As you may have heard by now, MakeMusic has announced that they will discontinue Finale!
The king is dead, long live the king! I say.
My tip for all Finale users
Now that Finale has been discontinued, we need to switch to a new software solution. If you are a professional music arranger, you want reliable, highly customizable software built for the latest hardware and operating systems. You want software that will be around for many years to come and constantly updated to reflect technological developments. For me, there is only one program that promises all that, and that is Dorico by Steinberg. Steinberg has been a pioneer in audio and MIDI production on a personal computer. Its product pallet is extensive and serves millions of satisfied professional music producers.
I am familiar with other notation software such as Musescore, but I trust Steinberg. Finale users receive a significant offer from MakeMusic to switch to Dorico that would otherwise cost over 500 dollars. I made the switch months ago, and I am glad I did.
Dorico is nothing like Finale. Its philosophy is to do most of the work for you once you customize it to make things look the way you like them.
It lacks some features that Finale is known for, and it will certainly miss them for a while. But the Dorico coders and designers are listening, and they’re desperate to satisfy their users.
Get the discount deal as long as it lasts here.
Here is my first Dorico Tutorial
Keep a copy of Finale on your old computer!
I have been using Finale for almost 25 years and have done all my professional work with it. Because of this, I will keep it installed on my old iMac so I can always revive and revise my old files if necessary. Over time, I will transfer those over to Dorico via Music XML file export. It is getting better and better.
My tip is not to wait too long to do this. This technology may eventually become incompatible with the old Finale codex.
Musescore, no Sir!
Musescore is free, but it doesn’t quite match Dorico. I have always been cautious about free software, as there’s a good chance that, eventually, you will have to pay for it or that it will be discontinued.
That being said, it may be perfectly suitable for individuals who do not require all the bells and whistles of a professional program.
About the future of this website
I am planning to post links to my favorite Dorico resources and may even create my own video tutorials on it, especially for Finale users who want to transition. For now, though, I will keep all the Finale tips on this website for those of you who still want to stick with Finale a little longer.
Learn how to arrange, notate, and produce music with Finale and Logic Pro, two of the most powerful notation and music production applications available.
This website provides free articles and training videos showcasing how to notate, arrange, orchestrate, and produce music with MakeMusic’s Finale notation software and Apple’s Logic Pro.