I was wondering how good it is. I hear that a lot of people use it, so I want to hear what you guys have to say.

over-rated and hard to use. *sigh* And I could have been $400 richer. Go sylibus (or what's it spelled like). by far better (by reviews; I've never used it).
:offtopic:
I use Musicwrite 2000 Professional, and it suit's the needs of all intermediate composers, I feel.

I use Finale 2003, and it has everything I need... Haven't bothered trying other softwares though, since I don't need 'improvement'

It kinda annoys me because I have to constantly double-click or quadruple-click the title bar to make the program active. If I don't do that, it'll take like 3 seconds to put in just one note. Finale Notepad 2002 is far better. There isn't any difference between them that I can see except the layout and looks of the buttons.

I'm still working off Finale 2003 and I know a professional composer who couldn't stand using 2004 so he went back to Finale 2003. It does have an exceptionally steep learning curve but once you figure it out it's excessively powerful. I tried using Sibelius but it really just doesn't compare.

I think I said this in another thread like this but Sibelius is like a Macintosh OS and Finale is like Windows. Sibelius will hold you by the hand and be somewhat intuitive but eventually it will just be too much work to get at the complex stuff. Finale gives you all of the power layed out right at the top of your scren and leaves you alone to try and figure it out. It really comes down to what you want to do: if you are just doing basic stuff for your own use than Sibelius will probably be easier. However, if you want to do professional level work for actual groups then Finale is the only way to go.

i'm using finale 2001... yes, i'm old school... but that's the only program i could get my hands on. since all of you know how to work finale, i need major help. how come finale notepad only gives me 21 bars to work with?

EDIT: nevermind... i figured it out by accident....lol....

i might check it out when i have time. 2003 works for now.

I just bought Finale 2004 and after working with it for a while I've decided this. I hate its interface with a passion but its instrument samples are so good that unless you perform your own stuff and record it its still worth it. The way I work is I usually write my piece in 2003 and then open it with 2004 and save the audio file. I imagine if you prefer using a computer keyboard to input the notes it could be better but after being used to 2002 and 2003 it's horrible.

Edit: It's worth checking out the demo anyway to see whether or not you would like it.

I agree with Elite666. The instrument samples (human playback too :)) are very good. Even though the interface is lacking, the new features overshadow this easily. :)


You just got 2004, Elite...? Too bad you didn't wait a few days for 2005 which came out like 4 days ago... :/ I wish I had 2005! :P

I got it essentially new but severely discounted so it doesn't matter that much, either way I don't see much of a reason to update. I'm happy with 2004's audio quality and I can't see them improving over 2003's interface. They seem to be going in a direction I don't like with it so I'll let my versions age for a while. I can always update for little money.

Edit: I just looked at the update list for 2005 and I was right, they're going much more toward a computer keyboard oriented interface and I just don't feel like relearning Finale. I'm now very glad I didn't just update from 2003.

guess i'll grab 2005 then...