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| MakeMusic Forum > Public Forums > Finale - Windows - FORUM HAS MOVED! > What's the fastest method to enter notes in Finale 2008? | Forum Quick Jump
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Mike Rosen
himself
      
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/15/2008 7:09 PM (GMT -6) |   | Boy, talk about the fastest way to start a fight... <grin>
Since you've got the keyboard (and we assume you're competent with it) you can go with either Simple or Speedy. The big difference between them (other than a few shortcut/keystrokes) is that with Simple you select the duration and enter the note; in speedy, you select the note, and assign it a duration. I think rests are easier with Simple, but that's because I really don't know much about Speedy.
Best advice: try both ways, and see which feels better to you. Then, commit to one or the other, and work on getting up to speed.
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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gogreen
Registered Member
Date Joined Dec 1999
Total Posts : 1618
| Posted 9/15/2008 7:35 PM (GMT -6) | | Tubaman: Mike Rosen's advice is right on the money. I'm a Speedy Entry guy, though. And it took a while to gain speed at it, but it does come. For this reason--I suppose we're quick to adopt habits--I work very little in Simple Entry.
Arthur J. Michaels
Finale 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007c.r2 (using 2007c.r2)
P4, 3.00 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, SB Audigy 2, Windows XP SP3
www.myspace.com/arthur_jonathan | | Back to Top | |
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Ronwass
bassist/composer/arranger/conductor/bandleader
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1492
| Posted 9/15/2008 9:47 PM (GMT -6) | | yeah, I'll bite on this fight challenge.
I take issue with saying simple is faster for rests. In speedy, all you do is press a number key 5 for quarter, 6 for half, 4 for. . . you know. Just hold the key down for repeated rests. What could be faster than that. I could inert 80 quarter note rests in about 5 seconds. Wait, I just checked. 90 something quarter rests in 5 seconds.
In all seriousness, both methods are powerful. As they say in the music business, practice makes perfect.
Ron Wasserman
F2007, user since 2000
Desktop: Athlon 64X2, 1918 mb ram, XP Media Center
Laptop: Celeron, 480 mb ram, XP home
". . . I love music, and anything that interrupts music, I hate."
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/16/2008 9:33 AM (GMT -6) | | I must be stupid. I have never been able to get rests to appear in Speedy without entering a note, and changing it to a rest. Would somebody please tell me how Ron's instructions are supposed to work from a QWERTY keyboard?
Note: I have NO intentions of changing my entry method. I just want to know how Speedy works!
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Ronwass
bassist/composer/arranger/conductor/bandleader
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1492
| Posted 9/16/2008 10:05 AM (GMT -6) | | Check use midi device for entry. And don't you dare hook up a midi device, or else you may find yourself switching to speedy.
Funny, this is the opposite advice I gave someone about a week ago here: forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=5&m=234492&g=234493#m234493
Check out the graphic there.
Ron Wasserman
F2007, user since 2000
Desktop: Athlon 64X2, 1918 mb ram, XP Media Center
Laptop: Celeron, 480 mb ram, XP home
". . . I love music, and anything that interrupts music, I hate."
Astor Piazzolla, Central Park ConcertPost Edited (Ron Wasserman) : 9/16/2008 10:09:55 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/16/2008 11:03 AM (GMT -6) | | So if Use MIDI Device for Input is checked, hitting a number key enters a rest. If it's unchecked, it enters a note once you move the carat to the appropriate line or space. How is this Speedy, if I have to keep going to the menu to check or uncheck that selection? Most music I notate has both.
Again, I must be missing something.
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Ronwass
bassist/composer/arranger/conductor/bandleader
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1492
| Posted 9/16/2008 11:57 AM (GMT -6) | | If you hold a note on the midi keyboard and then a number on the computer keyboard, you get that note with the specified rhythm. If you just press a number on the computer keyboard, you get that specific rest.
Cheers,
Ron Wasserman
F2007, user since 2000
Desktop: Athlon 64X2, 1918 mb ram, XP Media Center
Laptop: Celeron, 480 mb ram, XP home
". . . I love music, and anything that interrupts music, I hate."
Astor Piazzolla, Central Park Concert | | Back to Top | |
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Flint
silly bear
Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 3151
| Posted 9/16/2008 12:06 PM (GMT -6) | |
Mike Rosen said...
So if Use MIDI Device for Input is checked, hitting a number key enters a rest. If it's unchecked, it enters a note once you move the carat to the appropriate line or space. How is this Speedy, if I have to keep going to the menu to check or uncheck that selection? Most music I notate has both.
Again, I must be missing something. If you have a MIDI keyboard, it's speedy... very speedy, in fact. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard, it's probably not worth the time and frustration of checking/unchecking the menu item.
Finale 2007c, Garritan Personal Orchestra 2nd ed. Full version
Windows Vista 32-bit, 4GB RAM (3.5GB), Soundblaster Audigy II zs
Piccolo • Flute • Alto Flute • Bass Flute • Oboe • English Horn • Eb, Bb, A, Alto, Bass, Contra-alto, Contrabass Clarinet • Basset Horn • Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophone • Bassoon
"It is not the job of copyist/arranger/composer to not only make the music clear and readable, but to also make it impossible to play incorrectly." - paraphrased from Bill Duncan | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/16/2008 12:41 PM (GMT -6) | | Flint and Ron,
Thanks you both. So I'm not doing anything wrong; Speedy seems to be designed for MIDI input. Since I don't have the room (or the keyboard chops; yes, I know where the notes are, but I'm not a player) I'll stick with what works for me.
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Saffron
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2008
Total Posts : 4504
| Posted 9/16/2008 12:48 PM (GMT -6) | | Mike Rosen said...
Boy, talk about the fastest way to start a fight... <grin>
Since you've got the keyboard (and we assume you're competent with it) you can go with either Simple or Speedy. The big difference between them (other than a few shortcut/keystrokes) is that with Simple you select the duration and enter the note; in speedy, you select the note, and assign it a duration. I think rests are easier with Simple, but that's because I really don't know much about Speedy.
Best advice: try both ways, and see which feels better to you. Then, commit to one or the other, and work on getting up to speed.
Not to mention Speedy's special "CAPS LOCK" mode, in which it also works with "select the duration, then play the notes" rather like Simple.
I am a 99% Speedy + CAPS LOCK user, only ever lapsing into Simple or HyperScribe once in a blue moon for experimental reasons: I soon revert.
Brian | | Back to Top | |
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Saffron
Registered Member
Date Joined Jul 2008
Total Posts : 4504
| Posted 9/16/2008 12:51 PM (GMT -6) | | In Speedy + CAPS LOCK mode, rests are entered by playing a triad of any three neighbouring semitones. Sounds strange, but actually is very quick and easy to use.
Brian | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/16/2008 4:57 PM (GMT -6) | | Doug Blackmore said...tubaman said...
<SPAN class=postbody>I've got some old handwritten marching band arragements that I would like to transfer to finale 2008.......
What's the fastest way to do this?
I use speedy entry with my PC keyboard. My piano chops aren't very good. Speedy and PC keyboard are the fastest for me. I learned my technique back in the Finale 3.0 days, when simple entry was quite awkward.
Doug,
How do you select the pitch? Do you use the arrow keys, or mouse click on the desired space?
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/16/2008 6:35 PM (GMT -6) | | Motet said...
The entire left half of the keyboard is mapped to pitches. Rather than Simple's A-G, there are 24 keys devoted to this. The difference is that with Speedy, you don't have to make octave switches as much. But it means memorizing those keys before that entry method is very useful.
Motet,
I could find nothing in the manual about this. (At least, not in the Speedy Entry tutorial.)
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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Doug Blackmore
www.aviatorsmusic.com
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 2724
| Posted 9/16/2008 9:16 PM (GMT -6) | |
Mike Rosen said...
How do you select the pitch? Do you use the arrow keys, or mouse click on the desired space?
I use a combination of both. Sometimes I click near the desired pitch and then arrow, and sometimes I just arrow my way up and down until I find the right pitch. The only thing I find to be a real PITA is the tiny "window" it creates. I realize in the early days of Finale this was probably done to limit the redraw burden, but I always wished I could resize it taller. This affects me mostly when entering the 1st Trombone part with all its ledger lines - I really hate the way the staff lines scroll down rather than the window moving up. Dragging noteheads from ledger lines vertically also results in a bizzare behaviour.
I should perhaps have learned the technique presented above by Motet. I can't remember why I didn't, because I had originally intended to learn it. It may have had something to do with the Shift or Caps Lock keys, or maybe I was just too lazy to bother.
I also don't like when they changed the horizontal portion of the "cross-hair" from a thin line to a thick line.
Doug Blackmore Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Finale 2006r3, Win 2K Pro | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/17/2008 9:02 AM (GMT -6) | | Thanks, guys.
I'll stick to Simple!
(Edit)
Motet,
I went back and looked again. No mention of that in PrintMusic help files. So I wonder if that input method is Finale/Allegro only? Or, if for older versions? The knowledge base does say "Caps Lock with Use MIDI Keyboard unchecked will also allow the use of the alphabet pitch entry keys." But I sure can't make it happen.
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker."Post Edited (Mike Rosen) : 9/17/2008 9:24:08 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | |
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DCrocker
Registered Member
Date Joined Mar 2000
Total Posts : 511
| Posted 9/17/2008 11:10 AM (GMT -6) | | The keyboard layout mentioned by Motet was an excellent system. It seems to have vanished in 2006, when Simple Entry gained enough keyboard shortcuts to make an old WordStar user nervous! I miss it.
Dean | | Back to Top | |
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Mike Rosen
himself
Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146
| Posted 9/17/2008 12:30 PM (GMT -6) | | I just went back and checked PM2004. It doesn't work there, nor is it mentioned in the Help files.
Mike Rosen
WebLackey for the Seattle SeaChordsmen
PrintMusic 2008 on the PC: Simple Entry, QWERTY keyboard. That's my system, and I'm stickin' to it.
Nightingale on the Ol' Macintosh
Favorite reference: Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Gerou & Lusk, 1996
"As a musician, he's a damn fine woodworker." | | Back to Top | |
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