MakeMusic unveils Finale 2008
updated 01:55 pm EDT, Thu June 28, 2007
Finale 2008 unveiled
MakeMusic has unveiled Finale 2008, the latest upgrade to its music software that boasts unprecedented playback options as well as major productivity enhancements and improved control. Finale 2008 records/imports a mono or stereo audio file to enhance playback, includes more than 250 world-class instrument sounds from the makers of the Garritan Personal Orchestra, and offers multiple sound libraries that work together. The company is already accepting pre-orders for Finale 2008, which is scheduled to ship in July.
Further interface improvements designed to increase productivity include the ability to copy music, adjust expressions, transpose, add repeats, and more with one tool; keystrokes to select measures or partial measures horizontally and vertically without visiting a menu; multiple tools with support for copy/paste, measure additions, transposition, measure layout, and auto-orchestration; streamlined menus alongside more powerful contextual menus and intuitive keystrokes; and a new ScoreMerger that combines parts into a score and joins multiple scores/movements into one document, even if they don't contain the same number of staves or have different instrumentation.
Sheet music improved
Users can produce professional quality sheet music via document styles that instantly personalize the appearance of new documents, controlling text, music fonts, all libraries, text, graphics, and page layout. An enhanced setup wizard offers more options and control while providing intelligent page layout to automatically adjust system position, size, and space between staves to reduce white space on the page.
Additional new features include Microsoft Windows Vista support, improved scanning, new as well as fully searchable help documentation, expanded MusicXML support, and Human Playback support for additional sound libraries.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
Here we go again!
Just as Sibelius has announced their 5.0, shipping, well, tomorrow, Finale is now responding. I was hoping Sibelius was going to steal some market share away from the Quark of the music publishing.
Finale seems to be making their updates every year, so this shouldn't be surprise. If the substance of this update makes the software easier to use, then it might sustain the dominance. Sibelius got its share by being so much easier to learn by the musicians. Unfortunately (for Sibelius), some peculiar situations in complex scores are not always handled properly. While these problems are minuscule and can, in general, only be spotted by professional music engravers, Finale's flexibility allows for proper handling of such situations. In general, most professional engravers agree that Finale requires less tweaking before output can be printed and published. Perhaps this is why Sibelius is so much more popular by musicians, who are not concerned as much about the perfection of their musical layout, since they only print one copy of their score and few copies of parts for instruments. Finale, on the other hand, has many fans in music publishing business, where output MUST be laid out correctly and perfectly.
I am anxious to see what substantive improvements this version is bringing to the table. Like in any industry, competition is always healthy and good.