Customer Reviews

Finale 2007 Academic (Win/Mac) [Old Version]

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I can see the point of view of the reviewer that says to try out Finale and Sibelius before committing. Good advice.

However, if you have a PC, I recommend this product. It is used by more workshops, schools, and musicians worldwide than any other, and it's the most compatible. Many schools require compositions and orchestrations be put on Finale, not Sibelius or anything else, so they can digitally open it with their own computer and also so they can help you and give you tips with how to use the program.

It takes a bit to learn, but with speedy entry and the mass edit tool, you can whip something up very quickly. Because this program is so in-depth, you will have to dink around with it for a while and get accustomed to it before you can make something very quickly, but once you get to know it, it's very simple.

The reason I don't 100% support it for Mac users is that Sibelius seems to run better and interface better with Macs. Finale seems to have a few glitches with Macs that it doesn't with PCs. I don't have extensive knowledge of this, so I would still recommend Finale, but at the same time, perhaps you should try Finale on a Mac before you buy it and see if you like it alright.

The thing about Finale is that you either have to buy the full package, like this one, or you have to be prepared for severe limitations, like only being able to view and print music, or not being able to save your compositions, or having limited amount of measures or instruments. It's worth your money, in my opinion, to buy this version straightoff. It is true, you can upgrade and pay only the difference, but I wouldn't bother with that hassle, because if you are really going to be using it, then you're going to end up buying this version anyway.

I love Finale, I use it everyday, and I've orchestrated a piece for full orchestra on it, including expressions and extracting parts so that it can be played by the actual musicians. I've also done other compositions and orchestrations, but that was the largest and I did it completely with Finale with no frustrations with the program. Loved it the entire time.

I have been using Finale for several years and, while it is sufficient most of the time, I am constantly frustrated by how totally unintuitive it is. Even after going through tutorials and guidebooks, I still found it slow going. I finally got a copy of the new version of Sibelius and am just floored by how much better I like it. As a Mac user, I especially appreciate the ease and aesthetics of the Sibelius user interface. Plus, there are some Sibelius-specific features that are just really thoughtful (especially the Ideas palette -- great for sketching out compositions or saving alternative melodies). Music notation software is expensive: do yourself a favor and try both before committing.

Finale is the most widely used program on the market. It is used by major publishers and composers, as well as schools and amateurs. Once you make it through the quick-start videos which show you how to use the thing, it isn't that hard to use considering the depth of the program. And with a huge user base, there are a lot of extra things you can add on, like different fonts for chant or making jazz charts for example. From school work sheets to complex contemporary scores, it can do it well.

This is not a basic program, but the most complete notation package you can get. They make some simpler versions called "Print Music" for example. And you can upgrade from the smaller version to the big daddy Finale and only pay the difference in cost, which is a nice safty net.

It's a great program for music writing. With multiple ways to input, the most realistic sounding midi system to date, and the ability to save files as mp3s or other audio formats, it's definitely the best on the market. I'd recommend it to any aspiring or professional musicians.

Unbelievably hard to use. It takes forever to input notes, simple things like chord symbols are difficult to figure out, and figuring the layers part is impossible.

Get Sibelius or wait until something better comes out. I can't describe how frustrated I feel after trying to use this program. The one good thing about Finale is that the notation looks clean and professional. Getting the notes on paper is a whole other story.

This is a waste of my time.