I don't understand the question. I think my point as stated is clear. I don't understand why there's a question about DAWs.

I don't use the mixer much, but doesn't it follow the score order? The score from top to bottom, is reflected as left to right in the mixer. That seems logical to me. We read a page from the top down, and left to right.

As far as a DAW, same thing, instruments are read top down, then when you switch to a DAW's mixer, it becomes left to right.

But if this confuses you, then you can re-order your staves in any custom order you want.

You're suggesting I change staff ordering JUST to manipulate the mixer order.

No.

>We read a page from the top down, and left to right.

That has absolutely nothing to do with what I am talking about. How do you think that "reading order" has anything to do with the concept of "higher parts" ("higher" referring to PITCH) vs. "lower parts"?

So, if we're talking about PITCH, which is what I'm talking about (I'm not talking about reading order, which is what you're talking about, although WHY you're bringing it up is totally beyond me), then the question is: is there ANY non-arbitrary association between PITCH, and UP-AND-DOWNNESS, and between PITCH and LEFT-AND-RIGHTNESS.

Obviously, in the former case, HIGHER PITCH should be associated with "HIGHER NOTATION, i.e., higher on the page. We do that in general with orchestra scores, and we do it ABSOLUTELY with choruses (sopranos are higher on the page than basses) and string quartets (Violin 1 is higher on the page than Cello).

Assuming everybody agrees with this, then what about "left/right"? Is there any non-arbitrary, "natural" association between "higher pitch" LEFT vs. RIGHT-ness? 

Hmmm. Thinking hard here. Real hard. Can you think of anything? Any common instrument that makes that association for us?

Piano.

Higher pitches are to the right. Lower to the left.

Thus, when I have SATB or string quartet or any other type of score with staves arranged in generally "low to high" pitch order, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THEM IN THAT CONFIGURATION THAT MATCHES THE PIANO.

This has nothing to do with read order.

I don't care what DAWs do, either. 

So I assert that allowing mixing channels to be represented as low-to-high, left-to-right, allows for many of us who are pianists to conceive more naturally of where mixer channels are.

Please see previous statement about A) not caring about reading order, and B) not caring about whatever DAW's do. 

Pianos go left to right, low to high. I would like to see mixer channels that same way.

What about (C). Nobody cares what you want, since everybody in the industry seems to be OK with the way it is?

So much for making a logical argument that flies in the face of "how things are".

Logical or not, I daresay there would be many more complaints about Finale’s mixer working differently than every other one.

Hi Paul:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and rationale behind the request. I hear you requesting the ability to order staves in the Mixer independent of the Score Order. For example, you would want Piccolo, Flute, Violin to the right with Basson, Tuba, and Double Bass on the far left based on their tonal range. Yes, the piano keyboard is low (left) to high (right). It is an interesting decision that applications have made to flip that. I looked at several notation and audio applications. They all have the Mixer, if horizontal, following the score order and going left (high) to right (low). If they have a piano keyboard (roll), it goes Low (bottom) to high (top), but does follow the natural keyboard of low (left) to high (right). It is funny how things rotate in an application. I will take your request into consideration, but we do not plan to provide custom ordering of the mixer at this time.

Cheers,

Michael Johnson

VP, Professional Notation

MakeMusic