Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Opportunities to Learn Finale

I spent some time installing Finale 2009 this morning.  It seems to be working great right away.  I did run into small hitch and that was Finale asked for the location of my Garritan sounds.  There are a number of them included on the install DVD and  I forgot to install them.  Not much of a problem.
Garritan still hasn't come up with sounds that match my ensembles.  They are more than welcome to come out and sample my beginning band if they ever get tired of listening to fine instruments.  Human Playback may need a little tweaking to sound like my band as well!  
I love the ease that registering the upgrade is, just a couple of clicks and you are current.
I have been following my own advice and I am working my way through the included QuickStart videos.  The manuals are all electronic as well.  It never hurts to study how a program is supposed to be used.  It can save tons of time later. 
I am a book guy, so I miss the bound paper manuals that most current softwares are leaving out.  David Pogue hasn't published one of his Missing Manuals for Finale.  Writing that may be my next project...If you don't beat me to it!
If books and screens won't do it for you and learning Finale, I would like to point out a great upcoming  opportunity. The Minnesota Summer Music Technology Symposium will be here in August.  If you can't make it there, I would look for any workshop that features Mavis Kallestad.  Her workshops are well thought-out and hands-on.  Very few people know more about using and explaining Finale.  A session with her is worth your time.  You can reach her at workshops@makemusic.com or 952 475-2894 or look for her workshops at MakeMusic.com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am in the market for a scanner and was wondering if there is a scanner you recommend for use with Finale. I tried scanning music about 10 years ago with little success. I understand things have greatly improved since then. So...in the spirit of working smarter, not harder, I am going to try again. I would appreciate any information you can give me. Thanks!

bradjensen@cfu.net

Unknown said...

I am sorry about not getting back to you right away, I have been spending some serious time on a ladder painting this week.

I'm wondering about scanners too! That is the next thing to upgrade in my office as well.

The folks over at Finale don't have a recommendation because the scanning feature is really something from another company, Musitek.

Musitek does have a nice chart about works for their software:
http://www.musitek.com/bundle.html

or you can assume it does, because they are selling them in software bundles.

Some things I would consider include the size of paper it can comfortably scan (what size are your scores?) and speed. Resolution may not be too big a concern because the program works well with less than 400 dpi images. Most scanners will do much better than that.

When you look through the support pages, it looks like a lot depends on the quality of what you are scanning and how it aligns in your scanner. Do a nice job and the recognition works better.

Has anyone got a scanner they are thrilled with and are using to scan music? Keep us posted.