Mike Halloran

Not all Intel Macs will run Encore. The 2020 iMac definitely won’t (we have one) and neither will the 2019. Neither will the Mac Pro 7.1 or any other Mac introduced new in 2019 or later. All ship with 64 bit operating systems that cannot be downgraded.

MacOS 10.14 Mojave is the last OS that can run Encore 5.0.7 and it’s the best one. The 2018 Mini was the last Mac that shipped with Mojave. If you need to run a later MacOS, configure a Mojave bootable APFS Volume and Option-Boot into it when you need to run Encore—a bootable external drive works, too. Those Macs with T1 and T2 chips will need their security settings modified in the Repair Partition but again, Apple has Support docs on this.

I like the screen sharing idea though I do monitor sharing instead. My 2017 iMac Pro is sold and the 13″ & 15″ screens on my 2012 MacBook Pros are just too small for these old eyes. It’s 27″ or nothing for me these days.

No idea. Date formats look fine over Chrome on my Mac.

Frankly, I hope not. The use of dashed slurs is one of the scourges of modern vocal music. They make it harder to read and add nothing. Look at old hymnals to see how this was done for centuries.

Dashed slurs should be used for critical editions to suggest edits not found in a manuscript or urtext. There are bowing articulations that require them, too. Otherwise, make it easy on singers and don’t use dashed slurs.

Running 5.0.7 from a Mojave boot drive works well. Andre has the full installer plus some support docs that I forwarded to him.

For best results, it’s important that all older versions be removed, especially fonts from the Users/(user)/Library/Fonts. The 5.0.7 installer does not remove fonts from that directory. Encore fonts should only reside in HD/Library/Fonts.

Chord naming is one of my priority items. That Finale does not include the minus symbol as a default for a minor chord, for example, is insane and one of the many issues I intend to address during the next beta round.

Such flexibility has never been possible in Encore and it would be a wholly new feature so I’m not expecting it in the first release of 6. I’d like to see it added, though. For those of us who do lead sheets and small band projects, custom chord symbols that could be saved would be a timesaver.

“I can’t get along with Finale, MuseScore and Dorico from Steinberg at all. I have to look in the manual all the time. Very time consuming…”

Indeed. I have all three. Dorico is too rigid and MuseScore is still a hot mess.

However, I’ve always used Finale for my heavy lifting where Encore isn’t up to the task so, while I want Encore 6, I can get by in Finale 27. I use three monitors as I work: one for the score, one for all the tool palettes and the third has the User Guide — can’t work Finale without that open.

As many times as people have banged the drum for Harmony Assistant, I have yet to open a MTD or Encore file in it where the result was useable. Not once, not ever and I’ve revisited this a few times over the last 15 years or so.

Encore 5 will open MTD 4 files. Since I no longer own a Mac that can run Encore 4.5.5 or earlier, I don’t know what is required to open those old files. I converted my MTD 1 & 2 files to Encore nearly 20 years ago, then to Encore 5 about a decade ago.

“I’ll keep my eyes open for anyone selling a registered version of encore.”

The company that sold Encore 5 is gone. No one should be selling it. There are some demo copies online but you can’t Print or Save with those.

We have been told that the new company developing Encore 6 may have a release by November this year. It will open Encore 5 and MTD 4 files. Whether it opens earlier files remains to be seen. There will be a demo available so that you can try before you buy.