Double Bass The end of Finale

oren

oren

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Aug 7, 2007
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#1
This seems like big news in the notation software world. I switched to Dorico a while back and have been very happy with it. Guess I’ll have to make the effort to export all my old Finale projects.

www.finalemusic.com

The End of Finale - Finale

The end of Finale 35 years ago, Coda Music Technologies, now MakeMusic, released the first version of Finale, a groundbreaking […]
www.finalemusic.com www.finalemusic.com
 
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#3
A well-written announcement. I only dabbled with Finale over the years, finding Sibelius a bit more intuitive, but it's been an industry standard for a very long time. Having said that, I really don't understand why anyone would prefer paying hundreds of dollars for either, or Dorico, to using MuseScore. Yes, the interface may be SLIGHTLY clunkier, and delving deep enough to get past some of the auto format functions in order to get the layout JUST the way you want it sometimes requires a bit of work, but the latter was always true of Finale and Sibelius, too.

The more I use MuseScore, and easily find the answers to virtually any questions I have about incredibly specific formatting issues, the more impressed I am with it. Open source software is not without challenges, but I'm a big fan. MuseScore, OpenOffice, Gimp, etc....all more than worth the look-see.
 
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#7
I just ended my subscription with Musescore. I only had it so I could open other people's scores, and I hate subscription software.

I've used Finale for about 15 years, and while I'm not a power user, I have become pretty proficient with it. I guess I'll have to check out Dorico... sigh.
 
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#8
I've used Finale for about twenty years. It does more than I need and while I think it's needlessly difficult to use, I'll keep using the version I have, which is the latest, until there's a reason to change. I would welcome less cumbersome to use but there doesn't really seem to be a good alternative yet. There's Staffpad but last I checked, it wasn't up to it. I'd like something more like an electric piece of paper where I could get the benefits of the computer and the convenience of notating by hand.
 
#10
If they’d taken a cue from Avid and spent exactly zero dollars on customer service they might’ve been able to keep competing financially for a few years more.

Considering the nature of what and for whom I notate anything these days, I think I’ll just get back to the drafting table and write it out by hand again, rather than putting in all the time and money reworking eighteen years of hotkeys and habits on a new platform.
 
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#11
Finale worked for me for over a decade. It's not intuitive, and it can be buggy, but I hadn't found any software that could notate the way I preferred.

Does anyone know what was behind this? Was the user base shrinking and no longer sustainable? The announcement was kinda light on the details.
 
#12
Wow! Did not see that coming ... although perhaps I should have.

I switched from Finale to Sibelius about 10 years ago, because after a brief demo with Sibelius I felt I could create documents markedly faster there.

There's a lot that I like about Dorico, but last I tried it (maybe a year ago?), it still did not support some relatively-minor-but-important-to-me formatting options, so haven't jumped into it yet.
 
#13
AGCurry said:
I just ended my subscription with Musescore. I only had it so I could open other people's scores, and I hate subscription software.

I've used Finale for about 15 years, and while I'm not a power user, I have become pretty proficient with it. I guess I'll have to check out Dorico... sigh.
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A "subscription" to Musescore? I don't understand.... it's open source, no subscription required, at least not in the years I've been using it....?
 
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#14
Well, in 1989 I was copying music by hand with a pencil and Pink Pearl eraser. Then Finale started, and I copied music by hand with a pencil and Pink Pearl eraser. Through the 1990s, and 2000s, I copied music by hand with a pencil and Pink Pearl eraser. Last week I wrote out some parts using a pencil and Pink Pearl eraser. Now Finale is gone (whatever that means) and I guess I'll just keep on copying music by hand with a pencil and Pink Pearl eraser. Funny how it doesn't require a permanent subscription.

Now when they say "Finale is gone" what does that even mean? If you bought a copy in 2005 on a CD, will it quit working? or did they transition to the forever-subscription-you-will-own-nothing-and-you-will-like-it-until-we-decide-to-drop-you-in-the-toilet model? And now they're dropping y'all into the toilet?

I better go check and see if my #2 pencil and Pink Pearl eraser are still working. I don't think I saw the auto-deduct for the subscription on my bank statement this month.
 
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#15
I just bought Finale 5 months ago, thinking that it was still the industry standard. I suppose that torch is now being passed to Dorico. I've used cubase before, so I shouldn't be facing too tough a learning curve there. I'm glad that they gave a competitive swapto/upgrade price. I feel like I should be updated for free, but that's just because I'm on the recent end of my purchase. I also might check out MuseScore for the few times when I actually need to notate something (happened about 5 times in the last 30 years, but I was hoping in my coming retirement to get more serious about my arranging hobby).
 
#16
turf3 said:
and Pink Pearl eraser.
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Hey! Treat yourself to one of these - the Ferra.....er, Porsche of Erasers!
You'll thank me later, maybe?
IMFO, of course.
(Pencil & Paper & Eraser Guild Member since 1973)
Thanks.
1724703523604.png
 
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#17
Tom Lane said:
I've used Finale for about twenty years. It does more than I need and while I think it's needlessly difficult to use, I'll keep using the version I have, which is the latest, until there's a reason to change. I would welcome less cumbersome to use but there doesn't really seem to be a good alternative yet. There's Staffpad but last I checked, it wasn't up to it. I'd like something more like an electric piece of paper where I could get the benefits of the computer and the convenience of notating by hand.
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I get that. Note that after August 2025, you won’t be able to authorize Finale on new computers, which I think means that it won’t install.
 
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#18
Esteban Garcia said:
Oh wow, bummer. But I've had a long term love hate relationship with finale, so hopefully something else will be easier to learn and use.
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I found switching to Dorico definitely has a learning curve, coming from Finale (never tried Sibelius or Musescore). But the Dorico documentation and video tutorials are excellent, and there is an active user community and questions get answered quickly, often by Dorico staff. Once you get used to it I have found most things are far easier than Finale. The program is under active development, with frequent releases of new features, so the chances are good that if you thought it lacked something you need the last time you looked at it, it might be there now, or coming soon.
 
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#19
MuseChaser said:
A "subscription" to Musescore? I don't understand.... it's open source, no subscription required, at least not in the years I've been using it....?
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I believe it’s different between a desktop and mobile. I was looking for a notation software for an iPad and heard so much praise for Musescore, but turns out the notation aspect of it is not available for iPad. It has some other type of features on the iPad app.

I ended up getting StaffPad and like it so far (light use over a few months). It seems more score-focused than lead-sheet focused, so I’m hoping to learn more about if I can use it in other ways.
 
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