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Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 10:16 am
by Skjalg
I wonder if anyone here on this forum has some insight in the whereabouts considering Finale's further development?

MakeMusic seems to have stopped monitoring their own user forums, and the long standing shortcomings in Finale seem to be not handled at all.

What bothers me the most:
  • The MIDI editor UI and the impossibility to edit other channels than the part's initial channel.

    Voiced linked parts can not use Special Tools.

    No enharmonic flips in voiced linked parts.

    Chord Tool - bad kerning in suffixes when there are accidentals in the root
We all have different needs, but these are the most important to me and per now they ruin my workflow (yes, I know and use the workarounds)

MakeMusic is so quiet, so quiet, I don't know if there is done any development at all (maybe there isn't?), so I wonder if I should bite the pill and spend January learning another program?

Any insight is welcome - I would be glad to continue to work with Finale as my main tool.

Re: Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 11:09 am
by Peter Thomsen
There is some info on the Finale blog, in the blog post
Finale Development Update: October 2019

URL:
https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/

Re: Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 4:43 pm
by motet
I suggest avoiding voiced linked parts altogether. Make separate staves for, say, Flute I and Flute II, and use those for the parts. Then combine them into a third "Flutes I & II" staff for the conductor's score. Not only do you avoid the limitations you cite and others (I seem to recall cues are an issue), but you avoid switching layers all the time when entering music (I don't know about you, but when using layers I'm constantly forgetting and entering into the wrong layer). You have better control over exactly what goes into the parts; it's easier to have stuff like "I.", "II.", and "a2" in the score and not the parts; and it's easier to keep cues out of the score. Create the third staff late in the game, so you're not making changes in two places.

Re: Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2019 9:47 pm
by BuonTempi
Over the past twelve months, the majority of our team’s efforts have gone into technical improvements that don’t yield short-term user-facing benefits. Although our friends using Finale haven’t seen big differences on the surface, the underlying code has changed dramatically.
So Finale is still doing "under-the-hood" code modernization, which it started doing in 2011.

As it was, is now and ever shall be.

Re: Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2019 1:04 pm
by Skjalg
Motet: What you suggest is just what I do when the music has some complexity. But most of my music is rather simple and uncomplex (for marching band, jazz band etc) where linked voiced parts mostly works just fine, but the shortcomings are annoying.

My clients want better audio demos; with a tiny upgrade to the MIDI tool, those could easily have been made solely in Finale without the DAW workaround. And now: "Under-the-hood-development" still going on. Maybe. I am not convinced.

I'll wait until the 1. of January. If there still is roaring silence considering noticeable development, that will be it.

Re: Finale - quo vadis?

Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2019 3:47 am
by dankreider
Skjalg wrote:
Tue Nov 05, 2019 1:04 pm
I'll wait until the 1. of January. If there still is roaring silence considering noticeable development, that will be it.
I recognize it's bad form to proselytize here as a general rule, but since you asked... I switched from Finale to Dorico 18 months ago. It took me two weeks to become as fast as I had been after 20 years in Finale. My workflow only got faster after that. It's now probably twice as fast for most projects.

Using Dorico has literally transformed my engraving career. I use it for every single project, and I don't need any workarounds or plugins.

To be clear, I have no intention of disparaging Finale. It was the standard for decades, and we are all indebted to it. I wanted to see it continue to develop, but it simply hasn't. I hope that changes. We need continued competition to benefit consumers.