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Topic: Finale’s finale (Read 1656 times) previous topic - next topic

Finale’s finale

I just saw a discussion on Facebook that the notation program Finale is going to be discontinued. A lot of professionals are grieving over needing to learn a new program and trying to convert their past work. It’s a bit  of a shock. Sibelius and Dorico will be the big guns now, with many students still using MuseScore.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #1 –
Conversion is likely to be a nightmare for many of them too.  Gonna HAVE to go via MusicXML.

Due to proprietary file formats, products like Dorico can't legally have the ability to open Finale files (or any others for that matter).

Buddy of mine got screwed over on his Sibelius licence recently and was looking into exactly this.  Except he couldn't run his Sib at all 'cos the licence got messed up after a hard drive failure.  No backup of course (D'oh)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #2 –
Yes. There’s a lot of anger from seasoned composers with decades of work. It is one reason why I have never changed from using NWC, since converting 20 years of work sounds like a nightmare and I want to spend my time composing not doing computer work, which is really the issue at hand. The Facebook groups Music Engraving Tips and Orchestration Online are discussing it, if anyone is interested. Some of our members are in this groups.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #3 –
Glanced through a couple YT videos about Finale's demise and possible alternatives and was sorry to see that not once was NWC even mentioned. OTOH it was also a relief too since I've never really needed to switch to any other tool for ~25 years.

Regardless, I feel for all our colleagues who now have to go through the hassle of not only changing their well accustomed engraving program but converting their archives on top of that.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #4 –
Don't forget a detail: NWC is virtually dead.  :(  Probably is for that that NWC was not mentioned.
Luckily, as the old school programs, the licence of NWC doesn't expire.  :)
Now, more often than not, to use a program you must have an active "infernet"  ;)  connection and you have to keep paying just to continue using it as-is. This made me discarding lots and lots of programs.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #5 –
Having never used Finale, I am wondering if that program is "pay as you go", requiring an active subscription to keep using it. If so, I can understand the need for current users to switch to something new. However, if the company is just discontinuing updates and support, that wouldn't be much different than what we are facing with our favorite program, since there haven't been any updates in several years now. There should still be a community of users who are able to answer questions and provide support for remaining users.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Ertuğrul İnanç –
Glanced through a couple YT videos about Finale's demise and possible alternatives and was sorry to see that not once was NWC even mentioned.

I was curious and looked, too. But NWC is not considered industry standard or sophisticated enough for the pros. That’s why I don’t tell people in my circles what I use. There’s a lot of peer pressure and debate about composition software and I just don’t care to engage in it.

Finale was not a subscription model and that’s one reason composers liked it compared to Sibelius, where you pay monthly. I don’t want to pay monthly either! Pro composers feel they have to use what publishers ask of them, so that creates a lot of updating and switching of programs. 

I have fear in my heart that this forum will cease to exist or that I won’t be able to use NWC in future. I’ve probably got close to 1000 scores. I’ve stopped counting.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #7 –
Both Sibelius and Dorico have subscription and perpetual licence alternatives.  From what I've been able to gather, it seems that about 3 years of annual licence fees is the same cost, thereabouts, as a perpetual licence.  BUT, I think that updates then cost extra.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #8 –
Quote from: SEBC –
I have fear in my heart that this forum will cease to exist or that I won’t be able to use NWC in future. I’ve probably got close to 1000 scores. I’ve stopped counting.
I let the computer counting for me: 3303 files...

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #9 –
Quote from: SEBC –
I have fear in my heart that this forum will cease to exist or that I won’t be able to use NWC in future. I’ve probably got close to 1000 scores. I’ve stopped counting.
Me being in the business of "business continuity management", this is an interesting and serious question.

As a first reaction, I would not fear so much. NWC itself (2.75a2 and 2.80 beta) are stable programs that cannot degrade. Having a local as well as an online backup of the installers and of the necessary license data is enough to run it for the next century (as well as all the scores, of course). Regarding the underlying Windowses, there are many people out there who run older versions on virtual machines just for fun, but probably also for business. So, in the end, it is currently purely a question of money (to pay a tech crack for setting up a copy of an old system) and some time.

Come to think of it, I might go to our IT department and have them set up a copy of NWC on some old computer: It would be interesting to see what they do and need for that.

H.M.

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #10 –
Quote from: SEBC –
I have fear in my heart that this forum will cease to exist or that I won’t be able to use NWC in future.
You might want to set up a login on Discord in case this forum doesn't work anymore.
Since 1998

Re: Finale’s finale

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Flurmy –
I let the computer counting for me

I just learned how to do that through alt enter on Windows 10. It looks like 2,745 scores. That's a bit higher than I thought, but I think it includes draft versions.

Thanks, Harald and Warren for your reassurances, and to others for your engagement on this interesting topic.