Re: free LilyPond advertising

[James E. Bailey]

On 24.02.2008, at 16:36, Kieren MacMillan wrote:

> Hi James,
>
> > for just getting something quick, that doesn't really have to look  
> > good,
> > finale is definitely faster
>
> Several years ago, I would have called myself a Finale expert: in  
> addition to over a decade of use (typesetting well over a hundred  
> scores, including my Master's Thesis, starting with Finale v2), I  
> was even paid as a Finale tutor while I was doing my Master's  
> (1994-7).
>
> Therefore, I feel like I can speak from a pretty good place of  
> competence in this regard...
>
> With the one possible exception of playing the music into Finale  
> from a MIDI keyboard, my experience is PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE of  
> yours: using just a computer with (QWERTY) keyboard and mouse, I can  
> get *any* score into Lilypond at least as quickly as I could into  
> Finale, and most scores I figure I get the notes on to the page in  
> 25-50% of the time required for Finale. The tweaking -- which ALWAYS  
> takes longer with Finale -- just cements Lilypond's advantage.
>
> So, I'm curious...
>    1. Are you simply talking about Step-Time Entry (or whatever they  
> currently call note-entry using a MIDI keyboard), or with QWERTY  
> keyboard and mouse?
>    2. If you still find Finale faster at note-entry without a MIDI  
> keyboard, what is slowing you down? (e.g., Do you not have good  
> standard templates set up? Is there something about the syntax that  
> consistently trips you up or confuses you?)
>
> Best regards,
> Kieren.


oh, I don't (didn't) use the MIDI entry much. I used mostly the simple  
entry, with keyboard commands modified from igor engraver. I think  
it's just that I have to completely re-work the way I think to put  
music into lilypond. Oh, I get the stuff into lilypond easily enough,  
lilypond requires me to adapt to it to put music in, while finale  
adapts to me to put music in (i.e., I can change the QWERTY keyboard  
commands to something that makes sense to me in finale.)