Finale

ken k · Post by **ken k** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:52 pm

The Make Music Company which makes Fianle also makes a series of other music printing software. Print Muisc and Finale Allegro, I believe are the names of two less expensive versions. It has been awhile since I checked out their website, but it should have the info you need
I believe it is www.makemusic.com

if that is not it, do a search and you should be able to find it.
I have used finale for about 10 years. I tis great. If you are a teacher or church musician you can get it cheaper. I beleve students may be able to get the educator/liturgical version too.

ken k
ken k

Doug@GT · Post by **Doug@GT** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 10:52 pm

Finale is a great program once you learn to use it properly. Thing is, that's easier said than done. Unless you've got the time to play around with it for a couple of years before you "need" it, get something cheaper.

DonShirer · Post by **DonShirer** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:12 am

I have been using Finale for over 12 years, and am still finding out more things for it to do, though I confess to still having trouble setting up Percussion Maps. I stopped upgrading in 2002, though my wife still uses the 1997 version--she didn't want to go through the relearning process again.

Don "Help, I'm trapped in a cascading pull down menu" Shirer

Carroll · Post by **Carroll** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:48 am

I have been using (and upgrading) Finale since Finale 1. I do copywork for a local band composer and lots of arrangements for my school bands and my quartet. I worked quite a bit with Sibelius, Notewriter, and Composer. Finale is what the composer's publishers want... so that is what they get. As far as the learning curve - it is steep - but Finale will do ANYTHING you need. My advice is to pick a project, learn what you need for that project, and ignore the rest of the bells and whistles. Then pick another project.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:57 am

I used to use Finale and agree that it'll probably do just about anything if you put enough effort into it and you can make the result look stunning if you put enough effort into it.

But I'm basically lazy, so I switched to Sibelius a number of years ago. Sibelius lets me concentrate on putting the music together and produces a very readable result. All too many Finale scores, in my experience, are distinguished by really lousy page turns which probably means nothing more than someone didn't put enough effort into it.

Dylan King · Post by **Dylan King** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 3:38 am

I used to use Sibelius to print my scores. Back in the old days when I was sequencing with Digital Performer. Now that I have switched to Lofic, I have no need for a notation program. In many ways the notation editor in Logic is better than Sibelius. In many, many ways.

And Finale is difficult to use. I relate to a theory instructor in college. It does everything by the book, and lacks creativity and "user friendliness".

MartyNeilan · Post by **MartyNeilan** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:54 am

Finale PrintMusic is a good compromise between the bare bones notepad (used it but out grew it) and the full version (can't afford it.) For the stuff I do it is exeellent at a fraction of teh cost of its big brother.

Bove · Post by **Bove** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:54 pm

I have had very nice results using Sibelius for quintet music, and etudes/warm-up style stuff. In the past, I have used Finale, but Sibelius now seems to be a superior program for my purposes.

My projects are usually done quickly, and look nice, although I am not doing anything too complex.

ThomasDodd · Post by **ThomasDodd** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:22 pm

Call me strange, buy I like LilyPond. :)

None of those GUI menus and buttons or mouse clicks.
This is a good piecon on why lilipond is better than most programs, in a way far bet6ter than I can.

I also like that it free, run on my OS of choice, and the input conversion tools are a great head start.

A nice source for free, public domain music is http://www.mutopiaproject.org
And it's available in LilyPond format!

They list some othe PD sites on the hopme page too.

Doug@GT · Post by **Doug@GT** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:45 pm

ThomasDodd wrote:Call me strange, buy I like LilyPond.

None of those GUI menus and buttons or mouse clicks.
This is a good piecon on why lilipond is better than most programs, in a way far bet6ter than I can.

I also like that it free, run on my OS of choice, and the input conversion tools are a great head start.

A nice source for free, public domain music is http://www.mutopiaproject.org
And it's available in LilyPond format!

They list some othe PD sites on the hopme page too.

Interesting. I will play around with this next semester.

Doug "Georgia Tech has put just enough computer geek in me to think this is neat"

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 4:43 pm

I view Lillypond as more of an engraving package--the second pass after the music's written and debugged. Sort of like TeX--miserable to do rough sketches and tweaks on, but great for producing wonderful-looking output.

ThomasDodd · Post by **ThomasDodd** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:47 pm

Chuck(G) wrote:I view Lillypond as more of an engraving package--the second pass after the music's written and debugged. Sort of like TeX--miserable to do rough sketches and tweaks on, but great for producing wonderful-looking output.

I guess you'd want a GUI for that.

I played withe Denemo for a while in March 2003. I decided to stick with emacs for the time. I need to check the latest version.
NoteEdit was in SuSe's distrobution, but the original developer has stopped. I see that somone is continuing it though.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 7:42 pm

Hmmm...

NoteEdit maybe, but it still boils down to sittlng at a piano keyboard and listening. I could do just fine with ledger paper and a pencil, if it weren't for the requirement of copying out transposed parts for various instruments.

Call it a crutch for dummies, but it really is nice to have a package that already knows about Euph TC and BC, F horn and brass band notation and such. Too bad sibelius doesn't output anything (except MIDI) that Lillypond or anything else understands.

I assume that's by deliberate intent. Heaven forfend if a noation package should output NIFF or another noation format. I wrote the Sibelius people and asked if they could read ETF and NIFF, why couldn't they write it?

No answer. I guess it should be obvious.

MaryAnn · Post by **MaryAnn** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:13 am

Chuck(G) wrote:Hmmm...

Call it a crutch for dummies, but it really is nice to have a package that already knows about Euph TC and BC, F horn and brass band notation and such. Too bad sibelius doesn't output anything (except MIDI) that Lillypond or anything else understands.

So which is it that understands Euph TC? I just wrote a short march for brass band, and my Finale 2002b did not have a brass band template.....so I had to make one up, score the alto parts for horn in F and transpose when I was done, same for the euphs in TC. The tubas were very happy to have BC so I didn't have to mess with that. Pain in the rear.

MA

ThomasDodd · Post by **ThomasDodd** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:20 am

Chuck(G) wrote: Call it a crutch for dummies, but it really is nice to have a package that already knows about Euph TC and BC, F horn and brass band notation and such. Too bad sibelius doesn't output anything (except MIDI) that Lillypond or anything else understands.

Lilipond does underestand several formats, and could easily be "taught" more. The hard part would be going back. Getting the docs on the formats is the hardpart.

That said, I actually like lilypond format. The new emacs and vim modes make it even easier. But like with LaTeX, setting up a good set of macros goes long way. I have a "lab report" setup in latex tha made using it easier than any GUI tool. Tables and graphs were easily added as you wrote, with simple delimeters. LaTeX took care of the real work, un like all the GUI tools. Auto sizing graphs and tables and automatic referencing make most reports take 20 minutes.

Similar can be done wuith lilypond. So you write in one pitch, and the different instruments are automatically transposed correctly. There's something in the documentation on that.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:53 am

MaryAnn wrote: So which is it that understands Euph TC? I just wrote a short march for brass band, and my Finale 2002b did not have a brass band template.....so I had to make one up, score the alto parts for horn in F and transpose when I was done, same for the euphs in TC. The tubas were very happy to have BC so I didn't have to mess with that. Pain in the rear.

Sibelius has the brass band instrument templates (as you would expect from a package that originates in Europe). With a tuba euph ensemble where some of the euphs don't read BC and the others don't read TC, it's been a real bonus.