No More Secrets: Finale 2012 is Here!

by Scott Yoho 7. October 2011 04:48


I have two boys, aged 6 and 2. When they know a secret, like what their brother’s getting for his birthday, it’s painful for them not to tell. I’m much the same: I’ve been excited about sharing the news of Finale 2012 for some time, but unable to—until now.

Whew.

Of course all the details can be found at www.finalemusic.com, but for me the biggest news is the ScoreManager. I’ve waited my entire musical career to have a personal manager who will take care of all the aspects of performing that I’d rather not mess with. You know, stuff like booking, transportation, load-in, setup, sound check, tear down, load-out—essentially everything but making music. 

While that hasn’t materialized yet, I now have the ScoreManager to handle staff appearance and playback for me. Every aspect of how my staves look, from transposition, clef, names, numbers, order, and more is handled—intelligently—in one place. What’s more, everything about how my staves play back is taken care of there too. I no longer have to assign MIDI channels or navigate separate players. In short, the ScoreManager lets me focus on making music.

But I’m rambling—I do that when I’m excited. The video above demonstrates Finale’s ScoreManager in action; please check it out. Better yet, download Finale 2012 today—for free. Not only is Finale downloadable for the first time, we’ve replaced the Finale demo with a free trial version that works for 30 days. Then, once you purchase Finale 2012, you simply authorize the “trial” software already on your computer.

Get started with Finale 2012 today and share your experience by clicking on “Comments” below.

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General | Scott Yoho

Comments

10/3/2011 9:11:24 PM #

Robert Wildling

Just looked at it - thanks for the tip!
But - aside from the Score Manager, and Unicode support, the all-time "More Instruments" message, and the all-time "more student material" festure - what ele is new? Do I miss something? Does Finale hide the other improvement infos on their website?
If staff manager is the only major improvement than Finale 2012 is no so much an improvement at all. what is with all the workflow optimizations that would be so necessary?
But please prove me wrong!

Robert Wildling Austria

10/3/2011 9:34:30 PM #

Robert Wildling

OK, I just installed the test version:
- it is an installer that downloads the necessary files
- the installation/download starts at "100%", climbs up over 200%, 300%... 1000%...4000%... it is just one of those errors that come with each new Finale version and wher one might think they never tested it...
- another error: they clearly state that the demo vesion has no Garritan sounds, but on first start you will be asked where the Garritan library is... hahaha...

It is a r3 release...

Finale guys: please improve your testing methods before you deliver software!

Robert Wildling Austria

10/3/2011 11:11:09 PM #

Justin Phillips

Hi Robert,

1) The installer count is a bug with Lion's installer application and we have reported this to Apple.

2) I have not seen this error message before, can you be specific about the exact wording? If you have any AU plug-ins installed that Finale is unable to find a folder path to from pervious versions, Finale will try to open them. The 2012 Garritan library and updated Aria Player are not included with the demo download.

As for the Unicode update, this required a complete re-write of how Finale handles text, and this impacts every spot in the software where text can be inserted. This has been one of our top requests over the past few years from customers, along with improved VST/AU handling, hence the ScoreManager. While we try to release features that delight everyone, we unfortunately can't get in everyone's top feature request.

Justin Phillips United States

10/3/2011 11:27:34 PM #

Robert Wildling

Thanks for the answer and clarifications. I suggest that you at least mention the Lion bug at the download side?

@2: Ok, this might then very well come from other plugins, I thought it has to do with Garritan.

As for the other arguments:
Unicode suport: well, it is about time, I'd like to say. Don't you think? Selling it as such a great feature update NOWADAYS is too late.
Same think with 64bit. Windows NT and Windows 2000 have an over 10 year history and many other software developers switched to 64bit support years ago! And I would like to think that Finale 2012 is a major software package...

You should make use of the integrated update feature that came with 2011 ( I think). But - where there ever updates?

What the majority wants is not always what is best for something/someone! You should really focus on notational features - Finale will never be a sequenzer, but no sequenzer will ever be a notational program!

I posted troubles I've had with Finale since at least 2004, large time signatures being one of them. NEVER, not 1 single request of mine - with which I am not alone BTW - was ever incorporated into Finale. And now, with this release, I am really angry. I will not buy the upgrade and definately switch to Sibelius.

Sorry, Justin, you've been a nice guy here, but I don't know where Finale is going to.

Robert Wildling Austria

10/3/2011 11:30:19 PM #

Robert Wildling

One more thing: Percentage counters are a very common thing with softwares. Why is it that all other software shows them correctly and Finale doesn't? It is really the first time that I see such a thing and it is only with Finale... it is quite hard to believe that this is Apple's fault, and if so that there is no work around...

But if you can point me to the bug report, I am vey much willing to try to get smarter and therefore quieter...

Robert Wildling Austria

10/4/2011 3:55:01 AM #

A Robert Wilding's friend

Hi Robert,

Working there for AVID?
It seems that you have had a very busy time:
four funny posts in just a couple of hours.
Go on please, you can do it better.

Have a nice weekend.

A Robert Wilding's friend Spain

10/4/2011 5:48:59 AM #

Andrew Koenig

1) If I buy Finale 2012, am I going to have to download it twice so that I can install it on my desktop and laptop machines?  If so, does that mean I have to download the Garritan sounds twice too?

2) I had a fair amount of trouble getting ScoreGroove working with Finale 2011.  Are there apt to be problems in getting it to work with Finale 2012?

Andrew Koenig United States

10/4/2011 9:18:36 AM #

Finale wisher

Hello, we are so happy to see the new version of Finale!!
The website has changed a lot and it's very cool, amazing.

But I have a question:
Justin has promised us Finale will become a Real 64-bit application in a 64-bit OS to handle more RAM with huge sound libraries as Sibelius 7 does. Now, we don't see any information about this update...

Finale wisher Taiwan

10/4/2011 2:25:51 PM #

Johannes Asal

Sorry. I'm not impressed at all. Where are my long awaited changes to the note input workflow? Where are the improvements for the collision detection algorithms that once and for all end the need for manual layout adjustments in my score? Where is the complete rewrite of the rendering engine that is still ridiculously slow?

I can't believe that the only new features Makemusic managed to get into the software are a new score manager and Unicode support?! Seriously, I'm a software engineer myself working on far more complicated projects, and if I had to do the planning for the feature "Unicode support" I would give a worst-case estimate of eight man-weeks. Including testing. Anything above suggests clearly a lack of organization or object oriented design in your code base (which I already suspected).

It's obvious that the developers are grappling with their ever growing code blob which is extended here and copy and pasted there. Start refactoring now before it's too late. But that's just a well-intentioned advice from a fellow developer.

Johannes Asal Germany

10/6/2011 7:45:46 AM #

Justin Phillips

Hi all,

We try and catch as many people's major wishes for each version as possible, but you can't please everyone. Unicode is long overdue, and was a massive undertaking for our engineering team (if you think about anywhere there's text in the program...). In addition, Finale has a brand new, modern audio engine under the hood on both Mac and Windows which should greatly improve Finale's audio handling and enable us to add better features as we progress.

When a feature set is designed, we try to add features and fixes that will give advantage to as many of our users as possible. While I'd love for everyone to be delighted with every release, some people's expectations for what they wanted may not be met, and I'm sorry for that. Finale's had great workflow and time saving updates since 2007, and if 2012 really has zero value to you, let us know what YOU would enjoy from the software and maybe it'll be added in the future. Others made their requests over the past few years and Unicode, playback, easier score setup, VST/AU management, and PDF support have been our top requests from our regular clients.

- Justin at MakeMusic

Justin Phillips United States

10/6/2011 7:46:45 AM #

Justin Phillips

Hi Andrew,

1) Yes, the download would need to be done twice.

2) I saw you posted this on the forum, and reported the issue with the registry key. Is it working OK for you now?

-Justin at MakeMusic

Justin Phillips United States

10/6/2011 7:47:42 AM #

Justin Phillips

Hi finale wisher,

As I stated on the Facebook page, I'm sorry if there was a miscommunication between us. I never started or promised 2012 would be 64-bit. We do however want to get there soon, and I'll add your vote again to the feature request.

-Justin at MakeMusic

Justin Phillips United States

10/6/2011 10:12:37 AM #

Lajos BIBO

Hi there . . . an question . . . there it's possible to use this Finale 2012 keyboard with my HP laptop ???
Best regards
Lajos

Lajos BIBO Romania

10/6/2011 8:25:04 PM #

FiddleMan

Is this "update" still only 32-bit?  Not 64-bit?  Really?
I thought that 64-bit performance was what we had been waiting on!

FiddleMan United States

10/7/2011 8:22:54 AM #

Scott Yoho

Hi Lajos,

I assume you're talking about this keyboard: www.finalemusic.com/Store/RelatedProducts.aspx

Since it's a USB keyboard you could plug it into your HP laptop and it would work, but you'd have command and option keys (and your software wouldn't). I'm glad to forward your request that we add Windows keyboard in the future.

Best wishes,
Scott at MakeMusic

Scott Yoho United States

10/7/2011 8:27:21 AM #

Scott Yoho

Hi FiddleMan,

To be clear, Finale 2012 is a 32-bit application that is 64-bit compatible. I'm glad to forward your request for a 64-bit app.

Scott at MakeMusic

Scott Yoho United States

10/8/2011 6:51:06 AM #

Andrei

Wow, sorry guys, but from what I see, Finale is seriously behind the curve. Thanks for reinforcing my decision to switch to Sibelius, where every new release is full of meaningful improvements and consequential tweaks... I tried, Finale, but, come on, really, seriously?!?

And, no, I don't work for Sibelius, but I'm a music teacher and professional engraver... With F2012, you're finally lost me...

Andrei United States

10/8/2011 1:13:39 PM #

Justin Phillips

Hi Andrei,

What specific features were you hoping for?

-Justin at MakeMusic

Justin Phillips United States

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