg offers samples of Dorico's output as regards "real world" music engraving? I'd like to see, let's say, several score pages of a Brahms symphony and a few pages of a 1st Violin part. Or, any other music of comparable density and style of notation. Thus far, I have found it difficult to find examples that truly show the software's capabilities.

N.

Agreed.

[NickG]

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