by Dave Smith

In the music production industry, putting a critical eye on a finished product before it goes out the door can be a tedious task while on the road to perfection.  With respect to checking Finale files, here are a few tips that might be useful:

• Always print an entire product before proofreading, do not attempt to check your work solely from a computer monitor.  What you see is not “exactly” what you get. For example: page margin settings can omit title information that might be visible on a monitor, font problems can arise in printing, and the “Print Files” features and .pdf conversion can also incorrectly adjust the placement of information. 

• Use a colored pen to highlight mistakes - I prefer a red pen. 

• Have others look over your copywork.  A “fresh set of eyes” will certainly be more likely to catch mistakes (maybe critical ones). 

• Use the playback features in Finale to “earproof.” This added dimension of checking a file by listening to it can be quite enlightening.  Playback is an invaluable feature in Finale that the proofreader of old did not have the luxury of using. 

• Use Finale Plug-In features such as “Check Region for Duration…” 

Finally, proof the proofs! – Translation: after fixing and printing everything, compare the corrected pages against the mistake pages. Make sure you didn’t miss any of your corrections.  (Remember that it took hours to find all those mistakes in the first place. Don’t let them go unnoticed!)

Dave Smith is the Staff Proofer of Express Music Services, as well as a fulltime musician and copyist.

© Express Music Services, Inc.