End of Finale, Start of….?

Posted on By ericdano 1 Comment on End of Finale, Start of….?

If you haven’t heard, the LONG TIME notation software (which I use), Finale, is going to be sunset. I think it is a terrible business decision. It would have been like Apple deciding to stop doing the Mac when it was in it’s iPod phase. Or it’s iPhone phase. Finale has been a stable, reliable platform to do music on. I have 24 years invested in this program. Thousands of Finale Files. I think MakeMusic’s pivot to “MakeMusic Cloud” is myopic.

There has been talk of perhaps one of the other software packages being able to open FinaleFiles natively. That would be nice. The current “solution” of exporting stuff out from Finale into MusicXML format is less than ideal.

So, what notation packages are remaining then? There is Sibelius. I’ve NEVER gotten into the Sibelius workflow. Ever. I have bought it a couple of times, and just never liked it.

There is the free Musescore. Honestly, it has come a LONG WAY. But it still has a long way to go. While simple leadsheets it can tackle, anything more looks like it would be rough.

So that leaves us with Dorico, the software started by ex-Sibelius developers after Avid gutted the original team. I tried it, and it has a lot of Sibelius like things about it. BUT……it does seem more Finale like than the other options. How it does linked parts is sorta how I think Finale would have eventually done it……if they ever got around to it.

Finale was really frustrating as it would introduce a feature……but it would have issues. They would wait a release or two, and then “fix it” and tout it as a new feature.

Anyhow, I tried, and I exported the “Zinn Practice regimen” to it. Looks pretty good. I need to get more of my “style” set up in it, but generally, it’s not bad.

  Zinn Practice Regimen 2024 (913.0 KiB, 3 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Adventure of a Lifetime (Coldplay)

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Oh yes, that song.

  Adventure Of A Lifetime by Coldplay for Eb Instruments (371.2 KiB, 8 hits)
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  Adventure Of A Lifetime by Coldplay for Bb Instruments (369.7 KiB, 3 hits)
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Something’s Coming – Michael Brecker Solo

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One of my Favorite solos

  Something's Coming - Brecker Solo (305.9 KiB, 7 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Shape Of You (Ed Sheeran)

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One of Ed’s major hits.

  Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran for Eb Instruments (390.3 KiB, 10 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – I’m Just Ken (Mark Ronson)

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From Barbie…..great song.

  I'm Just Ken by Mark Ronson for Eb Instruments (283.6 KiB, 13 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – Flowers (Miley Cyrus)

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Good song by Miley.

  Flowers by Miley Cyrus for Eb Instruments (278.4 KiB, 18 hits)
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Musician.Social – Take 2

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Over a year ago, Twitter sorta…….shitted itself. Elon Musk F’d it up big time. It is now paid, and basically a bastion of hate and misogyny and all other sorts of bad behavior.

So, I started a Mastodon site, Musician.Social……and it was thriving really well……until the Hosting startup failed. Big time failed. As in they didn’t have backups (like they said they would), etc,etc. So basically went from a 3k user base down to just me.

However, I resurrected it pretty much the same day, and it is hosted on a proven host, Masto.host, and has been running for about 5 months on it. It has been solid.

If you are looking to move away from Twitter, check it out. Mastodon has a lot of great Twitter like clients, there are NO ADS at all on the platform, and tons of interesting music related topics and other things.

Articles

Sheet Of The Week – Ghost City Tokyo (Ayase)

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Interesting song here…..

  Ghost City Tokyo by Ayase for Eb Instruments (299.2 KiB, 7 hits)
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Sheet Of The Week – How I’m Feeling Now (Lewis Capaldi)

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One by Lewis.

  How I'm Feeling by Lewis Capaldi for Eb Instruments (287.8 KiB, 3 hits)
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Two Items to add to your Gig Bag

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Found two great little items to add to your gig bag. First item are these SEFONE Keychain Work Lights. They are small, have magnets, and are way bright. So useful for packing up stuff on the stage. They are replacing the Lmaytech lights I previously recommended (I still love those though, but these lights are smaller).

The second item is this Voyager Saxophone Multi Tool. This is really for ANY woodwind instrument. This little tool is freaking amazing. It is extremely well designed, with the right sized screw drivers, spring pullers, etc. It is just essential to have.

Articles, Reviews

So…..we crashed

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Well, yesterday, Monday December 4th was interesting. The computer that was sitting around and serving up all my jazz- sites decided that it’s SSD drive was going to die. Completely. Not even enough for me to clone it off to another one.

So it was decision time. Keep hosting it at home, or perhaps do something different.

Something different won.

So now we are on Dreamhost on a VPS. It’s a little more expensive per month to run…..but the less traffic and electrical (plus not having to pay for static IPs) it should even out.

The other sites, other than my personal one, are still down. Hoping to get them up tomorrow.

News

Sheet Of The Week – Sugar We’re Going Down (Fallout Boy)

Posted on By ericdano 2 Comments on Sheet Of The Week – Sugar We’re Going Down (Fallout Boy)

Old school. That’s how we roll.

  Sugar We're Going Down by Fallout Boy for Eb Instruments (182.5 KiB, 11 hits)
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Gig Bag 2023

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Since 2022, gigging has been picking up. This year, I revamped my “Gig Bag” to reflect better what I am doing now.

The “OLD” Gig Bag was a Landsend Canvas laptop bag I got in the late 90s. I believe I had two of these, a black one and a blue one. The black one basically fell apart about 10 years ago, and the blue one has been my go to. It has done great….except I wanted something slightly more “rigid” to better hold items I am carrying. Also something slightly bigger. This “tool bag” fit the bill perfectly. In fact, one of the Amazon reviewers uses it for a gig bag. Small world.

In one of the new bag’s pockets, I have two of these rechargeable LED lights. So handy to pack up your stuff with proper lighting.

Next pocket has a small philips and straight blade screw driver, a stubby 6-in-1 screw driver, a Gerber Gear Dime multi-tool, an extra lightning cable, usb microcable, and a usb c cable, and small charger for them. And an extra USB stick. And an extra pedalboard patch cable.

Final front pocket is filled with a business card holder that holds my business cards, and a Logitech Crayon for my iPad.

In the bag, I have 2 6 foot XLR cables, 1 15 foot XLR cable, 1 15 foot power cord, two Hola! Music iPad holders that I mounted on a K&M Adjustable Stereo microphone bar, a RE-20 microphone, a Nuemann MCM 114 microphone, my pedal board with is really scaled back setup that has just a PedalTrain Metro 16 with a Elite Acoustics StompMix 4 and an Eventide H9 on it, two iPads, one for music, one to control the Roland AE-30 and IEMs, an Amazon Basic case with extra reeds and stuff, and my IEMs box (Xvive U4R2 with Sennheiser IE 40 Pros)

It’s a lot of stuff, but its been working really well for the pop group I have been playing with.

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