Finale (software) - Version History

Version History

The lead programmer for Finale version 1.0 in 1988 was Phil Farrand (better known in some circles as an author of Nitpicker's Guides for Star Trek and The X-Files). He wrote the original version software for Coda Music Software, which was later sold to Net4Music and then became MakeMusic. After Finale version 3.7, Finale's marketers made the switch to years as identifiers for each new release, starting with Finale 97.

Finale 2004, released in early 2004, was the first release to run natively on Macintosh computers running OS X "Panther". This was considered a "late" release by MakeMusic, and full support for the features of OS X was limited at first. More comprehensive support was brought "on-line" through maintenance releases going forward into 2004. Finale 2004 also continued to support PowerPC Macs running OS 9. This release shortened the development cycle for Finale 2005, which was released the following August. While the number of new features in Finale '05 were necessarily limited, this was the first release to have both Windows and Mac versions on the same distribution CD.

The most advertised new feature of Finale 2006 (released in the summer of 2005) included the Garritan Personal Orchestra, an integrated sound library with upgradeable selections from Garritan Personal Orchestra for more lifelike playback than the SmartMusic SoftSynth (which is still included in the program). A music-scanning module, SmartScore Lite, was also added to Finale 2006. SmartScore Lite is a limited-function version of SmartScore published by Musitek Corporation of Ojai, CA. In addition to Page View and Scroll View, the 2006 release added StudioView, a display mode which is similar to Scroll View with the addition of a sequencer interface. This feature offers an environment for creation, evaluation, and experimentation with different musical ideas in a multi-track environment. In StudioView, an additional staff appears above the notation, called TempoTap, allowing for complete control over rubati, accelerandi, and ritardandi.

A key new feature of the Finale 2007 release was an integrated "linked" score and part management system. A properly-set-up "full score for extraction" could now contain all the data and formatting necessary to generate a full set of linked ensemble parts, ensconced within a single Finale master document. Limitations on the scope of format and layout control between parts and conductor score (including measure numbers and staff system breaks) suggested that this new feature was targeted to media production work, where quick turnaround and accuracy is a crucial factor, rather than publishing, though publishers still may use certain aspects of linked parts to improve the part creation process. The 2007 release was a Universal binary, and runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

Finale 2008 was the first version to come out with full Vista (32-bit only) support. It also changed the way several editing modes are accessed, by introducing the multi-purpose “selection tool” described above. More notably, the 2008 release offers the importation and/or recording of synchronized real-time audio as an additional single track in a document.

Finale 2009 was identified as the 20th Anniversary edition. It offers many fundamental workflow changes not seen since the program's inception, such as the organization of expressions by category. Also notable is the re-designed Page View, which enables the viewing and editing of multiple pages within the same document window: these pages may either be arranged in a horizontal line or tiled vertically within a window. Finale 2009 includes Garritan's new Aria Player Engine, and has new samples for this. The older Kontakt 2 Player is still supported, and the samples load under this as well.

Finale 2010 was released in June 2009 with improvements to percussion notation and chord symbols. This version also introduced measure number enhancements, auto-ordered rehearsal marks, and support for additional graphic formats, as well as a new "Broadway Copyist" font option resembling the look of handwritten scores.

Finale 2011 was released in June 2010 with additional Garritan Sounds, Alpha Notes (notation with note names inside), a new lyric entry window and other lyric enhancements, and, most notably, a reworking of staff, system, and page layout handling. In Finale versions prior to 2011, systems could be "optimized" in order to remove empty staves from them and also permit staves in a system to be positioned independently from other systems. Eliminating empty staves from systems with many staves (sometimes called "French Scoring") is a common notation practice used to economize (or 'optimize') the use of the page. Users needed to take caution while optimizing, because if measures with notes were moved into an optimized system, or notes were added to staves while viewing the score in Scroll View that had been optimized out, they could be omitted in the printed score. The recommended solution was to always optimize as the last step in the score editing process, immediately before printing. Finale resolved this condition with a number of solutions in Finale 2011, including the new Hide Empty Staves command under the Staff menu, which hides all empty staves in systems. If notes are added to the system, the staff reappears automatically. (The capability of intentionally hiding staves containing notes is still available using a Staff Style). Also, any staff or staves can be positioned in systems independently (based on the selection). These improvements resolved some of the longstanding frustrations novice and advanced users could encounter when working with multi-staff scores. Other improvements to this Finale version include easier capo chords and a new Aria Player.

Finale 2012 was released in October 2011 with new functions as Finale’s ScoreManager™, unicode text support, creation of PDF files, an updated setup wizard, improved sound management and more Garritan Sounds built-in.