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Composing Music => Submission Help => Topic started by: Samurai on February 21, 2015, 10:00:40 pm

Title: Finale Notepad 2008
Post by: Samurai on February 21, 2015, 10:00:40 pm
So you'd like to begin submitting music to the site.  MUS files can be created by the MakeMusic software line, but you don't want to buy the product or waste a free trial. But it's possible to create MUS files using a free program. So what? So

Finale NotePad 2008 (http://www.finalemusic.com/store/download.aspx?id=392) *sparkles*

The page will prompt you to log in before allowing you to go to the download page. That might add a few minutes to your time.

So what's the catch?

Finale Notepad is obviously way more limited than any of the software you can purchase. Why? I think what it lacks can be so annoying that it can convince you to buy their product (marketing). Here is a basic list of what Notepad can and can't do:

CAN

General

Create MUS files
Open MIDI files and display notes

Specific

Add measures
Has keyboard, chorus, strings,woodwind, brass, plucked strings and percussion instruments available
Has preset time and key signatures
Simple note entry: whole, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second and their rests available; notes can be dotted, can insert naturals/flats/sharps, create ties and tuplets
Add slurs, glissandos, crescendos, decrescendos and lines
Type texts and lyrics
Add articulations: only 25 are available. You will find fff, ff, f, mf, mp, p, pp, ppp here as well, in Allegro, they are under the "expressions" button.

CAN'T

General

Open files created by Allegro/purchased product. It's not Reader after all.

Specific

Delete specific measures, though you can select and delete the entire sheet's measures---wtfbbq, if this is a joke, it's not funny
Create different time signatures other than preset 2/2, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, C, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, 12/8.
Use 8va/8vb/15va/15vb---this really limits what you can write, huh?
Enter grace notes
Change your key signature in the middle of the piece. You are only allowed one key signature per file/piece.
Assign a tempo to expressions/text

In short, if you're hard at work on a new piece, don't be surprised if you go "ZOMG, they don't have it"

- Cheers,
Samurai

If you catch any mistakes, tell me. Or if you have something to add.