Customer Reviews

Finale Songwriter 2007

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just got this product today but am very pleased with it so far. I really like the video helps that are included. It helped me to learn the basics very quickly. There are some things that I have not learned yet, but I do not anticipate any difficulty in learning the more complex features either.

I was a Music Education major in college and have studied music theory and composition since I was 12 years old. I just wish there was a product like this when I was learning music theory and composition. It would have been a huge help to me. I highly recommend this product for those who need just a basic song writing software. Unless you need something to help with orchestration and really complex composition, this product should provide all you need to get your music written and printed in a professional format.

I got this product for Christmas, and, considering the prices I have seen for it, it is an extremely cost effective product. I am especially pleased with many of the midi patches. I have done some writing on it thus far, including a duet for organ and cello, and its sounds really good as far as quality goes.

This might be the best software I've ever owned ~ certainly, it is consuming me. I got it for Christmas for my mother, who asked me to install it for her. After I did so, I idly tried it out. Shortly thereafter I purchased my own copy. Now my only regret is that I didn't get the next higher version (I believe it's called Allegro) ~ and I will probably be upgrading. I write church music, and am finding the limitation of only 8 staves per page to be frustrating. Other than that, it's GLORIOUS! One more endorsement: I've never written a review for anything before, and probably never will again. I feel strongly about the power and wonder of the creative potential and immediate feedback of this software. P.S. I use a Macintosh; works well!

Update one year later: If you are a serious composer, I definitely recommend Finale Allegro (at least), or Finale (the "full meal deal"), as they are each much more powerful and satisfying.

The Finale Songwriter 2007 is excellent for notation and printing off lead score sheets. It is easy to learn, makes quality sheet music and has some really nice features found in the more complex types of programs. This is a must have for someone who needs to get the notes down on paper in a flash. You can even play it as you go. I give it a +10 for those who like to create & arrange your own music. The finished product looks professional. Great software.

For the most part Finale Songwriter was very good. The computerized instruments that allowed me to hear my music before I printed it was great. It was not completely the same as a real musician, but I know that will never be possible. The note placing on the staff was so easy and allowed me to write chords so much faster than by hand. Many of the advanced techniques that I wanted to use such as grace notes were not there. I expected all Finale products to have these features. I was severely disappointed when I found that these features were missing. It is very frustrating to me to purchase Finale Songwriter just to find out that I need to purchase the more advanced, more expensive Finale.

This is such a wonderful program. It's easy to use, allows you to print and create mp3's of music. As you write the music for any number of instruments you hear those instruments play the notes you selected. All in all the best music writing software for the money on the market today.

Speaking as an amateur musician who takes songwriting very seriously - Finale SW writes my charts flawlessly. The interface for manually editing is simple to use, albeit time consuming. I mention this not as a fault of the software but as a warning that if you play your midi device as I do, not well, there is a lot of manual editing after.

I do most of my stuff on this using the manual entry features. I get faster with practice and the charts it produces are beautiful.

I've tried many programs and this is by far the best I've used.

An additional benefit I'm sure not intended by Finale; My keyboard skills are beginning to improve as I try playing more acurately thus reducing the time spent correcting.

When you realize that the complete Finale software can cost somewhere in the several hundred dollar range, the cost alone of this version should be a good indication that it isn't going to be the best out there. You can do many fine things with it, but I've found many different aspects of the program that make it very frustrating.
First, there is a limit to the number and kind of notation marks that can be added, and sure enough the ones that I wanted weren't to be found.
Second, there is no way to adjust the size of the staff on the page. I needed to arrange a piece for four-part choir with piano accompanament. I was stuck with having the staff so large that I could only fit about four or five measures per page. I had to get pretty inventive with physically cutting and copying to end up with a decently usable finished product.
Third, the program doesn't recognize varying values on a single beat. Say you have a bass line that would have something like two half notes and also four quarter notes underneath; the program won't let you do it! Or at least I couldn't figure out how to do it, and an e-mail to their customer tech center did nothing to help me figure it out.
If you are using Vista you will notice a number of little glitches that, while not affecting performance or usability, are nonetheless very irritating.
The program claims that you can publish your music into a pdf file that can be readily viewed in Adobe (this would be very useful because Songwriter uses a file type that is unrecognizable to anything but another Finale product), but I was not able to get it to work (another possible Vista glitch).
This product isn't that bad, nor is it that great. The price is reasonable enough, but don't expect too much from it.

Finale Songwriter works well if you're low on cash and can't afford the full version. Once learned, even entering complex rhythms becomes fairly easy and quick. There are several limitations to it, however many of them can be worked around. (For example: If you want to enter 4 chord symbols over a single measure with a whole note, you'll have to enter 4 quarter notes tied to get it to work; Also, it won't let you change the number of staves in a piece). There are some other limitations as well, but, overall, a very useful tool for anybody in music. -Darius Sharpe

I was a little skeptical of the program because earlier reviews seemed that the procedure of writing and printing music was going to be a little more difficult than I could handle. However, the simplicity of this program is incredible! I installed the program, printed and read the instructions, and worked through a little of the tutorial. Then, within about 30 minutes I had entered an old hymn, transposed to another key and printed. I love Finale Songwriter 2007.
Clarese