Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic Re: What do you use? (Finale)

>>
>> That's odd, My information is that Finale has excellent support
>> for microtonality, including notation & MIDI playback of same.
>> Brian McLaren posted this a long time ago. It's been a feature
>> since Finale 97, I think.
>>
>> Then again, maybe that's what Rick meant.
>>
>> Possibly Finale still has better microtonal support than Sibelius ?
>>
>> - Joel
>
>
> ***I think that *is* possible, since I believe it was posted that
> microtonal accidentals or symbols can be *defined* in Finale with
> certain pitch bends.
>
> This option is *not* available in Sibelius. But, you can enter pitch
> bends in *manually* and some users have automated this process.
> There is a "temperaments plug-in" created by Pete Walton, that I've
> been "messing around" with.
>
> All this, though, involves *pitch bends* and I believe Rick was
> talking about using tuning tables within his synths and just driving
> them with 12-tET, not worrying about the exact notation.
>
> That was what *I* read in it, anyway, but like many mortals, I could
> be wrong...
>
> J. Pehrson
>

I hope this will be useful & my apologies for the length if it's not. It's a McLaren post from 1995 that explains the depth of Finale's microtonal support (way beyond pitch-bends). Cheers, Joel

*** begin old but still useful McLaren post ***

Date: Mon, 23 Oct 95 7:53:24 PDT
From: "John H. Chalmers"
To: tuning

From: mclaren
Subject: xenharmonic notation in Finale
---
The estimable Paul Rapoport has created a
microtonal music font for use with Finale.
This was a significant advance, hampered by
Finale's generally 12-centric mode of operation.
Well, times have changed. The latest version
of Finale--rev 3.5--just arrived, and it has
features to delight the heart of the most
hardened microtonalist.

Most notably, the NONSTANDARD KEY SIGNATURE
DIALOGUE BOX now contains an enhanced KEY STEP
MAP DIALOG BOX. What, pray tell, does this signify?
Buckle up, chromedomes--time for a trip into
the bowel of Finale's infinite set of dialog boxes...
First, click on the KEY SIGNATURE TOOL. (It's easy
to tell; this is the icon that looks like a rodent
having sex with a VCR. As opposed to the icon
that looks like a cyclotron swallowing a squid--
that's the Speedy Note Entry tool.)

When the Key Signature dialog box appears,
choose NONSTANDARD from the dop-down menu.
Click NEXT twice, then click the KeyMap icon.
Okay.

Now you're into a dialog box which allows you to
define a microtonal key signature.
First, you need to decide whether you want what
Finale mystifyingly calls a "Linear Key Format"
or "Nonlinear Key Signature." At this point permit
me to quote from the Finale Reference (Vol. 3,
ver. 3.0, which also applies to Finale ver. 3.5):
"In this dialog box, you specify how many notes
will constitute an "octave" (it's twelve notes in the
traditional system). You also sepcify how many of
these are "diatonic" (seven in the traditional system),
and where the "chromatic" steps occur in the scale. (In
the traditional system, the chromatic steps occur between
every pair of diatonic steps except steps 3 and 4 and steps
7 and 8.

"If you're creating a linear key format, note that your work
in the Key Step Map dialog box must follow certain rules in
order to meep the definition of a lienar key format. The
total diatonic steps, for example, must be an odd number.
Furthermore, the bottom and top halves of the scale must
contain the identical arrangement of diatonic and
chromatic steps. These principles ensure that there is a
progression of keys, although it may not be a circle of fifths
as there is in traditional key structures. (Finale will
correctly interpret, transcribe, and play back music in
a format that hasn't been constructed accordin go these
rules. Theformat, however, won't be technically and
musically correct; you may get unexpected results when
you transpose--or add chord symbols to--music in such a
key system).

"You may wonder what the relationship is between your MIDI
keyboard and the unusual key maps you can construct in this
dialog box. The principle is simple: each key on your keyboard
*always* corresponds to a note in your key map. If you've
established a quarter-tone key system, for example, you'd
have to drastically alter your playing style in order to input
a simple C scale, because Finale now thinks that the first
four notes on your keyboard are C, C-quarter-sharp, C-sharp,
and C-three-quarter-sharp. You'd have to play C, E and G#
"keys" on your keyboard to *notate* the C, D and E on the
screen."

Well, there it is, kiddies. Just what we've needed lo these
many years. With this upgrade, Finale appears to support
most of what's required for notating rationally a wild
microtonal piece performed on the MIDI keyboard.
The dialog box labelled KEY STEP MAP is fairly straightforward.
It includes a control for TOTAL STEPS (the total number of
steps in the scale) and DIATONIC STEPS. The remainder left
over by subtracting diatonic steps from total steps is,
obviously enough, the number of chromatic steps.
This begs the question of what to do in a JI scale when
faced with, say, the 11/9, or the 11/8...are these
diatonic or chromatic steps? The question doesn't
appear to have much meaning to me, but those of you
who've delved into Finale for the purposes of notating
high-limit JI may have a different opinion. Be interested
to hear from those of you who've done this!

By creating a nonlinear key signature you can generate
a notation for a tuning with no circle of fifths, and
no sequence of keys. This is useful both for equal temperaments
with no fifths (6,8,9,11,13,16,18,23 equal tones per octave)
and for non-just non-equal-tempered scales like the free-free
metal bar scale, scales formed from ratios of infinite continued
fractions, etc.

The ticket to getting Paul Rapoport's nonstandard accidentals
to appear next to the correct notes is the ATTRIBUTE dialog
box.

To quote the Finale manual again (Volume 3, page 300):
"For any such key system you create, you can specify a number of
special attributes, such as the symbols you want to use in the key
signature (instead of the b and # symbols).
*Harmonic Reference. This number identifies the note that all other
dialog boxes in Finale's key system will consider to be the C, or
fundamental root tone. Enter zero for C, 1 for D, 2 for E, and so on.
There's little ever to change the default setting in this box (zero,
or C.). [Note: Unless you're notating Harry Partch's music, with his
1/1 of G!]

*Middle Key Number. This number specific the MIDI key number
that corresponds to the Harmonic Reference Number.
(..) You can use this parameter to good advantage if you want
to transform your synthesizer into a transposing synthesizer (as
far as Finale is concerned). For example, if you set the middle
Key Number to 48 (C below middlel C), Finale will interpret
every note you play as a note an octave higher (...)

*Symbol Font. This number corresonds to the font from which
the symbols you want to use for accidentals are drawn. To
choose a new font, click Symbol Font; Finale displays'
the Font dialog box, form which you can choose the new font.

*Symbol List ID. This number identifies a symbol list you've created--an
array of accidental AMounts (where one sharp has an Amount of 1,
one flat has an Amount of -1, and so on) and corresonding chracters you
want to appear in the key signature to represent them. To create a
symbol list, click Symbol List ID; the Symbol List gialog box appears,
in which you can define the character you want to appear in
place of the usual sharp, flat, double-sharp, or other standard symbol.
(See SYMBOL LIST DIALOG BOX).

*Go to Key Unit. Enter a number in this text box to specify the
number of scale steps Finale should consider to be between
each pair of keys on your MIDI keyboard. In other words, if you've
specified a quarter-tone scale, tell Finale that the Key Unit is 2--
there are two scale tones, not one, between one synthesizer key and
the next. (If your synthesizer *can* produce quarter tones, however,
leave the key unit at 1, so that Finale will correctly play back your
quarter-tone score.

"If you've specified the correct Key Unit value, Finale will transcribe
and play any music perofrmed in the usual way correctly. If you
created quarter-tone scale without changing the Key Unit, by contrast,
you'd have to drastically modify your playing sytle, because Finale would
treat your keyboard as show here." [Note--the diagram in the
manual shows a quarter-tone keyboard replete with microtonal
accidentals]"
Hot rats, boys!

This is a real breakthrough. It's what we've needed for years.
It's what Lippold Haken's LIME *should* have included, but didn't.
One final point: for those you whose wee widdle hearts go pit-a-pat
at the thought of a musical staff with more than 5 lines, Finale
also allows this. You can completely redefine the staff, with
as many lines (within practical limits) as you like. Folks like
Leo de Vries whose twinline 31-tone notation used more than 5
staff lines will jump for joy at this feature in Finale 3.5
Yes, Finale is still not quite as simple as quantum
electrodynamics. Those dialog boxes are not easy to find,
or easy to use correctly. But they're there. And for the first
time, they make possible transcription of xenharmonic music
via computer.

--mclaren

*** end old but still useful McLaren post ***

Re: What do you use? (Finale)

🔗Joel Rodrigues <joelrodrigues@...>

🔗jpehrson2 <jpehrson@...>