Finale 2009 Ships

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:15 pm

MLC mentioned this was about to happen about a week or two ago, but Macworld confirms that it's really shipping.

I'm still on 2006, bought 2007 which I never got to work right. Because of that I skipped 2008. I'm still a little skeptical about the Mass Move going AWOL, but since I know a few people now who have left Sibelius to go *back* to Finale (which appears to be the first sign of the pendulum swinging back the other way) I'm tempted to do the 2009 upgrade for $100.

Any Finale folks jumping into 2009? Thoughts?

bkshepard · Post by **bkshepard** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:40 pm

I've been a long-time "odd-numbered updater" when it comes to Finale. For some reason, it seems like there have been more problems with the even-numbered versions than the odd ones. I figure I'll take the leap to '09. Although, I'll probably wait until it's 2009b or whatever they call it this year.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:36 pm

Frodo wrote:I'm tempted to do the 2009 upgrade for $100.

Any Finale folks jumping into 2009? Thoughts?

I'm waiting on the early responses from the users on the MakeMusic Forum, but I thought the upgrade path from 2007 to 2009 was $149?

I'll check again, but again, I am sure it was quoted at the higher price.

MM

(No Mass Mover? How can that be???

)

Checked again (via my MakeMusic acct) and there it is: $149 to go from 07 to 09.

Funny thing is I am also registered as a "Notepad" user but don't ever recall even seeing that on my HD. Weird.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:16 pm

MIDI Life Crisis wrote: (No Mass Mover? How can that be??? )

Checked again (via my MakeMusic acct) and there it is: $149 to go from 07 to 09.

Ah-- 07-09 and not 08-09. Hmm. I guess MakeMusic still makes money on those who didn't make the annual upgrade.

Yup-- no more Mass Mover as of version 2008. That's going to take some adjustment.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote: No kidding! Isn't that the basis of using TG Tools? If I can't use Mass Mover AND TG Tools I might as well go buy a $#ITLOAD of HB Soft pencils and start printing score paper...

makinmusic · Post by **makinmusic** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:59 pm

Hi
Mass Mover has been "upgraded" to cover a wider spectrum of utilities.
I was using 2006 before, and had no problems.
2008 is strange and quirky. The ideas behind the application are good, but the implementation at times is dodgy.
Worst is the fact that it does not support Pro MIDI interfaces, and will only play out to Left channel.
Hopefully that has been addressed in 2009
I'll wait to hear the news on the forums!

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Sun Jul 27, 2008 8:05 pm

Frodo wrote:
No kidding! Isn't that the basis of using TG Tools? If I can't use Mass Mover AND TG Tools I might as well go buy a $#ITLOAD of HB Soft pencils and start printing score paper...

This is weird. I could SWEAR I wrote that a few days ago!

I feel like Rod Sterling is about to put a cigarette out in my eye or something. Really Frodo - I would SWEAR on my life I JUST WROTE THAT somewhere!

Yikes. Maybe we're the same person??? Ooooooooooo........

Could your quotes have gotten screwed up? Man, I'm having a strange moment here...

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:53 am

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:
Frodo wrote:
No kidding! Isn't that the basis of using TG Tools? If I can't use Mass Mover AND TG Tools I might as well go buy a $#ITLOAD of HB Soft pencils and start printing score paper...
This is weird. I could SWEAR I wrote that a few days ago! I feel like Rod Sterling is about to put a cigarette out in my eye or something. Really Frodo - I would SWEAR on my life I JUST WROTE THAT somewhere!

Yikes. Maybe we're the same person??? Ooooooooooo........

Could your quotes have gotten screwed up? Man, I'm having a strange moment here...

Hey Hobbit--

I entered the quotes, but I have no idea what my response was to the statement at the time.

I just know that I've yet to try 2009. My experience with the 2008 demo was so similar to makinmusic's that I'm anything but eager about taking another risk right now.

And TG Tools? Prego! Bitte! Por Favor! PUH-LEEEEEZ! The tremolo tool needs to be taken to the alley and shot for the way it redraws itself constantly... and then there's another $100 or so for the complete set of tools that do--- what? little more any better.

So many versions of Finale have sent me RUNNING to the kitchen table to glue macaroni on construction paper that I'm really sort of in a knot right now about when to move forward with this.

kinnylandrum · Post by **kinnylandrum** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:41 am

Frodo,

I have to tell you that 2008 (and 2009 as well) have one great feature that works like gangbusters: integrated parts. Trust me you'll love this. I just did a full orchestra score (31 lines) and I tweaked all the parts in less than an hour. It's much better than Sibelius' integrated parts, which cannot generate two parts from a line like Flute 1 and 2, but Finale can. It's definitely worth the money. I've been using 2008 since it came out, and I don't know what the complaining is about. It's the best Finale ever, for me , and I don't even like Finale!

I'm not sure I'm springing for 2009 myself, since I don't see a grand improvement over 2008, but the integrated parts are done the way they should be. No down side, as far as I can see. One caveat, make sure you know how you want your part layout in terms of number of parts, page size, etc. before starting the score, or you'll waste a lot of time redoing things for every part. But still it's great.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:44 am

Frodo wrote: And TG Tools? Prego! Bitte! Por Favor! PUH-LEEEEEZ! The tremolo tool needs to be taken to the alley and shot for the way it redraws itself constantly..

OTOH, TG Tools has saved me hours.

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 10:38 am

Hi, Mr. Frodo. Finale 2008 certainly does have it's bugs, but once you get used to the new interface/tools, you'll be glad they made the changes. I hated it at first, but now I don't want to look back. The firewire audio bug is annoying as hell. The workaround I chose was to route things through Soundflower. I was hoping for a fix in version 2008a then waited for 2008b. Now that I'm still waiting for a fix in 2008c, they've announced 2009. There's been no mention as to whether this has been fixed or not. Hmmm.

Phil

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 1:49 pm

Phil, Kinny, MLC-- you're making this tricky for me. All of you have presented some rare upsides for me to chew around.

One thing I discovered is that there's no PDF available in the demo versions of these things, so figuring out the details new features and how they work seems to require a full purchase.

Kinny-- integrated parts. Hmm. I'll have to look into this. It's definitely different from how I work. Just so you know, it was 2007 that was the huge disaster for me-- that was the last version I bought. Considering that I've had every version from v 1.5 through 2007 and of them it was 2004 and 2006 which have been the only really usable ones for me. The idea of buying 2008 after the 2007 letdown (and most of the other versions in between) was tough.

Losing certain features in 2008 gave me pause, but if you guys say that "better" is really "better" this time around, then I have to believe you.

MLC-- The current Easy Tremolo tool will change itself to something totally unusable if some other measure is edited. It might be easy to get those symbols in there, but the time it has taken me to go back to redo all of them (sometimes more than 2-3 times) undermines the time saved on the front end. Are you telling me that TG Tools don't change themselves behind your back and actually stick?

One thing I've done was to rethink how I enter data in DP to avoid so much twiddling in Finale. I bought the whole TG Tools a while back for 2004, but for the way I get notes in and out of DP these days, I've discovered that I've not used any TG's other than Easy Tremolos.

Phil-- I've never worried about VIs or firewire in Finale-- another nightmare-ish experience I'll hesitate to relive at this time. My main, if not only, concern for Finale is that its layout and publishing abilities work as they should.

So Gents, congrats! Thanks to you I find myself more convinced to get 2009 than ever before, and this is coming from one who has been very frustrated with this app. I probably won't order right away but will likely do so in a matter of weeks just for the sake of using Leopard.

kinnylandrum · Post by **kinnylandrum** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:05 pm

I promise you, you'll love the parts thing (they call it linked parts). Just imagine, one file for EVERYTHING involved with a particular score and you can pretty much make every part look exactly like you want it. And believe me, you'll never miss the Mass Mover tool. Now cutting and pasting is just like any other application, plus you can drag and drop, great for little cells of repeating patterns. I just noticed on 2009 a feature called Smart Find and Paint. They don't advertise this much but check it out:
http://www.finalemusic.com/finale/featu ... paint.aspx

Score Merge also looks useful. Those two might almost be worth the upgrade alone.

I'm with you, I don't care much about firewire or playback. In this latest big score of mine, playback bogged down and glitched, while DP handled it with aplomb. That's what DP is for, not Finale.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:09 pm

Frodo wrote:Phil, Kinny, MLC-- you're making this tricky for me. All of you have presented some rare upsides for me to chew around.
...
MLC-- The current Easy Tremolo tool will change itself to something totally unusable if some other measure is edited. It might be easy to get those symbols in there, but the time it has taken me to go back to redo all of them (sometimes more than 2-3 times) undermines the time saved on the front end. Are you telling me that TG Tools don't change themselves behind your back and actually stick?

I bought the full TG Tools in and for F2006 while working on the Chicago Symphony scores and did so at the strong suggestion of 3 top orchestrators in L.A. IMO, it has performed nearly flawlessly in that version. The tremolos stick and I used TG for a fair amount of other stuff. There are some new reports coming in at the MakeMusic forum from reliable sources and based on those, I will probably upgrade after the BMI Classical distributions in Aug.

Here's a link to the best thread so far on F2009 I've seen. Wiggy knows his stuff and tends to avoid snarky and negative comments.

http://forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=6&m=230191

And here's another:

http://forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=6&m=230216

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:25 pm

Thanks again, guys. I'll take a look at the links and mull all this over over the next few days.

It feels like an awful lot of new software versions coming in at once- DP6, EWQLSO-PLAY, and Finale. These present a lot of significant changes to my setup since such software represents the cornerstone of what I do. It's just unsettling enough that I think I may set up a non-production dummy system for all of this before kit-bashing my studio machines.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:31 pm

MLC wrote:DP 6.uh-oh

MOTUnation.com

Finale 2009 Ships

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