MakeMusic Releases New Version of Finale

Industry-leading music notation software offers its most customer-focused release ever

BOULDER, Colo.--()--MakeMusic, Inc. announced today the release of a new version of Finale, the acclaimed music notation software.

“This release is a technological step forward, focused on our customers’ success,” said Fred Flowerday, MakeMusic vice president of product strategy. “We’ve made substantial investments in Finale’s codebase. This ensures that the hundreds of thousands of musicians around the world who rely on Finale will remain fully supported, even on future operating systems, for years to come. In addition, new features and fixes were prioritized through conversations with Finale users, again with customer success in mind.”

“Finale has long been recognized as the software that can create anything you can imagine,” said Mark Adler, MakeMusic notation project manager. “With this release we’ve reduced the time it will take to create.”

Features added in this release include:

  • 64-bit support – This support prepares Finale for future operating systems, gives users more stable performance, and provides full compatibility with 64-bit sound libraries.
  • Greatly expanded playback – The library of premium Garritan sounds included with Finale has been augmented with more than 100 new additions, including a stunning Concert D grand piano from the award winning Personal Orchestra 5.
  • New ARIA Player – An improved interface simplifies and expedites instrument selection, crucial given the vast collection of sounds now included with Finale.
  • Transposed note entry – When inputting music into transposed staves, Finale now plays the transposed pitch on entry as well as during playback.
  • ReWire support – Synchronizes Finale playback with other pro-level audio software.
  • Improved Human Playback – The processing required to make notation play as if humans are performing it now responds instantly when the play button is pressed.
  • Large time signatures – Creating very tall time signatures (popular in large scores) has been made easy.
  • Contoured Dashed Slurs – While Finale has always had a dashed curve, an additional contoured dash slur has been added due to popular publisher requests.

The release also resolves several dozen bugs.

“Although previous Finale releases were named by the corresponding year, we’re simply calling the new version ‘Finale,” added Mark Alder. “Since the launch of Finale 2012 we’ve moved away from releasing a new version every year. While we’ve received positive feedback on asking users to upgrade less frequently, this change produced some confusion when the current software (2014.5) appeared to be out of sync with the calendar (2016). With today’s new naming convention we’ve addressed this issue.”

Finale is now available for download at www.finalemusic.com. Finale is exclusively distributed through Alfred Music in North America, India, Australia and New Zealand and is available through music resellers worldwide.

Follow Finale from our Community page, with access to the Finale Blog, Forum and links to Finale’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

About MakeMusic, Inc.

MakeMusic®, Inc. is a world leader in music technology whose mission is to develop and market solutions that transform how music is composed, taught, learned, and performed. For more than 25 years, Finale® has been the industry standard in music notation software, enabling musicians worldwide to create, edit, audition, print, and publish musical scores. MakeMusic’s SmartMusic® interactive music learning software transforms the way students practice. With an online library of thousands of band, orchestra, and vocal pieces, students practice with background accompaniment and receive immediate feedback on their performance. Teachers leverage SmartMusic to individualize instruction and document the progress of every student. MakeMusic is also the creator of Garritan® sound libraries, providing state-of-the-art virtual instruments with the playback quality of a live performance, and MusicXML™, the internet-friendly way to publish musical scores, distribute interactive sheet music, and share music notation with a wide variety of software programs. Additional information can be found at www.makemusic.com.

Contacts

MakeMusic, Inc.
Sonia Bertek, 612-875-1636
Director of Marketing
sbertek@makemusic.com

Release Summary

MakeMusic, Inc. announced today the release of a new version of Finale, the acclaimed music notation software.

Contacts

MakeMusic, Inc.
Sonia Bertek, 612-875-1636
Director of Marketing
sbertek@makemusic.com