MM Feature requests

[Harpsi]

I think the suggestion from Buontempi, John, N. (et al?) is very good. It could contain all of what have been mentioned - default files, libraries, links etc. I'm in.

[OCTO]

Dear friends, it is fantastic how you develop this thread.
My initial question was "what does MM with all feature requests, except assigning them a number?" - if anyone can see it??
Not being a pythoness, I can't see otherwise. There is no peep from MM either. They have FB, Twitter, Blog, Forum, Site...
I have a large list of wishes, but...

Maybe you can open another subforum for wishlist.

[FergusMac]

I'd like to endorse the ability to ask about a problem and get the answer, "It works for me." I ran a spectral analysis (with Audacity) on the output WAV function from a Finale score. I got a frequency cutoff at 15000cps and a shape that looked like 128bit mp3s do. I asked about this and was told that other people do better. So I chased the output parameters, found out that these (in Aria) are set by Windows, found out that Windows uses the video software, fixed that. Now I can (for final output) get higher quality stuff from Garritan.

Are requests to Make Music more properly termed an "Alfred Plea"?

Thank you for supporting what I think is a valid response to a posted problem, despite what some forum members believe.

[Christopher Smith]

I dare say there's someone doing some kind of notation that uses rests to represent different characters in a different font, and need to put some different symbol as an articulation on the top.

Unless I was absent in theory class that day there is no situation where an accent mark is on a rest. Just like a tie with an accidental doesn't honor the accidental. That is a slur not a tie but Finale does it.

You're kidding, right? You know that fermatas, caesuras, breath marks (yes, even for resting instruments!), and all kinds of other indications are entered as articulations in Finale and have to be able to attach to rests? Plus, I have an articulation that is a blank character that I use to force more space between items by attaching it to notes and rests alike. I would hate to lose that workaround.

[ebiggs1]

Let me know how you play an accent marked rest. I'd like to know. Perhaps you know how to tie two note of different pitches, too.
Never mind, I am just kidding!

[zuill]

Accents during rest is called snoring.

Zuill

[BuonTempi]

Accents are not the only articulation. Some articulations go on rests. Some articulations are accents. The intersection of those two sets may or may not be an empty set.

Currently, Finale does not distinguish between types of articulation. It's up to you to create/use the symbols in your library as you see fit. As said, the move towards SMuFL may see Finale take on more intelligent and individual assessment of symbols.

I'm afraid I haven't yet tried out the intriguing SMuFL feature in 25.3, in which it claims to use SMuFL font symbols, if you have a suitable font, when importing XML with SMuFL symbols, though I plan to do it soon.

[ebiggs1]

Accents are not the only articulation.

But they are the only one I mentioned!

[Anders Hedelin]

Why is the accented rest so difficult understand? The first of Bach's Inventions, as so much Baroque music of this kind, starts with an 'accented rest'. No need to put an accent there, though, because everyone knows (?). If, in another context, a later composer would like to imply the 'accented', but empty, first beat of a rhythmic figure by an accent over a rest, I find that perfectly reasonable - and intelligible.

[N Grossingink]

Why is the accented rest so difficult understand? The first of Bach's Inventions, as so much Baroque music of this kind, starts with an 'accented rest'. No need to put an accent there, though, because everyone knows (?). If, in another context, a later composer would like to imply the 'accented', but empty, first beat of a rhythmic figure by an accent over a rest, I find that perfectly reasonable - and intelligible.

Good point, Anders. However, those who prefer their music performed at the lowest level of abstraction will still have a hard time with it. Beethoven's 5th Symphony starts with an accented eighth rest also. Just watch any decent conductor give one of the most difficult eighth rests in the literature.

N.

[madyson]

My take on MM right now is bug swatting. New features are not put at a high priority.
What really bothers me is how far ahead Sibelius is getting. I have been using Finale for far too many years to start learning a new program.

Those who believe that Sibelius is ahead or that Dorico is anywhere near ready... well, knock yourselves out. No thanks!

Generally-speaking the Windows port went fairly smoothly with some glitches users never saw. The Mac port, on the other hand, presented major problems that are still being ironed out.

Really? I would have guessed the opposite from the nature of the complaints.

look at this accented tenuto sign,

accented_tenuto.JPG

it is 1 combined articulation in Sibelius, changing shape when coming in/out the staff... after all these years still impossible in Finale...

[ttw]

I've done lots of software writing over the last 50 years of so. One thing that I noticed (about my stuff and others) is that no one except the programmer (and maybe even the programmer) has an idea of what is easy and what is hard. Much depends on what seems to be non-essential choices made during programming. Some things that seem very hard turn out to be overnight changes and some simple things take months of implementation and testing.

When developing programs in a commercial environment things get even more problematical; one often claims that commercial programs are developed to deadlines, not to specifications. Unfortunately, this can happen as time is money. Late is non-existent.

When working with various teams, each team may have a slightly different style and someone puts them together. This puts more strain on rewriting by people who probably didn't write the original.

[castellanos]

Give me an example:
You want to enter 16 notes in cross staff in piano.
You enter all notes in one stave, than using a shortcut they move down.
The problem is the optical spacing and accidental spacing which is not included when cross staff is applied. So, Finale doesn't execute what you wish to see exactly.
Than you move each accidental and each note in order to get correct spacing (and only YOU are the main judge).
Good, but not good. If it happens that you touch anything in this edited system, the notes get re-spaced.
That is a huge waste of time. I mean, HUGE if you will edit hundreds of that kind of measures.

Not to speak about their vision to close an immense important forum which they hosted for almost 20 years. I just still feel hopeless.

OCTO, I agree with you in all the aspects you have mentioned, especially in this particular example.
I started to use Finale back in 2004, then I changed to Sibelius in 2009/10... at that point I almost never used Finale again. I came back recently just because I had to make a copy of a Cello sonata with a lot of "Cross Staff" in the piano part. The positive point of Finale in this regard is that you can move chord notes individually to the upper or lower staff (Sibelius just moves the whole chord). This was the main reason why I did this copy with Finale and not with Sibelius.

Constant collisions, jumping accents, re-spaced systems, optical spacing and kerning are re-set, lasso-looking slurs, objects missing or misplaced in PDF... name it.

I used Finale 25 and mostly all of this bugs you mentioned are still there. Not to say that on Windows, trackpad gestures are not recognized... I almost got killed in one of my post on this subject...