Finale 2009 Now Shipped

...ok.

ho hum, i guess that finale 2009 will be here all year, whereas the piano may get sold any day now.

thanks for the advice

Originally Posted by goodridge_winners

...ok.

ho hum, i guess that finale 2009 will be here all year, whereas the piano may get sold any day now.

thanks for the advice

Sorry...I'm just a huge advocate of pianos-as-compositional-tool and feel anything after Finale 2003 is totally usable for notational purposes...

you know what my biggest problem with using the piano as a composition tool is?

I will being writing things on my manuscript...and then play what i think should come next...but, i dont stop playing...next thing i know, i have a fantastic piece...however, i cant remember it enough to write it down!

so...i should probably get a plugin for my keyboard into the finale i have right?

Originally Posted by goodridge_winners

so...i should probably get a plugin for my keyboard into the finale i have right?

I think you just have to find a way record the audio. If you're on a laptop, it'll be much easier, since you can bring the computer where the piano is. On a desktop...that could be harder depending if the computer's in the same room as the piano, the length of the microphone cord, etc.

hmm yes, a laptop would be ample...but...is unfortunately nonexistant...and the piano is in my room, whilst the computer is in the room next door


ho hum...ill just have to get over my lazy 'at piano' composing-ness

If you're just recording to notate it you don't need good sound quality. I'm sure you can buy a cheap recorder/tape deck/whatever in a second hand store for almost nothing. Or buy one of these colourful Fisher Price tape recorders

Or try to restrain yourself and only play as much as you can remember and then write down

you know what, i actually have bought myself a voice recorder, but...it has no USB connection. So bummed about that. However, now im just making excuses...and clearly I do have means in which to be a prolific composer...

yes...i should restrain when at the piano too.

I went to the Brisbane, Australia official release thingo of Finale 2009 last night.

I'm so glad I went. Not because they have changed a lot in 2009 vs. 2008, but because the presenter did something in Finale that I didn't know you can do and made me want to cry with joy:

HE made simple-entry note durations enter able without a numerical keypad!!!
I spent about 10 minutes today getting the hang of it. I could write music in literally half the time as I used to! The click,click,click,click,click method to enter one note was giving me the grumps like you wouldn't believe and put me off the whole compositional process!

Now it works!

As for finale, I'm going to buy 2009 because I couldn't afford it when I was using it in high-school for music class (when I had no job and my parents weren't forking out $350 bucks for it) so I had to download it illegally. Had to deal with lots of glitches which were resolved in the later maintenance updates.

So I figure its time to do the right thing.

Also, someone mentioned Garritan Sounds as an extra?
The guy last night said that 300 VST instruments were included with Finale which included a mix of orchestral and jazz.

So anyone bought it and used it yet?
Chris :-)

damn, i knew i should have went to those things!

HOW ANNOYING!

Meh.

I wish I knew how to do that
(fast entry)

The entry thing is easy. Just click any of the notes (Crotchet, quaver) etc that you would normally click and the click which note in the composition etc you want to play that length for.

This automatically puts you in to the right mode.
Now it is a simple matter of using the numbers 1-9 on a numerical keypad to change the duration and the letter-name of the note to place it. So the key 'c' will enter a note into the nearest 'place' for a C to go.
If it is the wrong octave, press Shift + alt + up/down depending of which octave you want the note to go.
Then press the 'x' key followed by the number/letter of the expression to enter and expression. (To find these out look in the Expression tool window. You'll notice each expression has a bracketed letter/number after it)
That will enter an expression at the selected note.

Then use the '~' key to enter articulations the same way.

Right click for key/time signatures etc

Have fun!