Comments on: Notation Software Upgrades; Finale 2008 Adds Audio Recording, Single Selection Tool, Styles

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:41:11 +0000

I am having problems cutting and pasting Music into a word document. Is there an easy way to do this in Finale 2008 ?? When I finally get it there I seem to have problems with spacing it. Do you have an easy solution?
Thanks..
Drew

By: Quinn Bastian

Quinn Bastian — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:01:54 +0000

Why are we seeing comments from 15 months ago about a version that was only recently released?

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:59:52 +0000

Notability Pro has had the ability to drag in audio files for ages. Half the price of the big guns too. AU hosting way before either Sib or Finale too!
Mac only though but better for Mac users for that!

By: Warren Blum

Warren Blum — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:56:18 +0000

I haven’t upgraded yet, but this discussion is very convincing. One thing I really like about Finale is their tech support.

By: Aldo Rodriguez

Aldo Rodriguez — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 03:22:55 +0000

Anyone knows if the audio file can be printed in the score and/or parts?
That would be very useful for EA composers… thanks

By: pb

pb — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:22:54 +0000

I find the import audio feature a bit disappointing. One can’t (or a least I can’t figure out how to) manually manipulate the measures/bar lines or nudge the track around in the program once imported. With regard to the imported audio track, Finale chooses what it thinks your tempo is and creates it’s own measures and barlines -which you are then stuck with (even if they are incorrect). This is okay if the track you are importing has been recorded to a click but if you import a live studio track (recorded without a click) that you wish to write an arrangement for, it is impossible.

There should be a way to import the track without Finale determining the parameters, then create one’s own tempo map and barlines. Have flexibilty. Love Finale, but this one was too good to be true for me. Maybe a great future update.

I think Logic Notation is ahead of the game on this issue.

By: Vince

Vince — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 02:32:26 +0000

I’ve used both Finale and Sibelius, and I’ve always found the menus in Finale clumbsy, but the playback engine more agreeable. The Softsynth sounds were of good quality for scoring and were included in a small install, compared with Sibelius which is useless without added Kontakt libraries – a large install and more distraction to tweak.

By: _object.session

_object.session — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:28:29 +0000

those really do sound like a good set of upgrades. i first used finale for a composition class this past spring, but these improvements already sound helpful. but as a student (and not exactly a music student), notation programs seem pretty expensive. compared to other academic prices, at least.

are there are any comparable low cost or free alternatives? comparable meaning almost as powerful (an 8 staff limit doesn’t really seem to cut it) and almost as user friendly? or maybe i should invest in this and try to use free application elsewhere (word processing, etc).

the added audio import capabilities are probably pretty simplistic, although it looks like maybe you can cut and move portions of the input? being able to print and maybe label or otherwise add notation to the samples would be handy, but probably wishful thinking.

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:40:34 +0000

I agree absolutely, Tim, and I’m generally a big fan of Sibelius in other respects. I think there is some reason for this, though, and that’s that there’s an awful lot of work to go through an implement all these details, and there may just not be anyone willing/capable enough on the Sibelius side. But I hope they do look at this, as Sibelius does push these playback features — and in the early versions of Sibelius, they were some of the first to introduce basic “humanized” playback in the first palce.

Finale 2008 does look like a big upgrade. One thing I never fully understood was people complaining about the annual upgrades, because you can simply ignore them and grab them when you’re ready. Upgrading every year may not make sense for many people — particularly lab environments, where you multiply the upgrade cost across a lot of seats. But you do have a choice.

By: Tim Thompson

Tim Thompson — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:00:26 +0000

These are some very welcome improvements (modernizations…) in Finale. Even though Finale’s update cycle is annual, I have been sticking with biennial upgrading in the last few years, and that has worked out pretty well. I’m looking forward to this update. IMHO, Finale’s implementation of human playback and kontakt/garritan integration has much better results than Sibelius’. Even listen to the online demos from the Sibelius website vs. the Finale website. I stopped by the Sibelius booth at NECC and they had version 5 running with a standard orchestral score (can’t remember which–Rossini?). I put the headphones in and ran the playback. It was a complex setup with mostly Garritan instruments, and it sounded like crap. Articulations, dynamics, nothing was very intelligently followed. Everything was very abrupt and crass. Finale 2006 seems to do it much better than Sibelius 5 with no effort on the user’s part. I don’t understand why this is. All my friends who are Sibelius users have terrible automated playback results.

Sorry if it sounds like I’m bashing Sibelius. There is no reason why there should be so much disparity in this area.

Peter, another thing I noticed is that Fin08 accommodates combination of playback engines for human playback. That means I can stop sending MIDI from Finale to AU Lab to do this.

Tim