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Music
Copying & Finale Pt. 2
Excerpt
from the "Lizard's Guide to Music Copying"
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As
I have said in earlier articles, using
Finale for music preparation has revolutionized the music copying
field. This article deals with how our copyists setup and prepare
our files for use. We are a copy house that has to crank out
material very quickly and in large volume. We are always looking
for the fastest and most proficient way of producing music. Here are
a few of the things we do to improve reproduction and speed. |
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You
have your computer and it's all set up (if not click here
to refer to my earlier article). You have your desk laid out in a
practical and comfortable way and you are ready to get cranking.
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Template
Settings
The
very first thing that we noticed with Finale was that the default settings
are, for the most part, too thin. We have to reproduce generations
of copies and with the original settings we had a lot of degradation.
Here are a few of our basic settings with the appropriate PC paths to
follow. |
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Bar line
Settings
<options><document
settings><barlines>
The
only line thickness that we adjust here is the bar line thickness. I
personally like to set it to .02, this looks much more like my normal calligraphy
pen stroke. In this same window, you should decide whether you will
be using the clefs all the way down the page. If you are using clefs
all the way down, then uncheck display left barlines. |
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Line
Settings
<options><document
settings><lines>
We
have made several changes here, I'll just list them:
Enclosures
.02
Ledger
Lines .02
Staff
Lines .015
Stem
Lines .015
Tuplet
Bracket .02 to .03 (.03 helps it jump out of the stave)
The
rest remains the same as default. |
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Other
Line Settings
There
are a couple of other places that you will need to adjust line thickness.
<options><document
settings><repeat bars>
Thin
line thickness should be .015
<smart
shape tool><smartshape><smart shape options>
Slur
thickness .02
Line
thickness .02 <Lyric
Tool><Lyrics>Lyric Options> (Finale 2000) Word
Extension Line thickness .015 to .02 To
get to this setting for earlier Finale users <options><document
settings><Notation Options> Lyrics-Line
thickness .015 to .02 |
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These
are a few of the basic settings that will improve reproductive quality in
your work. The notes should jump off the page much better.
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Page Margins
I have seen a lot of different applications of the Finale page
margin. I can't say for sure how they were originally designed to be
used, but we have found a useful application for them. We basically
use the page margins solely for containing the music material. The
title information will always be outside of the boundaries of the
margins. This makes it easier to make global adjustments without
having to worry so much about interfering with the page title information.
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We
usually set up the first page (title page) at about 11/2 inches
down (within the page tool check adjust this page only). Then on the
subsequent pages, we set it in the range of 1/2 inch down (within the page
tool check adjust page range of 2 through 99 or so). This gives you
a base to work from. Once you have set your margins make sure that
you have "Avoid Margin Collision" checked. All adjustments
that you make to staves or systems will now stay within the margins and
your title information should remain clean.
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For
adjusting the title information for pages 2 and later, there are a couple
of good shortcuts to remember. Once you have entered the text
information you will see a little box handle when you click on the text
tool. You can highlight the handle and use these easy macros.
<ctrl><shift><T>
will bring up the "Frame Attributes" screen. Lots of
useful adjustments and positioning opportunities here. The main
thing is the drop down menu under the "Attach To" section.
Choose page range to have the text information appear on all pages within
this range.
<ctrl><shift><[>
shifts the text information to the left margin
<ctrl><shift><]>
shifts the text information to the right margin
<ctrl><shift><'>
shifts the text information to the center
Within
the text field you can do this: <ctrl><shift><T>
This
will create an automatic page reference for every page that this text
information is attached to (see above). |
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Nothing
fancy happening here, just a few shortcuts to help speed up the
process. The most important step is to think out your layout and
score as you start, this will save you a great deal of time in the end.
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Take care!
Lee Monroe
Lee
Monroe is the owner of Express Music Services. He has been a
fulltime copyist for 20 years and was strictly a hand copyist for the
first 15. You can check out his hand music font by following this
link - LeeMusic.
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©
Express Music Services, Inc.
Not to be reproduced without written
permission from Express Music Services. |
