Customer Reviews

Finale 2009

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This software does everything it says and more! I'm a composer, and Finale's ability to handle even the most complex notational and rhythmic techniques continues to amaze me. And the Garritan Instrument sounds are gorgeous! If you didn't know, you'd swear that the audio was a real orchestra. Being able to take your score and create a great sounding audio file that you can put on CD or your iPod is almost unbelievable. Great product.

I have been using Finale for 19 years now. I use it almost every day. I have watched this product get better little by little over the years. It is much more user friendly then it used to be. Also, there are lots of videos included with it now-a-days so people just getting started can watch those to get up an running in no time. Finale is very powerful and it does take time to learn. You will not learn it in a week or so. But, once you do a few projects on it you will start to get the hang of it quickly. And, if you run into a problem, Makemusic has an excellent forum with some very skilled Finale users waiting to help people. I only did one project on 2009 and it worked perfectly. Now, I have upgraded to 2010. It has many features that I have been waiting for. 2009 is great. But, 2010 is just little better. I highly recommend this program to anyone that writes music, no matter how simple or complex. Also, don't get caught up in the Sibelius hype. People are always saying how much easier Sibelius is. Finale is just as easy to use. You need to go over the videos and learn all the shortcuts. (Just like every other major program) I didn't learn Photoshop in a day. You won't learn Finale in a week. But, Makemusic has made it much easier to use than it used to be. Try the demo and see for yourself.

If the price of Finale is scaring you, start off with Print Music, learn the basics and then upgrade to Finale when you have a little more money.

If you get stuck using the program, just ask a question at Forum.makemusic. c o m. You will get help very quickly.

The user who posted the so-called review that simply disputes the software's EULA which stipulates no reselling has skewed the results of the user ratings to a ridiculous degree, since there's only one other rating. Do you think Microsoft or any other software publisher allows reselling (unless you're a hardware vendor selling pre-installed software)? What a moronic reason for down-rating a product!

This is THE industry standard compositional and music publication software for musicians, composers, conductors, band directors, publishers, you-name-it. I work with music publishers in NYC who swear by it, love it, use it at home and at work. I guess if you're buying it to resell - best move on. If you're buying it to use - you've come to the right place!

If you want to compose at a professional level, you essentially have two choices for professional computer notation: Finale and Sibelius. The wars rage on between composers between which is the superior software. Sibelius was introduced while Finale was the clear industry standard and has now risen to be considered on par with it. While Finale has set the bar for limitlessness, Sibelius has set the bar for usability. Sibelius is said to be much easier to use and, with each version, approaches Finale in its capabilities. Finale is said to have the learning curve of astrophysics, but once you've mastered the software, you can do just about anything. (For unusually complex scores, some people will notate in Score or may even export a partially-complete file to Photoshop/Illustrator and edit it graphically there.)

Both programs have problems, but you're using great software whichever way you go. Right now, Finale is the more common industry standard except on the West Coast, where Sibelius has become the preferred program by and large. Sibelius is getting a lot of converts, but I've always been happy with Finale and notate contemporary classical scores on there constantly.

The two programs cost about the same amount and both are available at under half-price if you are in school or are a teacher.

As for questions of the current version, the best 2 advancements of recent versions are the creation of the general arrow tool (which contains common features most of the other tools by right clicking) and adding dotted lines to show where expressions are attaching. Finale's linked parts are deeply flawed and Finale 2009 does have some built-in bugs (make sure you get the update which eliminates some, but not all, of these). Hopefully, Finale 2010 will attend to some of these.

It's a crime and a violation of the U.S. Copyright Exhaustion Rule to prohibit of the resale of software such as Finale. Yet, this company has started a violative policy of prohibiting the sale and transfer of its software. For that reason, people should no longer purchase their software in my opinion.

You buy a book, you can resell it for whatever price you want the market will allow. You try to sell their software and simply because they have found technical ways around the Exhaustion Rule to prevent you from selling the software, they violate the law in doing so.

I was a loyal customer for 5 years upgrading. I needed some cash and when I went to sell their 2007 Finale version, they told me I wasn't allowed to.