[DELETED] [GBA] Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - "Cackletta Battle (Final)" (Replacement) by Supahstar Saga

[WaluigiTime64]

I'm unable to edit a lot of things in Finale Notepad, such as supporting multiple key signatures and smartly changing the number of measures in a system (i.e. without creating one-measure systems).)

I failed to notice a crucial two-letter word. My bad.

I got a bit confused because you mentioned:

I'm speaking as a Musescore user who exports MusicXML files and sticks them in Finale Notepad.

Which made me question why you even talked about:

supporting multiple key signatures and smartly changing the number of measures in a system

Because you can do that by exporting MusicXML files and sticking them into Finale NotePad without fail.

Sorry for pointless chatter lol.
Regarding the actual submission, although you can format without the full version of Finale (complex XML editing), it's just easier to either have Finale, or get a person who does to format the sheet for you. If it's just in your Personal Arrangement Thread, then it doesn't matter. Only when you need to submit a sheet to the site do you need to go through this simple process, so it's really not that bad.

[Altissimo]

tbh the easiest solution is probably to create in musescore, export to finale, fix what you can there, and give the rest to someone else to fix. i'm more than happy to help personally if u want

[Supahstar Saga]

Thanks, Altissimo! Can I still use my own pdf if the mus is mostly for MIDI?

[Altissimo]

The MUS and the PDF need to match exactly. So if someone else helps to edit your sheet, then they can probably make a PDF of the edited version as well.

[Supahstar Saga]

If I get the mus changed to be exactly like the pdf, can I still keep the pdf?

[Maelstrom]

If I get the mus changed to be exactly like the pdf, can I still keep the pdf?

The MUS and the PDF need to match exactly. So if someone else helps to edit your sheet, then they can probably make a PDF of the edited version as well.

No.

[Supahstar Saga]

That strikes me as terrible website management. Why would you force most of your new users to learn an entirely new software, one that's not free to boot? One which has a free version, but requires many users jumping through many hoops to use? I'm aware that Finale was the standard many years ago, but we shouldn't need to use it in 2017.

[Altissimo]

you're wasting your breath, i've argued this exact point a shitton of times. It gets nowhere. Trust me. I'm not trying to discourage you but it's just not going to change anything and I know this.

[Maelstrom]

That strikes me as terrible website management. Why would you force most of your new users to learn an entirely new software, one that's not free to boot? One which has a free version, but requires many users jumping through many hoops to use? I'm aware that Finale was the standard many years ago, but we shouldn't need to use it in 2017.

Why? Consistency. It helps that all the sheets are based off the same standard, which gives the site a visual consistency not seen elsewhere on the internet. Why don't we switch? ~3340 sheets with 3-4 files each. It's too much. We've had these discussions in the past at great length. Here's a sample from one of those discussions that says it better than I just did:

In addition to the above, here's a practical reason without saying "because it's always been this way": Using a Finale file as a master file allows us to keep everything in sync - that is, generate a .mid and a .pdf file off of the .mus so we know they're all up to date by checking against one file. Trying to incorporate files from other notation software would make our retention of multiple file types asynchronous, meaning that any small change in one would have to be made in the exact same change in the other, which is really bad because it's easily prone to error and causes more work for the arrangers and updaters, who would (and should) rather be checking an arrangement for its content and not having to deal with using multiple notation softwares. It's good practice to consistently offer the same file type for every arrangement, and also simplifies site maintenance for the staff (should anything need to be changed, a quick change to the .mus and a couple of exports is all that is needed).

All that said, there are people around here more than willing to help you iron out the kinks with file conversion. MuseScore arrangers still have potential to be successful here - just read some of the above posts. So don't worry too much.

[WaluigiTime64]

you're wasting your breath, i've argued this exact point a shitton of times. It gets nowhere. Trust me. I'm not trying to discourage you but it's just not going to change anything and I know this.

^ this. Some people may agree, but a lot of people don't (particularly people who, y'know, have Finale), so it's probably not in your best interest to argue this.

Also ninja'd by Maelstrom.

[Supahstar Saga]

The consistent mus and pdf are up. Thanks, Static, for formatting them!

[Yug_Guy]

Hey, just for future reference, you can download a 3rd-party program to create PDF's in Finale Notepad. For example, this is the one I use. Hopefully this helps!

[Supahstar Saga]

I have one already (PDF24). Static was just making the adjustments that I could not.

[FireArrow]

The purpose of a key signature is not to help the reader with accidentals, but to show the tonic/tonal center yes? I'm personally against no key signature songs that are obviously not centered around C or A, technically allowable or not.

[Pianoth]

The purpose of a key signature is not to help the reader with accidentals, but to show the tonic/tonal center yes? I'm personally against no key signature songs that are obviously not centered around C or A, technically allowable or not.

Yeah, I agree, although no key signature is also fine if the piece is atonal. The beginning of this is piece is kinda atonal... But the rest isn't. This should definitely be written using Bb minor key signature, even if you find it less readable (I don't even agree on this point since you would just need to use the alterations more carefully). You need an example in which this is done? Chopin Sonata N. 2, fourth movement (pages 17~19). There are a lot of alterations in the piece, and it doesn't even seem much "tonal" sometimes, but it's written with Bb minor key signature, since it ends pretty clearly in Bb minor.
This piece, on the other hand, doesn't have an ending, but it's clearly moving around Bb flat minor. So, at least in my opinion, it should be written with that key signature.