Making Music Has Never Been Easier

New in Finale 2012 – Automatic MIDI input device selection means you never have to configure a MIDI keyboard again – even when you take your laptop between two locations that have different MIDI keyboards – no more switching!

Using Simple or Speedy Note Entry, click notes onto the staff or use MIDI to indicate pitch. Or enter notes with the numeric pad and keys ‘A’ ‘B’ ‘C’ ‘D’ ‘E’ ‘F’ and ‘G.’ But entering notes is just the start. You can also:

• Change octaves
• Enter rests
• Add accidentals
• Create triplets
• Add grace notes
• Add notes in a chord to an existing note
• Enter articulations on the fly or ‘lock in’ an articulation to place on several notes
• Change the key or time signature simply with key commands
• Add expressions like dynamics or tempos
• Enter a rhythmic pattern using a single note and then re-pitch the repeated notes using your MIDI or computer keyboard

Keystrokes are intuitive and a special key map for laptop users is provided. Best of all, if you prefer certain key commands, change the defaults in Finale to whatever you like.

HyperScribe - Enter notes in real-time as you play a MIDI keyboard.

• You can play along with a click, provide the click as you play (for example with a sustain or other foot pedal), or enter the pulse later.

• Record your live vocal or instrumental performance — an exclusive Finale feature.  Give arrangements authenticity and life with a real vocal or instrumental track. Record or import a mono or stereo audio file to enhance playback. No other notation software offers this capability. Finale’s audio support allows you to:

1. Record a vocal track to a soprano aria.
2. Add a trumpet solo to a jazz chart.
3. Import a stereo mix of a rock band and add a horn arrangement.
4. Import audio for transcription/take-down.
5. Create learning files for choir students with accompaniment and sung text.
6. Import an audio recording of music, use the Tempo Tap feature to line-up notation barlines and times, then add additional orchestration. Finale gives you complete control over rubati, accelerandi, and ritardandi. Perfection is just a tap away.

• Recording first and second endings with HyperScribe is seamless — Finale skips over the first ending on the second pass allowing for smooth transitions. 
• Specify a playback tempo before you record or Finale can record at the tempo you use when playing your MIDI keyboard.
• Record continuous data including the sustain pedal.

MicNotator - This revolutionary technology allows you to enter notation into Finale simply by playing your brass or woodwind instrument.

• MicNotator will notate what you play, so your performance should reflect the desired printed results, rather than the desired sound. For instance, if you play eighth notes in a staccato style, they may come out as sixteenth notes rather than eighth notes. So you should play the full duration of all notes. Also, you will experience better results if you input notes at a slow tempo.
• The purpose of MicNotator is to allow users to input notes via a wind instrument instead of a MIDI keyboard. This version of MicNotator is not designed for use with a vocalist (i.e., does not accommodate wide vibrato, glissandi, etc.).

Scanning - No other notation program offers scanning as accurate as Finale, with its included Smartscore Lite by Musitek.  Finale’s Smartscore Lite Scanning includes:

• Improved accuracy with XML technology including triplet recognition and better results when scanning polyphonic music.
• Easier Scanning – scanning is brought right to your fingertips in the Launch Window. With a compatible scanner, Finale provides an auto-preview and automatically chooses resolution and contrast settings.* All you have to do is click "Final Scan."
• Secondary voice recognition – counterpoint.
• Interface to specify the instrumentation so that your staves will automatically be properly transposed and configured for playback.
• Multiple page scans.
• Correct page formatting including system and staff sizes.
• Up to 32nd note resolution.
• Improved recognition of multi-measure rests, grace notes, and repeat measures (slash and dot symbol).
• Recognition of grayscale images to simplify the use of scanners, including HP models, that save in this format.
• Improved recognition when scanning scores with optimized staves.

Smartscore Lite is designed to scan original engraved music – not handwritten scores. These examples were scanned from original engraved music using a Canon N670U scanner at 360 dpi. Both images were untouched to enhance results. The PhotoScore example was transferred, without edits, to a competitor's product. The time to correct errors in the two examples: Finale, 10 seconds to add missing rests and tie necessary notes, hence the term 'easy edits' compared to the 2 minutes it took to add Voice 2 notes, correct notes, change notes from Voice 1 to 2, etc., in the competitor's product, thus the term 'difficult' or time-consuming edits.

Need additional recognition?

Finale is also compatible with full-fledged scanning products including Smartscore X - Professional, sold separately, these products offer expanded recognition.

*Scanning directly from Smartscore Lite within Finale is supported by nearly all Windows scanners and Epson scanners on Macintosh.

Full SmartScore versions include 1-button score conversion to Finale. Once installed, full versions automatically replace SmartScore Lite when "Scan" is invoked in Finale/PrintMusic. Refer to this chart to compare features...

Adding Markings, Lyric and More - Finale automates and streamlines the process of entering everything.

• Finale allows an unlimited number of lyric verses and automatically spaces the lyrics to match the notes they’re attached to. Dynamics & Tempo markings
• Finale makes entering, creating, copying and moving dynamics, tempo indications, and other text and markings intuitive and powerful.Unicode Support – New in Finale 2012
• Today’s Finale includes Unicode text support so that you can use all the characters in your fonts.Chords
• Enter chord symbols by typing in their names or playing them with a MIDI keyboard. Change or delete notes without changing your chords. Percussion Notation
• Finale has always offered unparalleled power and flexibility with percussion notation – now it’s also incredibly easy to use.Tuplets
• Default positioning looks great, even when the tuplet begins with rests, and tuplets automatically reposition when notes are raised or lowered on the staff. Tuplet brackets avoid rests and staff lines. Brackets follow the angle of the stems when on stem side and follow the angle of notes when on the note side.
  
• Notes are automatically spaced as they’re entered. Finale also automates countless other entry tasks like repeats and codas, cue notes or rehearsal marks, slurs, and tablature and fretboards for guitar and other fretted instruments.
  

Editing Tools - Finale’s introduction in 1988 represented a revolution in saving time. 

Today we take it for granted that you don’t have to start over if you decide to add another bar on page one, or make a slight change in instrumentation. Similarly, Finale’s subsequent evolution has continued to offer musicians new and more ways of making the best use of their time.

• Finale’s new ScoreManager™ lets you easily control – in one step – how your staves look and sound.
• Intuitive cut/copy/paste enhancements ensure that you always get the results you seek – the first time.
  
• Finale’s Selection Tool takes the guesswork out of editing nearly anything on the page.
  
• Multiple Page Editing lets you place as many pages on your screen as you wish AND edit anything you want.
  
• SmartFind and Paint copies articulations, dynamics, and expressions to the same rhythmic motif across your score.
• Quick Change makes it easy to change expressions and articulations with simple keystrokes.
• Multiple Undo lets you reverse any number of changes you made in the current session (even past the point you saved your score).

Hearing Your Music - Your Music Sounds as Good as it Looks.

• Garritan Sounds - Hear Your Music Come Alive with Garritan™ Instruments for Finale.  Finale includes more than 400 world-class instrument sounds from the makers of Garritan Personal Orchestra. Free sounds include orchestral instruments, jazz brass, saxophones, piano, choirs, drum set, guitar, organ, handbells, marching percussion, a variety of electric guitars, world instruments and more.  New in Finale 2012 - Soprano Sax, Recorder, Celeste, Mandolin, Accordion, Euphonium solo and more Pipe organs have been added.   See a complete list of Garritan sounds  Interested in using addional or the complete sets of Garritan sound?   Click here to buy additional Garritan Sounds.
• Tapspace Virtual Drumline Sounds - Finale includes more than 100 sounds from Tapspace Virtual Drumline, the world’s most powerful marching and concert percussion software instrument, featuring the world-champion Santa Clara Vanguard percussion section. Finale includes more than 100 sounds from Tapspace Virtual Drumline, the world’s most powerful marching and concert percussion software instrument, featuring the world-champion Santa Clara Vanguard percussion section.   Complete list of sounds included in Finale   Interested in using the complete set of Virtual Drumline sounds with Finale?   Click here to buy Tapspace-Virtual Drum
• Row-Loff Marching Percussion Sounds  Nothing extra to buy! Nothing extra to install! Sounds include: Bass Drums, Crash Cymbals, Snare Drum and Tenor Drums.
• Human Playback - Your music deserves to be heard with all the feeling, phrasing, and nuance you felt when you wrote it. Finale’s exclusive Human Playback plays your music as you would want it to be performed, even if you enter your notes with a mouse.
  
• External Sound Library Support - The entire world of VST/AU instruments and effects are now at your disposal for the most powerful sounding Finale ever. From the integrated Ambiance Reverb, to the plug-ins that come with current Macintosh operating systems, to the untold numbers of free and commercially available options, we've opened the floodgates for ultimate sonic shaping within Finale.
• Aria Player - The Garritan Aria Player is included FREE and is fully integrated into Finale. All of your Finale sound libraries work together seamlessly in the Aria player so that you can mix and match sounds in your score and easily change MIDI channel assignments. Plus you can add other external sound libraries (VST/AU Instruments and Effects).
  

Finale 2012 for Windows^®

• XP/Vista/Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit compatible).
• DVD-ROM drive.
• 800x600 minimum monitor resolution.
• Minimum 512MB RAM (1GB or more recommended).
• 600MB hard drive space required for software and user manual. An additional 2GB hard drive space is required for all VST/AU sounds included with Finale 2012.

Finale 2012 for Macintosh^®

• G4 or higher recommended. OS X 10.5-10.7 (Mac-Intel or Power PC).
• DVD-ROM drive.
• 800x600 minimum monitor resolution.
• Minimum 512MB RAM (1GB or more recommended).
• 700 MB hard drive space required for software and user manual. An additional 2GB hard drive space is required for all VST/AU sounds included with Finale 2012.

Optional

• MIDI interface
• MIDI input and/or playback device
• Printer
• Scanner
• Microphone required for use of MicNotator^®
• A soundcard (including Standard Direct Sound, MME or ASIO drivers) is required for playing the Garritan and other VST sounds in Windows.
• Better processor and hard drive speed is required for simultaneous use of more VST/AU instruments.

Finale's new ScoreManager lets you control both how your staves look and sound in one convenient place.

What you see in this video is an orchestra. What you hear are the virtual instrument sounds of Garritan Personal Orchestra. Only Finale includes sounds from the makers of Garritan Personal Orchestra.