More than once I’ve been stymied by a Sibelius or Finale problem, or I’ve forgotten a buried technique. And more than once, I’ve turned to Robert Puff for the answer. Robert is a highly regarded music preparer who has worked on top film, video game, and concert projects, and his music copying expertise is deep and wide.
Robert authors the comprehensive blog Of Note, and you’re likely to find all sorts of goodies over there. Need the lowdown on how bar number ranges work in Finale and Sibelius? Or need to create wind and brass fingerings (Robert’s also a woodwind player)? You’ll even discover how to respell the key signature of a B-flat clarinet to read G-flat in a concert key of E (OK, I guest authored that post!).
Very often, Robert will cover the techniques needed to accomplish a particular task in both Sibelius and Finale, so if you need to use both programs but are less fluent in one or the other, you’ll find his posts worthwhile.
Depending on his busy schedule, he’ll not only reply to reader questions, but occasionally create a new tutorial based on them. He was even kind enough to guest author a post here not too long ago, about how to cleverly create custom line shapes in Sibelius by modifying symbols. Just yesterday, Jay Vilnai guest authored a post on Of Note offering several solutions for creating laisser vibrer symbols.
Steinberg’s Daniel Spreadbury, formerly of this blog and of Sibelius, once said, “Subscribe to Robert’s blog to be sure you never miss a trick!” Wise words indeed. If you don’t check Of Note regularly, you can find Robert’s RSS feed here or follow him on Twitter.