Finale 27 blog post

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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Tue May 11, 2021 5:55 pm

MM have announced that Finale 27 is imminent:

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/finale ... ming-soon/

Most notably, SMuFL font support and 'quality-of-life' updates and bug fixes.


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zuill
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Post by zuill » Tue May 11, 2021 5:59 pm

Intriguing. I want to know what fixes were made. My guess is few, if any. Time will tell.

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miker
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Post by miker » Tue May 11, 2021 6:06 pm

Agreed.

What they say:

Advanced sharing functionality
Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) support
Playback improvements
MusicXML 4.0
Quality-of-life updates and bug fixes


I'm most interested in the last.
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zuill
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Post by zuill » Tue May 11, 2021 6:28 pm

Quality-of-life updates. In the old days, that amounted to T-shirts and Mugs. Maybe free coffee will be coming for that line-item.

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motet
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Post by motet » Tue May 11, 2021 6:38 pm

My quality of life would be improved if they fixed some bugs.

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Post by smw_brighton » Tue May 11, 2021 10:03 pm

miker wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 6:06 pm
Agreed.

What they say:

Advanced sharing functionality
Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) support
Playback improvements
MusicXML 4.0
Quality-of-life updates and bug fixes


I'm most interested in the last.
I'm only interested in the last!
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zuill
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Post by zuill » Wed May 12, 2021 1:53 am

So, what is this all about: https://store.makemusic.com/Downloads/Default.aspx ???

Well, it's not a direct link. Sorry. Enter Finale, then 27. Then Search.

It's dated April 23. It says 0 Bytes. Hmmm. Did someone get a bit ahead?

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Post by BuonTempi » Wed May 12, 2021 8:27 am

You can actually download a demo from there, but it's 26.3.

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Post by johnmouse » Wed May 12, 2021 9:36 am

That's because 0.7 of it isn't ready, I suppose. :P
BuonTempi wrote:
Wed May 12, 2021 8:27 am
You can actually download a demo from there, but it's 26.3.

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Post by Bill Reed » Fri May 14, 2021 5:24 pm

Just got the MM email, and it looks like "Playback Improvements" translates to only "revised instrument list"
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Post by BuonTempi » Sat May 15, 2021 10:00 am

Bill Reed wrote:
Fri May 14, 2021 5:24 pm
Just got the MM email, and it looks like "Playback Improvements" translates to only "revised instrument list"
I don't get marketing emails: any other tidbits?

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Post by miker » Sat May 15, 2021 2:48 pm

I don't get them, either. Bill, would you be willing to post what you received?
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Post by Bill Reed » Sat May 15, 2021 7:13 pm

Advanced music sharing functionality

Finale now enables you to quickly and easily share your notated documents with anybody. Without leaving the app, you can upload and share privately or publicly.


Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) support

SMuFL is a growing comprehensive standard that organizes musical characters into a common layout so music fonts are displayed correctly in every notation application that supports it. Spend less time searching for or creating musical symbols and more time making music.


Revised instrument list

Our revised instrument list ensures your notation looks great the first time — no matter which instruments you’ve chosen — and that you hear the correct sounds when playing a document. We’ve also added to the list of instruments you can use when starting a new document or editing an existing one.


MusicXML 4.0

The latest version of MusicXML provides even more control when transporting your compositions. With more information than ever now being captured in a MusicXML file, you’ll be able to efficiently and confidently send files between practically any modern music software.


Quality-of-life updates

We’ve tackled a lot of known issues, such as unexpected installer behavior and unusable display scaling on Windows, crashes due to macOS quirks, and problems with printing.


...and much, much more!
Follow our blog for the most up-to-date information regarding the upcoming release.
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miker
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Post by miker » Sat May 15, 2021 7:41 pm

Thanks. Pretty underwhelming, from my POV.
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Post by motet » Sat May 15, 2021 8:48 pm

I don't use SMuFL, but that sounds like a good thing.

I wonder how revising the instrument list makes the notation look good?

The MusicXML update might be worth it, for the day when MakeMusic goes under and we need to flee to Dorico. It's on my list of things to do to run all my pieces through the latest Finale and generate MusicXML for such an eventuality.

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Post by dankreider » Sun May 16, 2021 1:55 am

motet wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 8:48 pm
I don't use SMuFL, but that sounds like a good thing.

I wonder how revising the instrument list makes the notation look good?

The MusicXML update might be worth it, for the day when MakeMusic goes under and we need to flee to Dorico. It's on my list of things to do to run all my pieces through the latest Finale and generate MusicXML for such an eventuality.
I'm not here to convert anyone, but I've been converting XML from Finale to Dorico for the past three years, and I've rarely had a bit of trouble. Your mileage may vary. Hidden notes are a problem, and tuplets are sometimes a problem too.
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BuonTempi
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Post by BuonTempi » Sun May 16, 2021 9:15 am

motet wrote:
Sat May 15, 2021 8:48 pm
I don't use SMuFL, but that sounds like a good thing.
The big benefit of SMuFL is that it allows the application to know what the symbols are. For example, Finale could let you place an articulation on a whole rest when the Unicode glyph is U+E4C0, because it would know that it's a fermata. (You can argue that it could already do that with the letter U in Maestro, but of course there isn't an agreed standard that requires Fermata to be on U.)

To the user, it mainly provide a huge range of symbols, organized methodically, within one font. So you don't have to have a whole bunch of fonts active, and you don't have to remember when that symbol is in Finale Percussion or Finale Mallets, etc.

Yeah - get rid of Human Playback hidden notes before you export XML... :evil:

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Post by gogreen » Sun May 16, 2021 4:59 pm

crashes due to macOS quirks, and problems with printing.
These two ideas interest me greatly. Any more specifics available on them?
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Post by zuill » Sun May 16, 2021 7:21 pm

HP requires specific slots, regardless of the character in that slot, to trigger specific playback actions. I am going to assume that with Finale properly complying with the SMuFL protocols that HP will work correctly (or at least as close to what it has in the past). If they have to reprogram how HP works, I sure hope they know what they are doing.

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Post by motet » Mon May 17, 2021 4:48 am

And that they've even thought of that issue.

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Post by BuonTempi » Tue May 18, 2021 8:58 am

Meanwhile, companies like StaffPad (now owned by MuseScore) are developing extraordinarily powerful tools that do all the heavy lifting for you, such as handwriting input and audio transcription.

https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/staff ... t-planned/

So, an iPad is sufficient hardware for audio transcription, while Finale still has a manual Screen Redraw command, in case your 16-bit CPU gets overwhelmed...

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Post by miker » Tue May 18, 2021 1:13 pm

Those features in StaffPad, if they come to fruition, would be a pretty wonderful thing.
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motet
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Post by motet » Tue May 18, 2021 5:19 pm

I'm guessing the appeal of drawing noteheads and stems on a tablet with a stylus or your finger is that you don't have to learn anything, but it's got to be an order of magnitude slower than writing music with a computer program. And, being an AI-ish sort of problem, it's going to make some mistakes.

I seldom need to do a manual redraw in Finale, and never need to manually do "Update Layout." Automatic Update Layout should always be left on--it's a relic from the days of slow computers, and MakeMusic should remove it entirely.

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Post by ebiggs1 » Tue May 18, 2021 5:29 pm

... if they come to fruition, ...
Don't hold your breath! :roll:
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Post by BuonTempi » Tue May 18, 2021 6:14 pm

motet wrote:
Tue May 18, 2021 5:19 pm
-it's a relic from the days of slow computers, and MakeMusic should remove it entirely.
You could say that about most of Finale's UI. :lol:

My point is that while other developers are introducing "21st-century" features of this order, or like Dorico's Condensing capability, or even the Page Vertical Spacing and Collision Avoidance that's in MuseScore, Finale list is pretty paltry, and it still retains these pointless relics from the 80s.

The last major revolutionary feature, in terms of a significant boon to productivity, was Linked Parts in 2006.

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