Posted by Klaus on July 23, 2002 at 21:29:12:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Best deal on the Finale Program posted by Chuck(G) on July 23, 2002 at 18:20:39:
This topic is not new between the two of us. You are a computer pro with in-depth understanding of the technicalities. I am the, at best, a fairly competent user achieving my best results, when I look at computers from a psychological point of view.
As I see it there are two common file formats: MIDI for file play-back and .pdf for the graphics.
I may not be attracted by neither Sibelius nor Igor (and I downright detest the graphical output from Cakewalk and the other applications, that concentrate on making very detailed MIDI files), but I still consider diversity a richness for the music community.
It is in the combination of the playback/musical-contents and the graphics that the applications vary due to the differently geared creative minds of their developers.
As I see it, the main difference between two of the larger engraving applications is, that one will give you a fairly narrow selection of pre-sets (easy to handle, but mostly less than pretty to look at), and the other will demand you to work hard on the settings of your templates (harder to handle, but opening up for a wide spectrum of output from the supreme to the unbearable).
Forcing a common file format would kill any further development of either application, as such a format can not be guaranteed to encompass all future elements of creativity.
My biases are well known. But I must admit, that the samples, that I have seen from the engraving of a brass method book of great interest to this forum, were not pretty. Even if they were clearly, and confirmedly, made in the application, that I prefer.
Klaus