Hit points in Finale?!

Hey Gang,
Im checking out sibelius through their demo version. One really cool thing that I liked was the ability to put in hit points really easily and quickly. Now my question is, is it possible to do that in Finale? Is there a plug in that I can DL for that.

If you guys know of any other plug ins that are really cool. please suggest.

What's a hit point?

He means in terms of film scoring; a hit point is a specific point in the video where the music needs to reflect the action directly and match up with the visuals. It needs to "hit" the timing.

As for the question, Finale has sacrificed hit-points in favour of the much more advanced SMPTE timing code support. The reason is really a matter of opinion, but Finale's method is what is used professionally nowadays - Sibelius' hit point method is a lot easier for learning though, and requires less external equipment.

So, brief answer, no.

Originally Posted by Marius

...in terms of film scoring; a hit point is a specific point in the video where the music needs to reflect the action directly and match up with the visuals. ...

Gotcha!
...thanks!

haha, thanks for the brief answer.

Um... But Im still new to SMPTE and stuff like that, so how could I use SMPTE. And this is off topic but, what are different ways of establishing a good tempo to score a video clip.

Ughhhhh.....that would take far longer to answer than I'd like to spend writing here. Furthermore, I don't have to; there are wonderfully complete explanations lying around on the net already, just a Google search away. Here's one:

SMPTE

As for establishing a good tempo, that can be tricky, as you've no doubt seen. Some clips will suggest a tempo themselves simply based on the action on-screen, but others are completely irregular and the hit points do not really fit into any rhythmic sequence.

In that case, you get to flash your little artistic license badge and make some executive decisions. You can either use a completely irregular time signature and constantly change it so that it follows the music (tedious, difficult and often sounds bad, though in some cases it's the most appropriate method.) or you can opt to disregard some of the hit points entirely so that you can fit everything to a set tempo and rhythm.

The latter method tends to work best, so I'd recommend that. Essentially, you're prioritizing so that the less-important hits are simply dropped in favour of a consistent background rhythm.

Either way, that's a more thorough explanation...any more thorough almost merits being a full-out lesson...hmmm....

Originally Posted by Marius

Either way, that's a more thorough explanation...any more thorough almost merits being a full-out lesson...hmmm....

HA ha. sounds like a plan dude. Though I think Finale could have benefitted from that hit point function. I think its a cool idea, because you can even name the hit point. But I guess Im gonna have to learn how to use smpte because Im not in the mood to learn how to use sibelius, Im stuck on the studio view that finale has. IT gives it more of a sequencer feel, and makes it easier to enter notation using a midi controller.

As for plug ins, do you know of any good finale plug ins that are well worth having a look at?