Regular visitors to the Finale Blog are likely aware of Tim Davies, the Los Angeles-based arranger, orchestrator, and Grammy Award-nominated composer who’s also a busy conductor, drummer, and bandleader. His recent film projects include work as conductor and orchestrator on Disney’s “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” which opened last week, and as the conductor and score arranger on “The Book of Life” (which opens this Friday). Visit the bio page on Tim’s website to see a few more of his many high-profile projects.

I know part of the secret to Tim’s productivity: He’s crazy efficient. He also clearly enjoys leveraging technology to increase this efficiency. Tim not only uses third-party software like QuicKeys to create additional keyboard shortcuts for Finale, but he also uses a separate iPad app to provide instant access, via MIDI, to all of his many QuicKeys scripts.

Tim recently created a screencast, titled “Extreme Australian Orchestrating,” that offers a glimpse of his workflow. In it he orchestrates a cue – from beginning to end – and details many of his productivity tricks, both in and outside of Finale. Be sure to check out the “picture-in-picture” view of his hands, input devices, and tricked-out iPad:

If you’re interested in learning more about Tim’s world, I encourage you to explore deBreved, Tim’s orchestration and arranging blog.

Let us know what you think – or how you’re using Finale – by clicking on “Comments” below.