MakeMusic has released Finale 2008, complete with a host of new features, including an exclusive Audio Recording feature. The new Garritan sounds are a welcome and much needed addition in my opinion. Here are the highlights:
*New Garritan Sounds Included:
Saxophones
Jazz Bass & Drums
Trumpet & Trombone Mutes
Marching Percussion
World Instruments
Acoustic Guitar
Upright Bass
Choir Sounds
Gamelan
*Integrated Custom Sound Libraries
*(Audio Support Expanded)
Import or Record Vocal/Audio Tracks into the score
*Document Styles added (custom music fonts and text fonts)
*Improved Setup Wizard
* Copy and Pasting Improved
*Colored Note Heads and Boomwhackers Sounds
*Supports Vista
*New Context Menus and Selection Tool Improvements
*Score Merger- Consolidate multiple movements into a single document easily.
*Improved Templates and more of them
I’ll be anxious to check out the new Finale. I’m still using 2006 and haven’t felt a need to upgrade yet, but the feature set sounds intriguing.
Jason,
The features are pretty cool AND useful. 2007 was a major step forward for them and 2008 captilizes on it as far as ease of use and functionality. People still think Finale is as hard to use as their offerings prior to 2004 (Does anyone remember Finale Allegro and Finale 98? :evil: ). It is now much easier and on par with the ease of use of Sibelius. They can’t seem to shake the “monkey on their back” about the “learning curve” though.
The garritan sounds coupled with some of the humanization capabilities of the software make for very good “real” sounding tracks. I think you would get a lot from the upgrade.
Regards,
J. Pisano