Finale is disappearing, composers are looking for alternatives

[Paul Kinney]

Yesterday, many of us bell composers got the surprising news that Finale, the music notation program we use to write the pieces we all perform, is halting sales. I've been using the program for 23 years, others have used it for as many as 30. And that is part of the reason for halting sales -- the code base for Finale is 30 years old and developing new features on it is getting harder. Why go through a complete rewrite when there are already good alternatives.

So I'm asking on behalf of my fellow composers, what alternatives do you know about? We are (or at least I am) looking for a program that will allow me to hear the music as I compose it and also produce printed scores we can place in front of our performers.

Finale's company worked out a discount for the program Dorico, which most of us Finale users know nothing about. It also doesn't have a smooth migration path.

I've heard of Sibelius and briefly considered it before choosing Finale. It may have a smoother migration path. But that was 23 years ago, making me wonder if it will soon have the same fate as Finale.

What music notation programs do you know about and can recommend?

Paul Kinney

[Cathy Moklebust]

Paul -

Sibelius Ultimate is incredibly handbell friendly, easy to learn, and does exactly what you say you need - hearing the music as you enter it, and printing out beautiful scores for your groups. I've been using it for composing since 1998, and for engraving since 2005. I've created a great handbell music template in Sibelius, and am constantly tweaking it as I find and learn new functions - which are endless. Take a look at Sibelius at https://www.avid.com/sibelius

That said, all of us in the Sibelius community are holding our collective breath and wondering when the other shoe will drop. It wouldn't surprise me. Sadly, business is business.

Cathy

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Cathy A. Moklebust

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[Dean W]

Hey Cathy I thought Sibelius had shut down too. By I guess not maybe I just got the impression from somewhere and it wasn’t factual.  Yes I was trying to look into Dorico as well and know nothing of it.  

With that it was mentioned that it doesn’t have a smooth migration path- could you elaborate on that?   

I had already been using Finale prior to hearing if Sibelius.  Most users said that Sibelius was a much easier and more intuitive program.  

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[Brian Seemann]

Sibelius was taken over by AVID a few years ago, and went through some changes at that time. (For example, it has now joined Adobe and others in the "Subscription" sales model, where you have to pay yearly to keep an active license). But as of now it's still up and running normally.

The migration from Finale to any other software is going to be bumpy, since finale has it's own file format that is not compatible with other software. In order to open up a finale file in another software, you have to save it as an XML file, then open that up in the other software, but it's not exact, especially when it comes to formatting. Most everybody's fear now is not being able to access Finale files once support for the software ends, and the relative difficulty to save the finale files as an intermediate file type, and then import them into whatever new software you're using. I am betting that someone in the technology community will end up developing a bulk conversion plug-in of some sort to go from Finale's format to XML, and if Steinberg knew what was good for them, they would figure out a way to code in the ability to open Finale's files in Dorico.

I have always equated Finale and Sibelius to Malmark and Schulmerich. More often than not, whatever you first started using at the beginning is the one you end up preferring going forward.

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Brian Seemann

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[Cathy Moklebust]

Dean - 

My husband Dave downloaded Dorico this morning, and that's all the farther he's gotten as we have a busy day today. I don't have any comments to share yet about migration, so I will be paying attention to how it goes for him. Jason Krug downloaded it this morning too, but he hasn't done a lot with it yet. 

Over the next days, I'm sure all sorts of helpful comments will be shared in this group, and on the various Facebook groups. Stay tuned! 

Cathy

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[Ellie Hodder]

Go Dave!! Ellie

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[MARY YERKS]

Thanks for checking Dorico out and keeping us updated.

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[Blanche Marie Lewis]

I've been using MuseScore for years for all my arranging and composing! It's free, user friendly, and does fine!

Blanche Marie

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[Doug Jones]

I’m still navigating MuseScore. I’m not too happy about the way the handbell articulations are handled in it and it’s not as “friendly” as Finale was with those. Also, making a HUC in MuseScore is fiddly at best.

Doug

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[Dean W]

Thanks Cathy.   I downloaded a trial of Sibelius and may try the other as well.   Thanks for the response.   You are a blessing!

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[Cathy Moklebust]

Dean-

Happy to help you out with any Sibelius questions. It's the only language I speak...

Cathy 

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[lgb.list]

Sibelius does indeed sell on a subscription basis, but they also have
perpetual licenses that include updates and free tech assistance for one
year. The full version is not cheap, but they also have a free version
and a cheaper intermediate version with limitations. I was able to get
the full version for fairly cheap with an education discount.

I too have found Sibelius well suited for handbell scores.

Lee Barrow

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[Derek Hakes]

Paul,

I, too, was surprised when I received this email. While it certainly makes sense, it nevertheless still raises certain concerns. I think one of my main concerns is that Dorico (which I am considering, as I am Sibelius) is that, from what I have already researched and gathered, Dorico does not have a handbell symbol library, nor does it have a handbell sound library -- if someone knows more about Dorico and one or both of these are incorrect, please let me know.

I also wonder how publishing companies who rely on Finale for their engraving will respond to this change -- keep using it until it no longer responds, move to a different engraving program?

While I am not producing the volume of compositions and arrangements like I wish I could right now, I still do plan on writing handbell music. If the handbell music industry is planning on going to one standard program because of this change, then I certainly want to know which program I ultimately should learn.

It will be interesting to read what others have to say about this, and what changes they plan on making due to Finale's retirement.

Derek Hakes

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Derek Hakes (MSCIN, MSLXD)   Exceptional Learners Teacher (7-8), Indiana Math and Science Academy North   7435 N. Keystone Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46240   (C) 317-259-7300, x143   Managed by Concept Schools | Accredited by Cognia

[Matthew Prins]

I think one of my main concerns is that Dorico (which I am considering, as I am Sibelius) is that, from what I have already researched and gathered, Dorico does not have a handbell symbol library, nor does it have a handbell sound library -- if someone knows more about Dorico and one or both of these are incorrect, please let me know.

What I will say, though, in using Dorico even a little bit: It handles *external* instruments (VSTs) in a much better way than Finale ever did. I had a convoluted setup between Finale and my DAW to have some level of granular control when I was creating a handbell (or other instrument) audio file. In Dorico, though, much of it you could probably do without ever touching a DAW. All this is to say, there are plenty of options for external handbell sounds that could be easily used with Dorico, from free ones that are...fine (Fracture Sounds Festive Bells) to more pricey, professional-level ones (Bolder Sounds Handbells, which also requires buying the full version of Kontakt). 

That said, I'm not completely sold on buying Dorico yet, especially since my musical output has gone way down in the last five years as I've switched careers. But I wanted people to realize this isn't a dealbreaker with Dorico.

Matthew

[Michele Sharik]

Speaking of DAWs & handbell sounds, I have had good experiences with Noisefirm Handbell sounds. I’ve used these sounds for demos in Logic (without Kontact or Ableton). At $49, they’re at a good price-point for those of us who want real handbell sounds, but either don’t need (or can’t afford) the “pro” level sounds. (I have no idea if these would work with Dorico. While I bought Dorico & have installed it, I have not yet really tried to do anything substantial with it.)

PS. as long as I’m here, I mention this: I recently needed a demo to include “random ringing” & found this site to be useful to generate MIDI files to use with the Noisefirm handbells above.

-Michèle