Finale SongWriter 2010

by MakeMusic!

Product Features

• Music-making software for songwriters, band directors, students, and other musicians
• Play MIDI keyboard and see music appear instantly; import and export MIDI and MusicXML files
• Print sheet music; share songs with free, downloadable Finale Reader; save MP3 files for an iPod
• Hear songs with a professional software synthesizer and 128+ sounds--no hardware required
• Composing and arranging tools; multiple-undo option; quick-start videos for getting started

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002NGKLCQ
• Item model number: WHR10
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 31, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #536 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #4 in Software > Video & Music > Software > Notation & Composition

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Finale SongWriter lets you hear your music play back, print sheet music, share songs with the free downloadable Finale Reader, and save MP3 files for your iPod. From the creators of Finale, the world's leading music-notation software, SongWriter is perfect for songwriters, band and choir directors, church musicians, students, and other musicians.

Spend more time making music and less time learning software.

Experiment with Melodies

• Click notes onto the staff and hear their pitches drag notes up and down to find the pitches you want.
• Play a MIDI keyboard and see the music appear instantly.
• Import and export MIDI and MusicXML files.
• Add multiple lyric verses.

Explore Different Arrangements

• Try any tempo.
• Transpose to any key.
• Type a chord name to hear how it sounds and see its guitar fretboard.
• Select automatic drum grooves for different styles.
• Add automatic harmonies.

Experience Your Songs

• Print great-looking sheet music.
• Save MP3 files to create audio CDs or to play on an iPod.
• Hear your songs with a professional software synthesizer and over 128 sounds--no hardware required!
• Use Human Playback to make songs sound like they're performed like live musicians.
• Share your music with others using the free, downloadable Finale Reader.

Features:

Getting started

Finale SongWriter's Launch Window saves you time by putting everything at your fingertips. Choose to open an existing file or create a lead sheet with up to eight staves from scratch with the Setup Wizard, which configures things like instrument transpositions so you don't have to. Use the textured-paper background to make your on-screen page easy on the eyes and apply document styles to personalize the look of your scores.

Don't like manuals? SongWriter's QuickStart Videos guide you through the process of putting your music on the page.

Entering Notes

• Enter notes with your computer keyboard and/or mouse and hear their pitches. Click notes onto the staff or enter notes with the numeric pad and keys A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Drag notes up and down to find the pitches you want.
• Play your MIDI keyboard (or any other MIDI device) and see the notes appear instantly. Use your MIDI keyboard in combination with your computer keyboard and mouse to enter notes and chords.
• Import MIDI files.
• Import MusicXML 2.0 files: unlike MIDI files, MusicXML allows you to transfer the sounds and graphical elements in your file to other applications including older versions of SongWriter.

Adding Markings, Lyrics, and More

• Lyrics: SongWriter allows multiple lyric verses and automatically spaces the lyrics to match the notes they're attached to.
• Guitar and Bass Tablature: SongWriter's Set-up Wizard includes Tablature (in standard tuning) for Guitar and Bass. Tablature can be generated automatically by dragging standard notation onto a Tab staff, or you can create it from scratch by typing numbers directly into the Tab.
• Chords--Improved in SongWriter 2010
  • Enter chord symbols by typing in their names or playing them with a MIDI keyboard.
  • Change or delete notes without changing your chords.
  • Enter chords before entering notes and easily create chord-only charts.
• Percussion Notation--Improved in SongWriter 2010: we've simplified the process of getting notes on percussion staves to look--and playback--exactly the way you want them to.
• More: All notes space themselves automatically as they're entered and you can add dynamics, tempos, chord symbols, and rehearsal marks to your lead sheet. SongWriter also automates other entry tasks like repeats, codas, and tuplets.

Hearing Your Music

Over 128 sounds included free!
Hear your songs with a professional software synthesizer--no hardware required! These sounds have minimal system requirements (compatible with nearly any computer) and offer consistent playback when your SongWriter files are heard in NotePad and other MakeMusic products. Add this to SongWriter's Human Playback and the results are astounding.

Human Playback
Your music deserves to be heard with all the feeling, phrasing, and nuance you felt when you wrote it.

The Human Playback feature will play your music as you would want it to be performed, even if you enter notes with your computer keyboard or mouse. And you can choose a variety of musical styles.

Mixer--New in SongWriter 2010
Integrated controls for each staff enable you to set volume and panning, as well as choose to mute, solo, or record. Adjust parameters for all staves using convenient knobs and faders for each staff--all in real time during playback.

Reverb Options in Playback
Customize the room size and reverb level to control the overall reverb effect in playback. Plus you can audition real-time changes to volume, panning, and instruments with controls added to the Instrument List.

Sharing Your Music

With Finale SongWriter you can:

• Print professional-quality sheet music.
• Create .mp3, .wav., or .AIFF files--press one button and save your SongWriter files into an audio format for recording onto an audio CD or save as .MP3 to play on an iPod.
• Export MIDI or MusicXML files.
• Post your music at the Finale Showcase, a free site hosted by MakeMusic where people can see, play, and print your music.

Composing and Arranging Tools

Finale SongWriter takes the work out of composing and arranging and lets you concentrate on the inspiration. Transpose to any key and try different tempos. Type a chord name to hear how it sounds and see its guitar fretboard.

Idea-Generating Tools
Running low on inspiration? SongWriter offers composers and arrangers idea-generating tools to save time and suggest creative options.

• Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing: automatically turn your melody into two or three voice harmony.
• Drum Groove: Easily add custom drum parts in a variety of styles. Add to the list of available styles by placing any MIDI file into the Drum Groove folder.

Don't like something you tried? Multiple Undo lets you reverse any number of changes you made in the current session (even past the point you saved your score).

Product Description

While Finale SongWriter makes it easy to create great sheet music at an affordable price, that’s just the beginning. Finale SongWriter allows you to enter notes from a mouse, computer keyboard, or midi keyboard. You can add chord symbols, fretboard diagrams, and multiple verses of lyrics. Finale SongWriter can automatically add two and three voice harmony to your melodies and instantly add a drum part. The music you create sounds great through your computer’s speakers thanks to Human Playback and 128 professional sounds. You can import and export MIDI files, create MP3 files, and save your work as a standard Finale file which can also be shared with users of Finale Notepad (a free download). If getting music on the printed page is part of your songwriting project, Finale SongWriter is the perfect collaborator.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars XLNT Music Notation Software for a Budget Price!, November 26, 2010

By 

George Sawyn "GS" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Finale SongWriter 2010 (CD-ROM)

They call it Finale Songwriter, and that's who it seems to be aimed at; I bought it to do charts for a friend who is a singer/songwriter, and I found it to be quite up to the task.

I got tired of updating the full Finale program, which I purchased back around 1995; the last update I bought was Finale 2001; updating every year was expensive, some $100 for each year's new update; and it was annoying, too, since each new version seemed like it had to be learned all over again; so I finally stopped getting updates and stayed with my 2001d version. Since I don't do much music charting, it was pointless to keep shelling out money for new updates.

Now, here we are in 2010; I'm using a newer Mac with OS X, and the few times I have to do notation, I have to run Classic Mode in order to use my ancient 2001d version of Finale, and already, the updates are requiring a later version of the OS than I have... so I checked out the various versions of Finale, and found this one; Songwriter 2010 is (I think) the last of the Finale programs that will still work with 10.4... and it's also the least expensive, so I thought I would check it out. There is a fully-functional 30-day trial version available to download, so I tried it out by charting a few of my friend's songs with it.

Even with Songwriter, there is a bit of a learning curve, since music notation is a bit of an involved, detailed process. But I found that all of the important functions are easily accessible, and once you get the hang of what menu they're under, it seems to flow pretty well. All the important functions are present; what seems to be missing is all the customizing capability of the full Finale, such as all the little variations of the Repeat signs. It has Simple Note Entry, which is just grabbing a note with the mouse and placing it on the staff; this can be streamlined quite a bit if you have a MIDI keyboard: you use the numeric keypad to select a note value, and play a note on the MIDI keyboard to place it on the staff. I was thrilled to discover that Songwriter also has the Hyperscribe feature, which starts up a metronome, and lets you play a part into the program in real time. All the important text functions and spacing and layout controls are available too, so you can get a chart looking just right. It is limited to 8 staves, but for ordinary song charting, I can't imagine needing more than 3 or 4.

In my opinion, Songwriter is more than adequate to most basic charting needs, and Finale has an upgrade policy if you should ever need more capability. Best of all, you can try the program for 30 days to determine if it will suit your needs.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Software - get your midi ports right., October 3, 2010

By 

KiwiSam "kiwisam" (California United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Finale SongWriter 2010 (CD-ROM)

For those people having trouble getting this to work - make sure that midi out from the computer goes to midi in on the piano keyboard. And vice versa.
I knocked off a star because there is no PDF manual - it would be great to print off a few pages to keep to one side while learning the program. Especially regarding keyboard short-cuts. I ended up cutting and pasting into a Word document from the help screens.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Pleased!, December 20, 2009

By 

HollyLooya! "JOHN 10:10" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Finale SongWriter 2010 (CD-ROM)

I bought my first computer, a Macintosh, in 1986-ish. I believe it came with (?) a music composition program that I had a blast with. I've pined for it ever since. When I discovered Finale Songwriter, I was in heaven. It's user friendly and sings (plays) your compositions back to you instantly. BUY it. It will satisfy the creative soul in you.