Re: switch to lilypond from finale

[D Josiah Boothby]

On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Josu wrote:

> Hi list,
> i use to work as engraver for publishers companys.
> I work with finale2004 under MacOSX, im really impressed by
> this new software, but ive got a few
> questions:
> - How much quick can be this program? I use to work with really
> big scores for large orchestra.

I can only speak for my experience, but for me it generally seems faster. 
Especially when dealing with larger groups, since extracting parts is 
much, much easier.

With Finale, I always found it best to have two scores: one which would be 
a conductor's score, and then another that would be used for part 
extraction. Cleaning up parts and score was always very time consuming. I 
usually find Lilypond to be quicker and easier in this respect.

Granted, there are some notable exceptions to this. Dynamics and text 
markups frequently have to be manually moved around to keep from colliding 
with slurs and articulations, and managing dynamics and hairpins can be a 
little counter-intuitive if not placed directly below a note (for example, 
a whole note that begins at forte, diminuendo to piano).

In general, though, I find that a first draft with Lilypond looks better 
than a first draft with Finale.

> - What about avant garde notation? i engrave new compositions from alive 
> composers, they put a lot of grafics and so. Can lilypond do this stuff? 
> is better to work on a grafical software after the first edition in 
> lilypond?

Depends on the level of graphics needed. If all you need to do is make 
squiggly lines, postscript commands are pretty easy to do. Otherwise, 
graphical software is probably faster and easier to work with.

Josiah