Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!xanth!mcnc!ece-csc!jnh
From: jnh@ece-csc.UUCP (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Music software
Message-ID: <4007@ece-csc.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 89 02:46:10 GMT
References: <2151@mit-caf.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: jnh@ece-csc.UUCP (Joseph Nathan Hall)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Lines: 71

In article <2151@mit-caf.MIT.EDU> paul@mit-caf.UUCP (Paul Meyer) writes:
>
>	I have a friend who is buying a MIDI keyboard and wants to buy a
>Mac to go with it.  He's not sure what software he wants to run, but
>Finale, performer, and composer are titles that he has mentioned.  
>	As usual, money is a big constraint.  I think his best bet is a 
>Mac Plus with a 20-40 meg external hard disk, and an imagewriter II.  Total
>about $2000 with university pricing.  
>	The question is, will all that music software run comfortably in
>a 1 meg MacPlus?  Will the normal music hardward (midi ports, etc) hook
>up fine to a mac Plus?  Does anyone know the hardware requirements of the 
>music products (especially Finale)? 

I have a kind of love-hate relationship with Finale.  First of all, it's
*EXPENSIVE*.  $1000, take it or leave it.  (Maybe it's discounted now, I
don't know; I couldn't find a significantly lower price.)

It does indeed do almost everything you could possibly want a notation program
to do.  And, yes, the performance transcription tool works well, and works
better and better with practice.

It has some serious shortcomings, though.  The worst of them is that it is
dreadfully, dreadfully slow on an SE or Plus when you use it for something
of any size (a few staves, 50 or more measures).  Operations that I think
ought to take no time at all (cutting and pasting measures, duplicating
measures and staves, etc) can take *minutes*.  Lots of them.  Even loading
a moderately-sized file can take a couple of minutes, and WOE, WOE, WOE
unto you if you don't turn the disk cache on (about 256k is the right size).
My experience with Finale on a Mac II is limited, but it is considerably
faster.

I would categorically advise against any attempt at running Finale on a system
with less than 20 Mb of hard disk and 2Mb of RAM.  I would recommend a
comfortable 4-5Mb RAM, a large display, a 68020 or 68030 w/ FPU (Finale does
some FP number-crunching), and a larger hard disk (what can you store in
20 Mb, anyway?).

StuffIt is useful for storing the poorly-compressed files.

Last, Finale is *quirky*.  No, I have found no bugs.  But there are some
features which are a) useful and even essential ("e.g., executable shapes") and
b) documented with utter inadequacy.  Some supplemental documentation is
available now, but they make you pay $50 for each book ... sheesh!  Also,
Finale toys with violations of the Human Interface Guidelines.  There are
hundreds of nested dialogs.  I hope you like dialogs ...

What do I think of Finale?  Well,

	You can't find anything better, and

	You'll pay through the nose for it, and

	Be prepared to put up with some irritating "features."

I fully expect Finale to evolve and improve, as time goes on, so this mixed
review is by no means the last word.

What would I recommend for YOU?  Well,

	Take a look at DMCS (no, really, it's not all that bad),

	and then take a look at the stuff from Mark of the Unicorn.

Forget Finale on a 1Mb Plus w/o hard disk.  You'll be wasting your time.
(Lots of it.)

-- 
v   v sssss|| joseph hall                      || 201-1D Hampton Lee Court
 v v s   s || jnh@ece-csc.ncsu.edu (Internet)  || Cary, NC  27511
  v   sss  || joseph@ece007.ncsu.edu (Try this one first)
-----------|| Standard disclaimers and all that . . . . . . . . . . . . . .