I thought it better to just start a new thread instead of derailing that one, but I'm wondering how many of you realized Sibelius has compromised proportionality built in to their default? I even questioned them about it once and got their standard "we've studied all the best scores and this is the best way" canned response. Perhaps they thought it was a little more humanistic, but I much prefer mathematical precision. At least it's easy enough to change.Vaughan wrote:it becomes more difficult to read the music if the proportionality is extremely compromised.
Here are their default spacing settings: The ratio of to is 1.3, to is 1.38, to is 1.7, to is 1.38, etc. None of the spacing values (in spaces) are fixed of course as the program scales them to fit the system, as does Finale if you use an allotment library. I do find it interesting that Sibelius does not use a fixed ratio though and the quarter to half ratio is noticeably different than the others. I wonder how many publishers using Sibelius alter these values and how many just use the slightly odd shipping version?
FWIW, I tweaked my Sib settings to use Golden Mean ratios, and I use 1.618 as the "Scaling Factor" in Finale. Does anyone else use a spacing system that is deliberately not exactly proportional like the Sibelius default?