Correct me if I'm wrong DG, But arn't most conductors or concert scores in hollywood are non transcribed ? and a copiest is almost always used who writes orchestra parts by hand ? If thats the case then its just a luxury to hire a copiest who loves what he does. And saves alot of printing time. Notation programs have to be mastered or else they are just an agony. After all its just notes in uniform distributed on paper, made clear to see. Providing one has complete control over with ease.
It really depends of what composers we're talking about. Most things are transcribed into a notation program for preparing the musicians' parts. The benefits of this are that it is very easy to make drastic changes if necessary. I have seen a bevy of copyists with their laptops sitting around at sessions just waiting for the first big re-write. I don't know of any orchestral composer whose music is not computer transcribed these days.
However, the music preparation team can receive their "dots" in various ways.
1) It can come directly from the composer in pencil manuscript (very rare nowadays).
2) Directly from the composer in sequencer notation. This is used as a guide and the copyists will re-input it (maybe from the MIDI file) into a dedicated notation program.
3) Directly from the composer in Finale or Sibelius. The copyists will tidy up the scores and then extract and print the parts.
4) A pencil score from the orchestrator
5) A Sibelius or Finale score form the orchestrator.
DG
