Finale 2.0 is the latest version of Coda’s landmark music-notation/sequencing program. Finale 1.0 was a major achievement but was overshadowed by its faults: It was too expensive and slow, bad a clumsy interface, and offered too many choices (see “Measure for Measure,” August ’89). Thankfully, all of these problems (and more) have been remedied. Finale 2.0 is one tight, mean monster of a program.
Following the informative manual's suggestions (and yes, there are still four manuals), I set my RAM cache to 2 megabytes. Coda suggests using a RAM disk for maximum speed. (Incidentally, anyone seriously interested in creating music professionally on a Mac had better get as much speed and memory as the wallet will allow. I’ve learned this the hard way, and Coda warns Mac-Plus users about this as well.)
The cache idea worked, and Finale now loads and redraws at blinding speed: 3 seconds for initial loading and 1 second or less for redraws on the 8-megabyte IIcx I used for testing. There is still a bewildering array of tools and choices to deal with, but the manual constantly exhorts the new user to “stay with it.” And you should: It's worth it.
Finale is still lhe only music program that features both page view and score view and is capable of doing anything to music, from producing harp diagrams to adjusting the size and shape of the note heads themselves. Finale is especially adept with lyrics. Using the Mass Create option, you can type lyrics on your word processor and load them, and Finale automatically flows the words — complete with proper hyphens between notes — exactly where they belong. The program also features a Mass Part Extraction option that lakes every line of a score and transfers that line to its own part — fast.
Finale gives you five methods of note entry: file importation (from any sequencing program that supports standard MIDI), real-time synth play, Mackeyboard entry, step-time synth play, and traditional mouse click. “Speedy note entry” on the Mac keyboard is a real time-saver, and beats the old Graphic Notes Music Publisher at its own game. On the negative side: The tool icons don’t identify their function when you click on them, so it's hard to remember what they represent without looking at the fairly large “Quick Reference” card. Synthesizer owners without a pedal will also find it difficult to enter real-time music, since you have to tap in the beat while you're playing. Printing pages can be a nightmare, because Finale still uses EVPUs (Enigma virtual-page units) instead of inches or points, even though the tool that accesses them is called the “page layout” tool. There is an answer here, however: Music Prose. Finale's sister program.
Gruberman, Ken. (May 1991). Finale 2.0, MusicProse, and Encore. MacUser. (pg. 61).
Finale 2.x
Coda Music
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
78 / 
2014-04-14 / 
2020-04-05 / 
d48ea15fed4dcfac1adb5051b152d9a49bc870af / 
/ 
Finale_2.6.1.img_.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
