Finale 2003

by MakeMusic!

Product Features

• Work with an unlimited number of staves
• Transpose to any key, scale, interval or instrument anywhere
• Automatic chord symbols and guitar fretboards
• Real-time entry as youplay directlyinto the software
• You can also choose step-time from a keyboard, mouse or touchpad

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006IS6S
• Item model number: codf231
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 11, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,236 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #56 in Software > Video & Music > Software > MIDI
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Finale® 2003 elevates the experience of notating music—providing simpler and more intuitive interaction for unsurpassed results in creating, customizing and sharing printed music.

Music Educators
Finale® 2003 will empower you with the ability to customize your music curriculum and meet the individual needs of each and every one of your students—with an advanced breadth of integrated musical tools. You will discover the natural ease, unparalleled flexibility and time-saving results that provide complete enjoyment of your creative and practice time, both in the classroom and at home.

Notation Professionals
Finale® 2003 is the most advanced and flexible solution to the professional’s need for speed, control and extraordinary results. Allowing you to work naturally while you notate faster than you ever have before, Finale will afford you options, range and personalization in areas never before possible. Plus, having an unsurpassed ability to share your work and conveniently connect with colleagues worldwide saves time and effort.

Composers and Arrangers
Finale® 2003 offers the friendliest interface ever. You’ll find the fastest score set-up, convenient templates and simple, automated note-entry and editing—all adding up to the satisfaction of seeing your music professionally presented and ready to share.
• Quickest, most complete score set-up
• Dozens of pre-created templates
• Most accurate sheet music scanning
• Enter notes with your MIDI keyboard, woodwind or brass instrument
• Easiest music editing
• Create custom lessons or warm-ups in seconds
• Band-in-a-Box Auto-harmonizing
• Save files as SmartMusic® accompaniments
• Web posting on Finale® Showcase
Absolutely nothing else compares. You’ll love it.

Product Description

Music notation that delivers mulltiple options and flawless results!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the BEST!, June 27, 2003

By 

Kenneth Goodson (Mt. Pleasant, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finale 2003 (CD-ROM)

I have been a Finale user for over ten years and it is quite simply the best music notation software on the market. I have used other products, some extensively, and they do not hold a candle to Finale in terms of capabilities, power and ease of use.

For many years, Finale had a reputation of being the most powerful notation product but not very user-friendly. To a certain extent, this was probably true. I am a composer/arranger and I would spend hours formatting parts extracted from a score, not to mention that it would take hours for the software to extract the parts. With Finale 2003, once I have completed a score, it usually takes less than a minute for the part extraction to run and I have to do very little editing on individual parts before they are ready to print.

MakeMusic (previously Coda Music) has also done a marvelous job with the last two or three Finale releases in making it conform with Microsoft Windows interface standards. Again, when I first started using Finale, it seemed to be a Mac product that had been ported to Windows and there were several non-standard interface elements. That has all changed. If you are a musician and a Windows user, you can be immediately productive with Finale.

Finale 2003's MIDI capabilities are also quite good. My daughter sings and I have produced many accompaniments for her using my MIDI setup. For a number of years, I would use a sequencer for those arrangements. However, for the past three to four years, I have been using Finale, especially when it is a more orchestral-oriented arrangement. In fact, I haven't upgraded my sequencer program in several years since I use Finale almost exclusively now.

Input is also quite easy with Finale. I have completed a marching band arrangement of an orchestral piece while traveling on the highway. I have reached the point where it is sometimes easier and quicker to enter music from the computer keyboard than it is from a MIDI keyboard.

I could go on and on but let me just conclude by saying that by any measure you want to use, Finale is the finest music motation product on the market. It is the gold standard for the professional engraver and hobbyist alike.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So simple!, September 20, 2003

By 

national finalist (Avon Park, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finale 2003 (CD-ROM)

My friend and I were both going to play for church. He and I regularly play trumpet/trombone duets. I have a book of empty staves that you can write in music, and for like the past year we had been using that. So this Sabbath (today) we planned on playing "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name". He had given me a book of contemporary hymns that had that hymn in it and told me to arrange it so that there would be harmony (as the book only had melodies that were to be played to a cd). So I stayed up the night arranging, and it gets tedious.
So the next day I go to his house. He shows me that he had installed Finale 2003 on his computer. Figuring that my handwriting would be too hard to read at a glance (I was tired), we decided to transcribe it from paper to Finale 2003.
And it was so easy to use! WE didn't even have to look at the manual! I think we finished the whole trumpet/trombone score in about 10-20 minutes (it was actually longer but we practiced in between).
A few flaws: at first we had to dig deep to find where the rests were, as they weren't on the main screen. But after we found them (under "Tools" then "Rests", pretty straightforward), it was easy to add them. We were kind of in a hurry, so we didn't know where the fermata was, so our piece was fermata-less. Also, when we found out we had too many measures, we had a tough time deleting them and ended printing the extra measures.
But all in all, it's a very good program

As for that $600 price..............my friend's dad will be getting me a copy :).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There is indeed only one Finale, November 19, 2003

By 

John K. "John" (Jacksonville, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finale 2003 (CD-ROM)

To the reviewer from Moscow, ID. - who wants to buy a software application and then have to come back to Amazon and buy extra books written by third party users in order to understand how to use the software? Well the answer is nobody - except Amazon.

And to say that Finale is the gold standard for profesionals is absurd. I am a professional copyist and I much prefer to use Sibelius. I only use Finale when required (I am an expert on both). And when I get Finale files from clients - the first thing I do is import them into Sibelius. Most of the publishers I deal with feel the same way.