Final 2012: part extraction

gpr wrote:

Reducing from a heavy effort (a piece for large orchestra written for a competition), I would like to make some observations and ask for an opinion from those who know more than me regarding the extraction of individual parts for various instruments.

It seems to me that the part extraction function in Finale 2012 (I don't know if anything has changed with the more recent version) is quite deficient in several respects. I mean that Finale limits itself to extracting the part, but then extensive editing is required to fix various things that don't line up.

The first observation concerns "Multimeasure Rests", i.e., rests of two or more measures. I don't know if there is a way to pre-indicate how to write and group these rests (for example, no more than eight consecutive), but even this is an operation that has cost me some time.

Furthermore, I see that in the extracted part several things turn out quite poorly: notes that shift (in the sense that spaces widen or narrow), dynamic indications too high or too low (when they were placed correctly in the original score), braces related to one part shifting to the one below, and so on.

I have never tried the "Smart page turns" function, but this is also a serious problem: when drafting the part for a single instrument, one must indeed consider that the performer needs time to turn the pages, so one must make adequate use of rests and eventually change the layout if necessary.

But what wastes the most time is the extraction of a single part when two similar instruments are on the same staff. The problem does not arise if, for example, the parts of the two clarinets are written on different staves (this becomes necessary, for example, if the second must alternate the normal clarinet with the bass clarinet). However, if for example the two bassoons are written on the same staff, we know it is common practice to write the two parts on the same "layer" when the rhythm is the same, and different layers are used when they are actually two voices. But when the part is extracted, Finale simply selects the staff, and then one has to sit there with great patience to write only the part of the instrument of interest (a huge job!); unless there is a way to shorten it and I haven't discovered it yet...

An additional problem concerns cue notes, a problem which I solved by saving the file under another name and working on that. I wonder why the Finale programmers did not think that cue notes, added to an instrument's part to give a reference point to the performer after a long rest, should be mute notes—that is, written but not played. Instead, the notes are copied into layer 4 of the instrument in question, with the result that the audio file then includes them as well (with a ridiculous effect if flute notes are inserted into the timpani part...). I found no other solution than to duplicate the file, generate "Cue notes" where appropriate, and then use this file to generate the individual parts.

Is there a simple way to solve these problems? So that next time I don't go crazy... Are other music notation software better from this point of view, or are these common problems?

A greeting to you all

Gino

In reality, being an all-in-one, Finale has several flaws, which I have also noted.

Anyway, I will try to give you a hand, because I know what it means to work with large scores.

There is no way to tell Finale to group rest measures. It either does it or it doesn't.

If you do them, you can always select the multimeasure and right-click + break to clear them.

Then you redo them as you prefer with the command always in the same menu from the right-click.

For notes that shift and braces, the only thing is to set a certain type of music spacing in the original score. It should carry it over to the parts as well.

For page turns, the best thing is to use the function that forces selected measures into a single system. From the Utilities menu.

For parts of two instruments on the same staff (like 2 flutes), we must distinguish:
if you insert "a 2" parts and use only one layer, then you have a problem.

If instead you insert the "a 2" parts in 2 layers, Finale does not extract the 2 individual parts, but you can do it in an instant with the Utilities function "explode music".

To create the second layer identical to the first (when they are a 2), just select and use the "copy layer" function from the right-click on the selection.

If you put the stems of layer 1 upwards and those of layer 2 downwards, you will see it immediately even by different colors.

Furthermore, using East West Gold libraries, I noticed that putting two instruments with the same notes on the same staff changes the sound compared to putting a single note and

mark "to 2". I usually do it this way for playback, while for the printable score I use the wording "to 2" and put only one layer.

So first you write the "playback" score with the 2 layers and then in the "printable" version do this:

create 2 temporary empty staves:

Use the "explode" function to split the 2 layers.

Move the notes of the second staff (with layer2) into layer1 and merge them again with the "implode" function.

Common notes should be overwritten and you will have everything in one layer for the conductor's score.

So you will have 3 scores:

one for printing

one to extract parts

one for playback.

there is a function that merges scores so as to transfer any changes to the other two, but I haven't tried it yet.

For guide notes, the only solution is to assign them to layer 3 (if it is empty) and mute it from the score manager. When you explode the instrument, you see the 4 layers.

Otherwise, the only thing you can do is:

insert the notes normally

reduce the size with the "Change/note size" utility function (I usually set it to 70%)

set the "key velocity" to 0 using the midi function, only for those 3/4 measures with the guide notes.

I hope I have been of help.

Let me know.

I found :

search with the help Linked Parts

rstrauss wrote:

I found :

search with the help Linked Parts

Thank you, now I will try to explore the various functions you indicated to me. Anyway, it seems to me that I have understood that one always needs to work with different scores, which is a real nuisance in case of correction (unless, of course, there is a way to "synchronize" the files so that the correction made on one is also carried over to the others.

Thank you anyway for the help!

G.