Lately I've been learning Finale 2005, and it is so retarded. I composed a piece in it, my Adagio for Strings, and then I wished to go back and edit a measure or two. Too bad! Apparently I don't know how in the hell to make a measure 2/2 instead of 4/2, because each time I do it, it shoves all the music like on top of each, over a bar or so. I can't seem to figure it out! So it seems to me that Finale is suited more for people who know exactly what they want when they compose, and do not have to experiment or play around much. I use it for easy compositions or engraving, which it is a snap to use for. But anything else and I'm lost. Sibelius is my compositional tool forever because it's not overly complicated, and even though it has its flaws, it's easier to maneuver in.

Thanks. I'll try that.

Hmm, how do you write feathered beaming?

This is probably a very dumb question, but what in the world are handbells? J. Lee used that word in one of his above posts and i don't know what it means :P

Also, I have very little knowledge on whether Finale or Sibelius is better, but if I forced to pick one or the other from only my impression of their sites, I would have to vote for Finale. Their website is much more informative and easier to navigate.

I will be keeping tabs on this thread, since i'm deciding which one i would like for my birhtday!

This is probably a very dumb question, but what in the world are handbells? J. Lee used that word in one of his above posts and i don't know what it means  :P

By handbells we refer to a set of bells tuned chromatically (one bell to a pitch, obviously), often made of brass. Each bell has a handle on it, and they are usually played simultaneously by several people in harmony, each person controlling one, two or more bells. This is often called a handbell choir, and they are very popular in many churches.

Music for handbell choir presents technical challenges for performers and composers alike, so Finale seems to be creating special tools to help.

ooooooooooooooooooo.......i thought it was some sort of computer term (like, gigihurts or something computerish)....i could have figured that out. thanks!

J. Lee, I too had to perform a wardrobe replacement when I found out about Finale 2006... A personal orchestra?!? That solves all my problems with my current soundcard's default MIDI soundfont, doesn't it? Yes, actually, it solves most problems.

I haven't spent a lot of time using the new sounds (the ones packaged with Finale, not the $150 or so extra sounds), but I can already tell you they are incredible. Any piano track I write can now be heard on a real Steinway grand through my speakers! Orchestrally, there's not a ton there - for example, you get no celeste, which was a little disappointing - and you have to either use all GPO sounds or all standard MIDI, you can't mix and match. But I plan to buy the GPO full ensemble. I just looked at the instrument list, and it has everything, man, everything!

My opinion on the Finale/Sibelius debate is Finale, at least for now. You get the GPO and unlimited possibilities; the downside is that Finale has a higher learning curve in a lot of areas. I often find myself looking through the massive help document searching for the one thing I'm trying to do, usually associated with playback. The entry is very fast, though, using all those handy keboard shortcuts! If you learn that manual front-to-back, there's no reason you couldn't produce your own orchestral album that sounded almost exactly like the LSO. (Yes, probably very much an exaggeration, but still...)

From my experience in Finale and from what others here say, Sibelius is for those who want an easy-to-use tool, and Finale is for those who are deadly serious about producing top-notch scores for professional use. I do plan to try Sibelius, though. It can't be half bad if people use it, and it would no doubt be better for some things! Right now I don't have the $350 for the academic version though.

I need help on the following:

[1] How to create a rit. in my music.

[2] Is there any way that I can perhaps change the time signature in between? Example: In the first half of the music it's 138 for speed, then, in between the song, it changes to 80?

PLEASE HELP!!

Thank You,

Soskai

[1] How to create a rit. in my music.

The expression tool is your friend!

[2] Is there any way that I can perhaps change the time signature in between? Example: In the first half of the music it's 138 for speed, then, in between the song, it changes to 80?

I'll get back to you on this, i'm to busy at the moment.

By the way, notepad can't do these things. (you do have Finale, rigth?)

What??? You people have Sibelius?? And here I am, stuck with a demo version of AnvilStudio... :)

I've used Sibelius before, and it does seem very good. Haven't tried Finale yet, though. It sounds like a good program.

HooKay...

I got Finale 2004 and want to repeat 1

object in a song not the whole group...

Is it possible...?

Thanx, Dexter

I'm not sure I understand your question. What do you mean by object and group?

Doesn't Sibelius also come with some good orchestral samples? - I remember it has a "Kontakt Player Gold" samples, whatever the heck those are.

Kontakt is just as good as Garritan in my opinion. Actually, I don't really like any sort of fake sounds, as I much prefer the real sounds. Make samples your self if you want something you plan on seriously using to make serious music. MIDI works just fine for me with what I'm doing now. I also plan on having my works played by real people in the future, so I don't see the point in choosing a notation program even slightly based on what sounds it comes with.

I think the idea is that most people won't have the chance to hear their piece performed by a 1000 piece orchestra with 18 pianos, 60 kotos, and 86 sets of tubular bells. The samples in kontakt gold I think are real samples, no? If not, Kontakt can use real samples. If you know exactly what you want, Kontakt is very powerful, afaik.

Kontakt is just as good as Garritan in my opinion. Actually, I don't really like any sort of fake sounds, as I much prefer the real sounds. Make samples your self if you want something you plan on seriously using to make serious music. MIDI works just fine for me with what I'm doing now. I also plan on having my works played by real people in the future, so I don't see the point in choosing a notation program even slightly based on what sounds it comes with.

Actually, the interface that Garritan uses (Kompakt) is essentially just a stripped down version of Kontakt (meaning you can only use the samples from the given library, as opposed to a whole wide variety of samples in different formats). I was wondering if "Kontakt Player Gold" actually meant it came with samples AND Kontakt, or it's just another sample library with Kompakt. If the former is true, it's much more of a value to get Sibelius then if you are going to use samples a lot, due to the versatility.

These types of samples in my opinion work best for most orchestral video game music (especially the tightly- looping kind) or budget films/TV series cues, which would be somewhat too much of a bother for a real orchestra to waste its time on - you have a nice balance of between quality and efficiency. To the untrained ear, it's very hard to tell the difference a real performance and a sampled performance if you use them well. And, of course, as Stefan said - it'll allow for some normally impractically (or even impossibly) orchestrated pieces to be played with very high quality sounds (given that your system can handle it, of course :cool:).

Can finale enter double note tremolos like this?

i use finale 2005

the tg plugin"easy tremolo" seems to convert all the notes in the measure into tremolos...

the tg plugin"easy tremolo" seems to convert all the notes in the measure into tremolos...

Well! Ya learn somethin' every day! :D

I never have much cause to use this particular device, but knowing Finale as I do, I figured there must be a logical way to do it...and there is!

It might seem odd to do it this way at first, but trust me.

In order to write what you have in your example, do this:

1. Notate the two notes of the tremolo as quarter notes.

2. Add the dotted quarter and the 8th note to finish the measure off.

3. With the Mass Edit tool, highlight ONLY the two quarter notes you want in the tremolo.

4. Pull down the Plug-Ins menu.

5. Select TG Tools

6. Select Easy Tremolos

7. Specify the number of beams, click on "avoid accidentals on notes with stems" if appropriate, but I'd advise leaving the "create playback notes" box unchecked - Finale 2005 will playback properly without it.

8. Click Go

9. Click Close

And you've got yourself right there exactly what you were looking for. Understand that Finale is looking at the two quarter notes as being the total amount of time the tremolo is supposed to last, and then it notates it correctly with the TG tool. Were you to put two half notes in there, it would notate them as two whole notes with triple bars between them, as if it were a whole measure of tremolo.

Yay! Now I know how to do it too! :)

Hi everyone, sorry for the hassling questions, but can someone please help me out with these two things;

1) How to balance out the volumes for every instrument? Because at the moment in my finale 2005 allthe instruments are set at different volumes, and this makes it very unbalanced, i can't even hear the piccolo!

2) How to add another instrument into a composition

Please help!!

Hey everyone, Can someone please tell me how to

1) highlight a bar

2)add a pizz

3) move all notes from a particular instrument to another instrument

please help!

Hi everyone, sorry for the hassling questions, but can someone please help me out with these two things;

1)

the__kid, please read the forum descriptions before posting. I have moved your topic to the tech forum, and merged it with the sibelius thread (That's where it applies).

PS: I don't know the answer to your quesstion, i use Finale, not sibelius. :D

1) Hold down shift click a measure then click the measure you want to the highligthing to end.

2)Press ctrl + t click above the staff you want to have pizz then right click and a pop up screen will appear. Click on pizz

3) Highlight the staff with instrument 1 copy it then click where on the 2nd instrument's staff and paste.

Thankyou so much Wolf! You've saved me hours of pointless clicking and frustration; thankyou again!

I have some questions about Finale (I use 2005)

How can I make Finale play trills? I know how to write one in ... but it never gets played :)

How can I change the midi channel of an instrumet without changing any of the other instruments that are using that channel along with it?