Nothing there for me, but thanks!

I don't see any value there for me. I make my own templates that has what music directors have told me they want and like in a score. Plus running Perfect Layout on them afterwards puts everything in accepted industry standards.

Besides I didn't see a concert band template anyway, maybe I missed it.

Just making people aware this exists in case they were interested.

(Odd that someone who has been flogging Perfect Layout would post just to say he wouldn't use this.)

Thank you J ADRIAN VERKOUTEREN for making the Finale community aware of our Scoring Express packages for Finale!

These are a fantastic way to create distinctive-looking scores and parts with settings that have been adjusted in virtually every corner of the program, based on our decades of experience and long history of tips we share on the Scoring Notes blog.

I understand someone might take a quick look at our page and say there is nothing in it for them. But just so people are aware of the breadth and depth of these packages, it's not just a set of pre-configured instrumentation choices. That's arguably the least exciting feature of Scoring Express.

Many people need more expert guidance is on things like good font choices, positioning, engraving settings, and all of the many hundreds of settings that we’ve tweaked in Scoring Express, and can be imported into any project, regardless of instrumentation. So rather than provide hundreds of template files, we whittled it down to between 9 and 11 per package. Even if you just inspect the example files in the package to see what’s there, and make use of some of our custom adjustments and font choices by applying those settings to your files, it’s still very useful.

For starters, everything is fully updated for Finale v27 and SMuFL. Our templates use Steinberg's Bravura music font as well as distinctive text fonts like Academico, Tinos, and Arimo. The Document Options have all been adjusted accordingly and if you compare our templates with a Finale default document, right away you'll notice the difference. Here is just one comparison, with Finale defaults on the left, and Scoring Express defaults on the right:

There are lots of additional Expression Categories and Smart Lines — we've thought about things like separate categories for dynamics above the staff; instrumentation changes; cues; percussion; phrase markings, etc., all with the correct placement and enclosure settings. The lines come pre-configured with many additional choices.

Here is my blog post describing everything more in detail:

Scoring Express for Dorico and Finale released; Sibelius templates updated

Parts especially are a great way to make use of Scoring Express, since the same settings can generally be applied within a particular style, regardless of ensemble size.

Even if you work in larger ensembles such as band or orchestra, or don't see your particular combination of instruments in one of the templates, you can still get very good results, and we've actually made very good use of them in larger orchestral projects already. “Templates” are actually a bit of misnomer - I like to say “Scoring Express is much more than just the templates.” I understand a user may not see their particular instrumentation represented in the templates. I’ve found that adding or deleting instruments is something most users can do very easily. Indeed, Finale already provide a large number of templates with many instrumentation variations. But the engraving and notation settings in those is still the stock Finale default in most cases. In fact, you could start with a Finale template for instrumentation purposes, and then import our libraries into it to as you like to quickly get much better-looking results.

The installer installs everything at once: fonts, stand-alone templates, document styles, manuscript papers, and the libraries, so that you can quickly.

Finally, if you ever need to work in other software, like Dorico or Sibelius, you know how challenging it is to make files look consistent among the different platforms. This is another goal of Scoring Express — we've done all of that work to match the output as closely as possible. While it's not a pixel-perfect comparison (Finale and Dorico and Sibelius are very different, after all), it's remarkable how similar we've got them each to look.

I hope that helps explain a little about what we want to achieve with Scoring Express and the needs we aim to address. Looking forward to seeing how you use it!

ERNEST BIGGS Even though we don't have a concert band template per se, here is a video showing a way to use the Setup Wizard to create a Concert Band score and parts using Finale's Concert Band (Full) Ensemble and our MT Pit orchestra Document Style from the Scoring Express Theatre & Studio package, with a little assist from the Global Staff Attributes plug-in:

https://youtu.be/RflPaCc9EKU

Although I dislike its workflow, there are many things to admire about the overall look of Dorico. A few old articles in Scoring Notes tell us how to achieve that same look in Finale but it’s time consuming and not for the faint of heart. These templates save a lot of time for very little money. Well done!

(Odd that someone who has been flogging Perfect Layout would post just to say he wouldn't use this.)

J ADRIAN VERKOUTEREN

I don't believe I said I would not use them. Did you read something in there I didn't say? I have my favorite plug-ins I use in Finale consistently that make it better for me. Very much in favor of them. It's how I work.  As I believe I said, "I don't see any value there for me. I make my own templates ..."

As to "flogging" (whatever that means) I simply report back to the four plug-ins I use all the time. JW Change, JW Polyphony, NP3 and, yes, Perfect Layout are my favorites. Installing these three plug-ins plus NP3 make Finale 27 the best Finale ever.

If they are not reported on, new folks and perhaps some older folks will never know that.

PHILIP ROTHMAN,

Yes, I did visit your web site and watch the vid. I do out of curiosity to all the add-ons for Finale. It is just, for me, PL does basically the same thing plus it puts everything where it is supposed to be. Or, at least 98% complete, all at industry standards.

If it's any consolation I gave Jan Anglemuller a lot of bother before he convinced me to give PL a try.

MIKE HALLORAN Thank you! That's what we were hoping to achieve. Enjoy!

ERNEST BIGGS Thank you for checking it out! If you pick up Scoring Express I think you'll find it very complementary to Perfect Layout and a great addition to your toolbox.

Are you planning anything for us choral and opera composers? Yes, I know that what you have can be modified but still…

MIKE HALLORAN I can't give a definite yes but it's certainly something we want to do. Of course, a suite of choral and vocal templates is one thing to put together … opera is quite another :-)