Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
shirling neueweise wrote: posted the e-mail addresses of the COO, CTO, CEO and several others at MakeMusic and posted a copy of the letter he sent (with CC: to all of them) listing his concerns and complaints and he urged any/all of us to do the same. I did, writing my own letter and sending it to the same recipients. I got a very encouraging reply from one of them, asking me for more specific details of my concerns with a response which was encouraging as to the fact that they might actually be addressed. does this at all resemble the very encouraging reply you received (my original message and the addresses follow)? they have so far lived up to my expectations of them never coming back to me at some point. Practically word for word. And from the same person, as if the people we wrote to all agreed that he would be the person to try to quiet the restless natives. They've never gotten back to me, either. What a terrific corporation! -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Barbara Touburg wrote: I have one! A very large blue one! (guess where it came from - thanks, Carla!) Eric Dannewitz wrote: Or tee-shirts. I need my tee-shirts! ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale You got a T-shirt for your Fin2k8 upgrade? -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Sadly, I think the last tee-shirt was Finale 97 or 98 dhbailey wrote: Barbara Touburg wrote: I have one! A very large blue one! (guess where it came from - thanks, Carla!) Eric Dannewitz wrote: Or tee-shirts. I need my tee-shirts! ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale You got a T-shirt for your Fin2k8 upgrade? ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Sadly, I think the last tee-shirt was Finale 97 or 98 2004, sleek, black, sexy, i feel like a real man wearing it -- shirling neueweise ... new music publishers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
At 6:01 PM -0400 10/10/07, Christopher Smith wrote: On Oct 10, 2007, at 4:43 PM, shirling neueweise wrote: additional weight could be given to such a compilation as you have suggested if responders gave an indication of how many potential finale users they have suggested use sibelius instead, and if certain people could let MM know that they are also responsible for the ordering of multiple licences for the institution where they work. i think i remember who it was, but won't mention the name, a few years back said s/he was an avowed finale user and would not switch to sibelius, essentially because of the time invested, but that when the order went in for the lab (?) s/he was responsible for outfitting, it went to sibelius. That description might apply to John Howell and me. 15 workstations (all of them) at my school upgraded this year to Sibelius 5, but not Finale. We've actually evolved beyond workstations, and did so a few years ago. Our former computer lab is now simply a piano class lab. All students here are required to have computers and software specified by their department, and in the Music Department Mac laptops are strongly favored and all majors are expected to have, and to use, their own Sibelius software. And they really do carry their computers to class. (Whether they're taking notes or playing Super Mario is a separate question!!) That's about 40 incoming Freshmen or more each year. Every year. We were forced to drop Finale the year students were scheduled to arrive with OSX Macs, and MakeMusic had no program that would run on them. And compared with what engineering students have to spend--on textbooks as well as software--our students get off cheaply! John -- John R. Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Re: Finale '08
I am an avid reader of the Finale list and a (very) occasional contributor. I feel I need to contribute to this post for a number of reasons. I have been using Finale since the late 1990's and was a big supporter, I am a composer and educator and every school I have been in I would make sure they bought Finale as the notation system to use. 3 years ago I moved to a school which used Sibelius and was forced to use it. I found it very intuitive, easy to use and a great teaching resource, better than Finale in all these counts, not the least of which was the bug issue in Finale. I now almost exclusively use Sibelius at home for publishing my own compositions as well as arranging pieces for school. Next year I am going to buy 42 licenses for Music computers, had I been convinced in any way over the last 3 years that Finale was serious about improving their bug issue, I would have pushed for Finale in the school and hence I would be buying 42 Finale licenses. But as it stands, I am going to buy 42 Sibelius licenses AND encourage all my students to buy the student version of Sibelius. Now 42 licenses may not be a big deal to Finale (or Sibelius!), but if this happens consistently and if my students then go out, become teachers and buy multiple licenses for their schools, the numbers add up quickly. SO now that my rant is over; (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale - yes (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes - yes (c) are either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? - Moving to Sibelius ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Re: Finale '08
paul thanks, this is exactly what i think is perhaps our only chance... you are not alone in this position, and by pointing out that you have the power to choose which software company will get this many licences, you give an indication of the importance of MM paying attention to individual persons' concerns. jef Next year I am going to buy ... 42 Sibelius licenses AND encourage all my students to buy the student version of Sibelius. Now 42 licenses may not be a big deal to Finale (or Sibelius!)... -- shirling neueweise ... new music publishers mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] :.../ http://newmusicnotation.com ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Re: Finale '08
Daniel Wolf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale, (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes, and (c) iare either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? (a) Since 1994; not professional (music not a source of significant income), but using Finale several hours per day for composition and arrangement; (b) Still on WinFin 2004, since 2005 offered me nothing that I needed, and from 2006 onward there have been reports of bugs that would have inconvenienced me more than the ones in 2004; (c) I have 2004 on an old laptop. I have tried to activate it on a newer desktop but failed to do so (possibly remembering the sequence inaccurately). My request for assistance from MakeMusic having been ignored, I have given up for the present. Crunch time will come when the laptop fails. If I fail to solve the transfer problem then, I shall probably buy Sibelius, on the grounds that they are more likely to survive long term and have a reputation of being more helpful in solving such problems as the transfer of their software to a new system. -- Ken Moore ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Daniel Wolf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale, (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes, and (c) iare either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? I guess I actually didn't actually answer this yet, so here goes... (a) User for 15 years, since version 2.2 for Windows. Set more than 250 contemporary scores (traditional notation as well as complex and graphical) in Finale, 30 for full orchestra, with parts. Work for myself and a dozen clients, including my own small publisher (Westleaf Edition). (b) Bug fixes at this point are the single new feature that is essential to purchase any new versions of Finale. (c) Purchased Finale at full price and 11 upgrades, skipping only two previous upgrades (98 and 2004) with a total investment of about $1,500. Will skip 2008 and instead have purchased the Sibelius crossgrade. Dennis ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Thought I should contribute as well (a) have been a professional Finale user since 1992, mostly with film and recording orchestras in UK and New Zealand, upgraded faithfully to every version. Last purchase was 2007 (b) very concerned about some bugs, especially flipping accidentals, and disappointed with incomplete implementations of features as in linked parts. (c) will be skipping 2008 update, and have started using Sibelius 5 shortly after it came out this year. This is for a number of reasons besides the concerns mentioned above, including the fact that most of my clients are changing, or have changed to Sibelius, or want the completed work to be in Sibelius. The Sibelius user forum is an excellent centre of knowledge, as is this forum, but with the added advantage of company staff making themselves available to answer questions, give tips, and admit their shortcomings. After having taken the plunge I have not found the transition to be as difficult as I expected, although I do sometimes enter the wrong note lengths when I'm not concentrating. I spent about a month figuring out the house styles and getting the look to my liking and now I'm very impressed with the capabilities. I find the look sometimes not as professional as Finale, but this is balanced by some very fast procedures especially with formatting scores and parts which I find a worthwhile trade off for copying. David Woodcock Copyist and arranger Auckland, New Zealand Daniel Wolf wrote: Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale, (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes, and (c) iare either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? Daniel Wolf ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
I'm working on a project for A-R Editions. They're sticking with Finale 2006 because of bugs introduced in 2007. Andrew Levin ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
dhbailey wrote: Barbara Touburg wrote: I have one! A very large blue one! (guess where it came from - thanks, Carla!) Eric Dannewitz wrote: Or tee-shirts. I need my tee-shirts! You got a T-shirt for your Fin2k8 upgrade? No, YEARS ago, can't remember when. I whined a bit at the Coda Music forums , just being silly, and two weeks later a package arrived from Eden Prairie... ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Re: Finale '08
Hi all- Daniel Wolf wrote: Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale - I've been a user since version 2, now using 2006b - I've created scores/parts for all sorts of amateur, pro semi-pro choral societies and musicians- a few are: Chanticleer, Freda Herseth, Carson Cooman, Anna Rubin, Owen Reed, Frank La Rocca, Graham Pawley, James Niblock, Mike McFerron, Paul Ayres, Bob Jordahl, Walli DePue. Full symphonies to simple choral pieces, and some textbook work by subcontract, plus my own compositions, of course. (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes - While I am seriously concerned about bugs, I haven't written anyone about bugs in years - I've dropped the ball here.I guess my reasons are that there are others on the list that are much bigger power users than I, and I assumed Finale programmers would pay attention to elephants quicker than they would mice. It's really hard to motivate myself in this area when I see so many others being ignored, honestly. Even though I finally learned how to get around most things that bother me personally, I remain concerned about what I'll do when 2006 is no longer supported. Switching to a different program is probably a given at some point (a year or two?) if nothing of substance changes concerning Finale's bugs **soon**. c) are either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? - I'm not switching to anything else right now, but I can't justify upgrading anymore, either. Finale spends lots of time providing many things in the program I simply don't need, like GPO, or exporting to audio. I'm not opposed to those tools- I know lots of people use them, and I might one day. But if they'd spend at least ONE version cycle fixing long-exisiting bugs and implementing other important requests (like staff-independent time signatures, decent options for text/lyric processing, WYSIWYG slurs, options for saving graphics in formats other than TIF or EPS, etc.) then they'd have no problem retaining me as a customer. Cecil Rigby Harrock Hall Music Liberty, SC [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Oh man, I feel soinferior now. shirling neueweise wrote: Sadly, I think the last tee-shirt was Finale 97 or 98 2004, sleek, black, sexy, i feel like a real man wearing it ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
--- dhbailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It seems that some big-wig at MakeMusic has as his pet hobby-horse SmartMusic Accompaniment system and won't allow the resources to be allocated fairly so that Finale's problems can be properly addressed, all the while the accounting shows that the company depends on the income from the notation programs and especially the annual upgrades, which make whichever quarter they come out in a profitable quarter. I believe you're going to be pretty surprised by how all this turns out in the future. Take a look at the news from yesterday regarding the success of SmartMusic. The last 3 month quarter saw subscriptions jump from 61,000 to nearly 76,000. As the company predicted, SmartMusic 10, with large ensemble audio accompaniments and Impact, is catching on rapidly. And this is just the first semester it's been available. Look back a couple of months at the news from Tucson, where the district ordered 3000 SmartMusic subscriptions for its students. SmartMusic has not been a dead weight for Finale to carry along. Resources spent on SmartMusic have been balanced to its earnings. For a long time the SmartMusic team consisted of a single programmer and no real QA department to speak of. It started picking up the pace when the subscription model launched at the end of 2002, and resources were added accordingly. Now SmartMusic's growth greatly outpaces Finale's. SmartMusic has a limited market -- even though students might subscribe while in school, most musicians aren't interested in that sort of program, but many many musicians are interested in notation programs. I estimate that the audience for SmartMusic is around 100 times the audience for Finale. 76,000 is a tiny fraction of their market (which is why it's growing so fast), whereas with most notation programs, 76,000 active users is more than you'll ever have. Notice that Sibelius has been introducing many new educational products over the years. The focus of many of their hires and their news releases is on their education products. The notation market is tapped out for the most part, and both companies are exploring the education market in order to expand. MakeMusic just happens to be dominating in that area. At this point I think it's very possible that both companies survive. They're both making large gains in areas outside professional notation software, and they are moving into areas where they aren't directly competing with each other. -Tyler Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more! http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/3658 ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Tyler Turner wrote: I believe you're going to be pretty surprised by how all this turns out in the future. Take a look at the news from yesterday regarding the success of SmartMusic. The last 3 month quarter saw subscriptions jump from 61,000 to nearly 76,000. As the company predicted, SmartMusic 10, with large ensemble audio accompaniments and Impact, is catching on rapidly. And this is just the first semester it's been available. Look back a couple of months at the news from Tucson, where the district ordered 3000 SmartMusic subscriptions for its students. SmartMusic has not been a dead weight for Finale to carry along. Resources spent on SmartMusic have been balanced to its earnings. For a long time the SmartMusic team consisted of a single programmer and no real QA department to speak of. It started picking up the pace when the subscription model launched at the end of 2002, and resources were added accordingly. Now SmartMusic's growth greatly outpaces Finale's. I estimate that the audience for SmartMusic is around 100 times the audience for Finale. 76,000 is a tiny fraction of their market (which is why it's growing so fast), whereas with most notation programs, 76,000 active users is more than you'll ever have. Well, less than that since people are leaving Finale like rats leaving a sinking ship. Notice that Sibelius has been introducing many new educational products over the years. The focus of many of their hires and their news releases is on their education products. The notation market is tapped out for the most part, and both companies are exploring the education market in order to expand. MakeMusic just happens to be dominating in that area. The problem with Sibelius educational software is that it runs on Windows only. The stuff is excellent, but..windows only? Stupid. At this point I think it's very possible that both companies survive. They're both making large gains in areas outside professional notation software, and they are moving into areas where they aren't directly competing with each other. I think MakeMusic, if the trend continues, is not going to be the maker of an excellent notation program. They will be known for their SmartMusic stuff, perhaps even changing their name from MakeMusic (like they did from Coda to MakeMusic) to just SmartMusic Inc. It's good and all that SmartMusic is starting to make them money. It has it's pluses and minuses, there are a lot of things I like and dislike about it. But they really shouldn't drop the ball with their flagship product, especially when all they need to do is fix bugs and complete features. ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Tyler Turner wrote: --- dhbailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It seems that some big-wig at MakeMusic has as his pet hobby-horse SmartMusic Accompaniment system and won't allow the resources to be allocated fairly so that Finale's problems can be properly addressed, all the while the accounting shows that the company depends on the income from the notation programs and especially the annual upgrades, which make whichever quarter they come out in a profitable quarter. I believe you're going to be pretty surprised by how all this turns out in the future. Take a look at the news from yesterday regarding the success of SmartMusic. The last 3 month quarter saw subscriptions jump from 61,000 to nearly 76,000. As the company predicted, SmartMusic 10, with large ensemble audio accompaniments and Impact, is catching on rapidly. And this is just the first semester it's been available. Look back a couple of months at the news from Tucson, where the district ordered 3000 SmartMusic subscriptions for its students. SmartMusic has not been a dead weight for Finale to carry along. Resources spent on SmartMusic have been balanced to its earnings. For a long time the SmartMusic team consisted of a single programmer and no real QA department to speak of. It started picking up the pace when the subscription model launched at the end of 2002, and resources were added accordingly. Now SmartMusic's growth greatly outpaces Finale's. SmartMusic has a limited market -- even though students might subscribe while in school, most musicians aren't interested in that sort of program, but many many musicians are interested in notation programs. I estimate that the audience for SmartMusic is around 100 times the audience for Finale. 76,000 is a tiny fraction of their market (which is why it's growing so fast), whereas with most notation programs, 76,000 active users is more than you'll ever have. Notice that Sibelius has been introducing many new educational products over the years. The focus of many of their hires and their news releases is on their education products. The notation market is tapped out for the most part, and both companies are exploring the education market in order to expand. MakeMusic just happens to be dominating in that area. At this point I think it's very possible that both companies survive. They're both making large gains in areas outside professional notation software, and they are moving into areas where they aren't directly competing with each other. That's all terrific news for the survival of MakeMusic, then. But what hope does it offer for Finale users to expect? -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
I have been a Finale user since Version 1 - my serial number is under 000650. I actually attended a hotel room demo by Phil Farrand at NAMM 1988, before the program was released. So I'm a Finale geezer. I run a small publishing company specializing in young band music - we have a catalog of about 80 concert and jazz band pieces, all done in Finale. Our pieces tend to be fairly short - parts are usually one page, sometimes two - and we require only traditional notation capabilities. I have faithfully upgraded each year, but Finale 2007 and 2008 are sitting unused on my hard drive - I use 2006D for everyday work. My brief explorations of 2007 and 2008, and particularly my reading about the problems documented on this list, have kept me away from them. So count me as another user who is done with being a willing participant in the yearly subscription fee model. Bottom line is, Finale 2006 does pretty well everything I require. I always thought linked parts would be nice, but I've tried to work with the implementation in 2007 and 2008 a bit, and always decided it wasn't worth it. I find the part extraction process works just fine for me, and our pieces are simple enough that corrections can be done very quickly. I am still dazzled by the modern speed of part extraction, since I suffered through early versions where you would leave it to extract parts when you went to bed, and they might be done by morning. Better organization of menus is of little appeal to someone who knows the old organization thoroughly. When I am composing, I find that the built in (and quick loading) soundfont is adequate to give me an idea of how things are sounding. When it comes time to make a demo, I export a midi file (with Human Playback) to a sequencer, in my case Digital Performer. That is where I use Garritan Concert Band, Garritan Jazz, Virtual Drumline, and a marvelous new brass library called WIVI from Wallender Instruments. This setup gives me editing and processing capabilities I would never expect to find, or ask for, in a notation program. I have given Finale courses and have recommended the program to many people, but I too find myself now suggesting Sibelius to people who have modest needs and want something that will work well out of the box. I have dabbled a bit with Sibelius myself and have version 5, but I am a long time Finale Speedy Entry user, and have yet to develop any real skill (compared to my Finale abilities) at entering music in Sibelius, or figuring out how to get the formatting I want. And then there's my back catalog of Finale files, which I need to be able to open. At some point in the future I'm going to want an Intel Mac running the latest version of OSX, and then the whole thing's going to blow up on me - I'll probably have to tuck my old computers in a corner to run Finale archives, and then evaluate the versions of Finale and Sibelius that are out at that time. The way things are going, I can't escape the feeling that's likely to be Sibelius - particularly if they were to add a legacy Finale users option to their interface. Brian Appleby ApRo Music apromusic.com Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Power Mac G5, Powerbook G4 On Oct 10, 2007, at 11:40 AM, Daniel Wolf wrote: I've just reviewed most of the posts dealing with Finale '08, and -- following what appears to be a consensus around here -- have decided to stick with '07 until notice of further improvements in known bugs. I also took a look at some press statements on the MakeMusic site announcing quarterly results. Two aspects of those statements are striking: continued losses, and the importance of notation programs (relative to other products) in the income stream of the company. Clearly, this is a company that cannot take a publicity hit with its prestige notation product. From my own informal count on this list, at least twenty established, long-term, professional users have indicated that they are not switching to '08; most of them indicate that bug fixing is their main concern, several of indicated a move to a competing product. Perhaps it would be useful to document the number of such users more precisely and use it as a form of leverage to encourage MakeMusic to concentrate on improving the product's present functionality before adding other features. I believe that most of us here would really prefer to be loyal Finale users, but the benefits of Finale appear for many of us to have been outweighed by the disadvantages. Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale, (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes, and (c) iare either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? Daniel Wolf ___
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Sibelius crossgrade? Is that some kind of crossover program between Finale and Sibelius? Daniel Wolf [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Would it be possible now, from the list membership, to get a more accurate sense of the number of us who are (a) a long-term, professional users of Finale, (b) have serious concerns about bug fixes, and (c) iare either skipping an '08 upgrade or switching to a competing product during this cycle? I guess I actually didn't actually answer this yet, so here goes... (a) User for 15 years, since version 2.2 for Windows. Set more than 250 contemporary scores (traditional notation as well as complex and graphical) in Finale, 30 for full orchestra, with parts. Work for myself and a dozen clients, including my own small publisher (Westleaf Edition). (b) Bug fixes at this point are the single new feature that is essential to purchase any new versions of Finale. (c) Purchased Finale at full price and 11 upgrades, skipping only two previous upgrades (98 and 2004) with a total investment of about $1,500. Will skip 2008 and instead have purchased the Sibelius crossgrade. Dennis ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
Tyler Turner wrote: Now SmartMusic's growth greatly outpaces Finale's. Growth rates can look impressive when the sample numbers are small. It is always a mistake to assume that early growth rates will be similar in the future in any statistical analysis. MM's notation programs are still by far the biggest earners. And there is still a lot of growth potential here that I don't see being tapped. For example, where is the development in those Asian markets (e.g., China, Korea) that have a huge participation in classical music? Even if Tyler is right, that the future of the company rests in programs like SmartMusic, why isn't that being developed more rigorously? Tyler Turner wrote: For a long time the SmartMusic team consisted of a single programmer and no real QA department to speak of. It started picking up the pace when the subscription model launched at the end of 2002, and resources were added accordingly. I think SmartMusic is a very interesting program that actually does what it says it does, but where is the repertoire? It is remarkably small for something that will some day be the bread and butter for MM. Have anyone of us on the list been contracted to write, arrange, or edit SmartMusic arrangements? How many people are actually doing this? I'm asking in all seriousness because I can't detect much attention being paid to it. I'm afraid that a company that lets its flagship program (Finale) go so long without fixing, has a problem with its corporate culture. And that also means problems with SmartMusic will also get lackadaisical treatment. I look forward to be shown or convinced otherwise. -Randolph Peters ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
At 06:06 PM 10/11/2007, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sibelius crossgrade? Is that some kind of crossover program between Finale and Sibelius? Each program can be bought at a discount by owners of the other, with proof of ownership. Sibelius usually sells for $600. Finale owners can normally buy it for $199. For a while, at least, Finale owners can buy Sibelius for only $100. Aaron. ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
On 11-Oct-07, at 12:47 PM, Brian Appleby wrote: [comprehensive stuff snipped] Bottom line is, Finale 2006 does pretty well everything I require. I always thought linked parts would be nice, but I've tried to work with the implementation in 2007 and 2008 a bit, and always decided it wasn't worth it. I find the part extraction process works just fine for me, and our pieces are simple enough that corrections can be done very quickly. I am still dazzled by the modern speed of part extraction, since I suffered through early versions where you would leave it to extract parts when you went to bed, and they might be done by morning. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much faster 2007 is than 2006 on an Intel Mac. I was often waiting excruciatingly long times while switching tools, especially when the score got large, while 2007 is practically instantaneous, and you can still extract parts the old-fashioned way in 2007-08. It is chiefly because of this that I only went back as far as 2007, rather than the relatively-stable 2006, after becoming disgruntled with 2008. Hoping to be more gruntled in the future, Christopher ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
RE: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
It seems that some big-wig at MakeMusic has as his pet hobby-horse SmartMusic Accompaniment system ... The Boston Globe has a front page story today about how schools all over MA are now using SmartMusic: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/10/11/harried_school s_trumpet_digital_music_teacher/ Made me wonder if the article was written in response to a press release. Stu ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Re: Finale '08
--- Eric Dannewitz [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I think MakeMusic, if the trend continues, is not going to be the maker of an excellent notation program. They will be known for their SmartMusic stuff, perhaps even changing their name from MakeMusic (like they did from Coda to MakeMusic) to just SmartMusic Inc. It's good and all that SmartMusic is starting to make them money. It has it's pluses and minuses, there are a lot of things I like and dislike about it. But they really shouldn't drop the ball with their flagship product, especially when all they need to do is fix bugs and complete features. The good thing for Finale users is that SmartMusic's success is tied to Finale in several ways. First, SmartMusic incorporates a good portion of Finale technology. Second, SmartMusic is getting the majority of its important repertoire from publishers, and MakeMusic thus has an interest in keeping publishers using Finale. I don't see this link so much with Sibelius' education products, so if Sibelius' primary income also switches over to educational products, there may be less reason for them to go after the professional notation market. Finally, SmartMusic is becoming a legitimate way for publishers to make extra money and advertise their music, meaning there is some extra benefit for them having their music in Finale format. My hope is that as SmartMusic continues to pick up a greater share of the load, it will eventually allow MakeMusic to relax on Finale's schedule and fix many older issues. SmartMusic is really a blessing for Finale, because it requires the company to maintain its interest in serving those who need professional notation. Tyler Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more! http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/3658 ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
