John,Finale runs well on my Laptop (Finale 98 on a Pentium 133 with
16MB RAM). As you are a student, you get it for the student's
price - check the pricing at www.codamusic.com if you are in the
US or with your local dealer.
The technical things. Music is entered into Finale and Sibelius
using MIDI data. MIDI is a communication protocol for computers
and synthesizers. It's comparable to a language but consists only
of numbers. You must use a MIDI device, if you want to enter
music into Finale using some instrument (instead, you can use the
computer keyboard and the mouse).
For a guitarist, there are three options.
(1) Use a MIDI-capable guitar or a guitar that is equipped with a
controller which translates all playing actions into MIDI messages.
This is hardware and thus realtively expensive.(2) Use a programm which tries to translate audio streams into MIDI data.
Using this, you can plug the guitar's line out into the soundcard
line in (if it has one, maybe you'll have to use an amplifier first).
There are several programs out there, i suggest to have a look at
www.hitsquad.com where you should be able to find such a program.
When it's installed it acts within the computer like an external
MIDI instrument which sends MIDI data do whatever application you use.
These programs are not always reliable, because it's not easy for a computer
do find out the correct pitch in a short time (which is necessary
to play fluently). This is software and thus usually cheaper
as the #1 solution.
(3) Buy a cheap MIDI keyboard and get used to the keys. As keyboards
and synthesizers are the most common used MIDI instruments, they can
be bought and installed easily. As a matter of fact, MIDI was designed
with a strong background for use in keyboard instruments. It's also
of good use if you want to enter chords into the program which can
be a tedious process with #1 and #2 (I imagine - I have no personal
experience and only know about the tools and a little background).
Finale relies on keyboard instruments, too, although it is possible
to use it with other controllers.
If you are using a laptop, check what ports you have for entering
music. Is there an USB port? A free serial/parallel port? PCMCIA?
Does it have a soundcard installed (if yes, don't worry about playback -
should be possible). There is no recommended soundcard for Finale,
but I use an AWE 32 which works fine. Finale doesn't expect much
from your soundcard. A lot of memory is better: I've got 32MB on
my desktop computer and Finale 2000 is only moderate when it comes
to speedy entry.
I suggest you think about the MIDI thing first and find some guitarist
(maybe on the web) to chat about guitar->MIDI techniques. Have a look
at the MIDI forum on this site, quite some questions were answered there.
Greetings,
Harald
