COSC12MQ@JETSON.UH.EDU (Reza Hussein) (12/14/90)
Does anyone out there knows anything about Personal Composer 3.3? I'm planning to get one but do not have enough informations about it. I'll be appreciated for your help.
hawk@cbnewsl.att.com (james.p.hawkins) (12/15/90)
In article <EDFFBD00C55FE442E3@jetson.uh.edu>, COSC12MQ@JETSON.UH.EDU (Reza Hussein) writes: > > Does anyone out there knows anything about Personal Composer 3.3? I'm > planning to get one but do not have enough informations about it. I'll be > appreciated for your help. Reza, I have been using Personal Composer for about 1 year now. I have the 3.3 version now. I just purchased FINALE 1.1.1 for as much as I bought Personal composer for. FINALE needs MS WINDOWS 3.0 to run, but I think it's worth the extra bit of money. Leigh's in NY can give you an excellent price. I don't have the slip with me so I don't remember exactly what I paid. Anyway, Personal Composer has some serious problems. 1) Repeat marks don't work! 2) I scored a 200 measure piece (with the option set to 400 measures) and part of the MUSIC DISAPPEARED with no warning because I ran short of memory when I had another device driver loaded. 3) Personal COmp handles triplets and quintuplets, but no other tuples as does FINALE. 4) Symbols for crecendo and dim. are just symbols, they don't do anything. 5) Grace notes are there only for looks and don't do anything. 6) Arpeggio: there is no symbol or function to my knowledge. 7) It DOES read standard midi files (not documented for some reason) but it DOES *NOT* create them. I found a converter from a BBS. 8) As far as I know, you can't control note durations (staccatto and legatto, etc.) There are a number of other annoying problems with the program. It has a built in sequencer and LISP interpreter which as far as I'm concerned take up space and cost money that could have been spent for a better scoring program. It's better to get a good dedicated sequencer if that's what you want. Sequencer Plus is excellent. Do you want to pay for a LISP interpreter? I've tried the Personal Composer Sequencer and found it difficult to use. I have played with a demo of Music Printer Plus which is seems quite nice as a scoring program in my opinion. However, AS far as I know, Music Printer PLus is copy protected which makes it a problem to back up. FINALE is not Copy Protected. It's worth paying for! I am presently attending a MIDI MUSIC course at Brookdale Community College in NJ. They use FINALE and SEQUENCER Plus for their scoring program and sequencer. One disadvantage to FINALE is that it may be MORE than you want. It's loaded with features. MS Windows 3.0 can be purchased for $100.00. I bought my copy at B. Daltons book store. So, in pricing FINALE add $100.00 you will need for MS Windows. If you have any other questions, give me a call at home (609)596-1129. I can also look up the price I paid for FINALE. - I suggest saving the extra bucks and get something other than Personal Composer there are other good programs out there that I'm less familiar with. I also suggest getting some other opinions of FINALE as I am relatively inexperienced with it. Jim Hawkins