RIP Finale

A friend of mine sent me the following link this afternoon, regarding the impending demise of Finale, a music notation software platform I know many of you use.  

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/end-of-finale-new-journey-dorico-letter-from-president/

I'm as broken-hearted about this as if I'd lost a family member or beloved pet.  

Users will be able to get support and the ability to install Finale on a new machine for a year from now, but after that, you're on your own.  Finale will still run, but you won't be able to reinstall it on a new computer if you get one.  

They're recommending Dorico as a replacement.  You'll have to export all your Finale files to a file format that Dorico will recognize.  Dorico Pro, the highest tier they offer, will be available to Finale users for $149.00 for a limited time.  There is also Chopin's notation software available here on YC, and Sibelius.    

I've been using Finale for more than 25 years and I can hardly imagine learning a new software at this late date, but I guess I'll have to.  We all will.  

I just downloaded DORICO Pro 5!

     I love finale--mainly because I'm familiar---but to be honest on the VST side there were limitations.  My Vienna Symphonic Library samples will work better and better together with other products on Dorico.

  And the realism is important to me, especially starting out----I need accurate feedback!

  The first few months are gonna be hell----I imagine.  But I'll figure i out.

   Fortunately, I can finish my Piano Quartet within the next 5 months or so on Finale, and start fresh on something smaller--maybe a Violin/Viola duo or a piano character piece.... to learn Dorico slowly....

  But yeah.  Sucks.  I work with software/tech, and I get it.  After the 200th+ patch, new requirements, modern security provisions, new VST engines,----the thing needs a reimagining while the costs are prohibitive....

  I'll keep folks posted  on any discoveries, through this difficult time.....😂

I have Doirco and Sibeluis.  I am comfortable using Sibeluis.  My plan is to write solo melodic line, a short chorale for strings, and solo piano piece excerpt. 

I don't like the monthly service model vs. OWNING something on Sibelius.

  Probably more because I'm old than anything objective.

Dorico is basically a DAW/notation program in one--- and VSL has a bunch of Dorico friendly products and help files.

Let’s hope that this is not because people are not writing music sheets anymore. That would mean that basically all professional music softwares will fall. 🙁

I’m absolutely saddened to hear this!!! T_T

Finale has always been my fond childhood, since the days of using Finale Notepad 2003 from my Essential Elements DVD as a kid.  I have a long history with this software.  It has always been my reliable go-to tool for composing music, and the built-in Garritan sounds were really breathtaking the very first moment I heard them (great for hearing my music played back without actual musicians).  I know there are far better sample libraries in the music industry than Garritan, but they were revolutionary to my naïve ears.

As nostalgic and heartfelt this special music notation software has a place in our hearts, we live in an ever-changing world, so it’s sadly expected that Finale will meet its end in musical heaven.  I’m debating whether I should continue using my Finale 2012 (worried about security risks), try Dorico Pro 5 free for 60 days, consider buying Dorico or not (while the discount is still available), or stick with a free option like MuseScore Studio 4.  If any of you have some advice, do share it!  Who knows we’d all benefit from it in the near future.

R.I.P. Finale, you deserve the greatest T_T

Man this sucks. I have been a loyal Finale user since college (which is a long time in my case).

How is Dorico?  I suppose I probably should get it with the discount offered but wondered what the learning curve is.

2 hours ago, bkho said:

How is Dorico?

I started using it a week ago: I find it quite unintuitive for the simpler things. Though for the more advanced things it is easier to use. 

From the writing perspective, it has pretty much everything you need, and it also has a lot of sound editing options (I haven’t used them yet, so they might not be that great)

On 8/26/2024 at 5:02 PM, J. Lee Graham said:

Dorico Pro, the highest tier they offer, will be available to Finale users for $149.00 for a limited time. 

Wow, that's awesome that they're reaching out to throw you a life preserver. 

Regardless, yeah this sucks. I use Sibelius, have for years, and the thought of reformatting the files hurts my tech-deprived mind. Although, perhaps a transfer is not too bad?

I know reteaching muscle memory for hotkeys and whatnot will be a drag, but who knows? Maybe you'll like a different program more once you get the hang of it. You're going to get "try Musescore" flung at you from every direction. Free and all that. Plus, they as well as the Sibelius people have been pushing for smooth integration with wonderful sound samples. Most likely others are too. 

If you chopped Picasso's hands off, he'd learn to paint with his feet. 🙂  I'm excited to hear your new works with whatever avenue you pursue.

On 8/26/2024 at 5:56 PM, Jqh73o said:

Let’s hope that this is not because people are not writing music sheets anymore. That would mean that basically all professional music softwares will fall. 🙁

Nah, our notes live forever

On 8/27/2024 at 9:50 AM, Jqh73o said:

I started using it a week ago

Glad to hear you’re already trying out Dorico.

Do you mind sharing with us the Steinberg account creation process when accessing the free trial?  I checked their website, and at the initial signup page, they asked for my email, password, and country, but I believe after that part, they’ll ask for more personal information like full name, address, phone number, birthday, etc.

1 hour ago, Frank Normandy said:

Do you mind sharing with us the Steinberg account creation process when accessing the free trial?

Hello Frank, I use the version for IPad and it doesn’t require to create an account. Or if it does it requires minimal amount of details because I don’t remember. Then obviously if I want to have the complete features I will have to pay, but the free version is great. As far as I am concerned the IPad version is not a free trial, it works for unlimited time, though with some limitations 

I think I have by coincidence chosen the best moment to start using Dorico, since now everyone is starting to get used to it too.

This is how I felt when Personal Composer was discontinued. Personal Composer was about as good as Finale, and for me, easier to use and format the playback (ahem, this is where most of my inspiration comes from btw). The reason I think Finale is discontinuing is because the cost of their engineering team is most likely offsetting their profit margins. My educated guess is that the engineering team is costing Finale several million / year. And this is coming directly from their website...they are just unable to keep up with customer demands these days. In other words, their codebase is too hard to maintain, and making changes is too difficult. Sometimes a complete code rewrite is required, and for some reason, Finale didn't feel the need to rewrite their codebase. This is definitely something I'd have to consider down the line myself.

I'm a year late to the conversation, but if anyone was interested in moving over to Musescore Studio 4.5, for ($Free.99), in a recent patch (The 4.5.0 update), they added a finale function that I'm sure those of you who used finale would appreciate. The old "Input by Duration" writing mode. arrow keys up/down change pitch within the scale of the selected key signature, and simply pressing 1-7 gives you all note durations and typing a number will result in writing a note at the selected pitch, as the corresponding duration to whatever number was pressed. 

They also included a percussion table-input method (Which can be reverted to legacy input, via the preferences menu), which allows for both midi or mouse input. Also helps if you use a touch screen laptop device, with it having larger action buttons on screen, reducing mis-inputs from the inaccuracy of using a finger tip.

They don't have things like Tempo tap or anything like that (Which I wish they'd add at some point.) But whatever functions that you want to have in the software, all you need to do is submit a request via Github. The Open Source Development team is very responsive and attentive to user requests, from my experience. They've worked very hard on a software that's 100% free to use without any sort of adware or inconvenient issues, once you set it all up. They even have a sound-library store via MuseHub but their in-house VST sounds are quite natural as they are. 

Personally I've mixed their in-house library with both Spitfire LABS and MuseHub's Vienna Brass library. (+ a Spitfire Felt Piano sound from MuseHub as well). 

Some of the sounds available on their library shop, I feel, need a lot of attention, but if you ever purchase one and are not satisfied with it, the refund process is very fast and easy to complete. 

I don't know. I know musescore can often be overlooked simply because it's a free open source software that many amateurs use, but I've been a user since MS2, and I have to say, it's been able to do 9/10 of the things I've wanted it to do, and then some. There's plenty of tools for professional engraving, and if there isn't a tool directly available for what you want to do, there's so many properties that can be edited for each element on the page, that you can make things move where you'd like them to go. My only complaint is that the program isn't that good at correcting accidentals with the "Optimize Inharmonic Spelling" function... It will simply change them all to b / bb or # / x markings depending on the key signature of the section selected. Other than that, I don't have many gripes at all about it. 

I've used Finale, Trial version, a handful of times, have test run Dorico and Sibelius through my peers, and after spending a couple hours on each, I still desired to use MS4.5. Either because it feels natural after so many years of using it, or, because in my opinion, it's a better program. Either way, I stand by it.. lol