music your way
Finale has always been known as the notation software that can create anything. Today’s Finale automates many tasks, saving you time while ensuring you retain all of the flexibility Finale is renowned for.
Now you can create the music of your imagination, with no compromises, more quickly than ever before. Take control of your music, your creative process, and your legacy.
advanced music sharing functionality
Finale now enables you to quickly and easily share your notated documents with anybody. Without leaving the app, you can upload and share privately or publicly.
Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) support
SMuFL is a growing comprehensive standard that organizes musical characters into a common layout so music fonts are displayed correctly in every notation application that supports it. Spend less time searching for or creating musical symbols and more time making music.
native installation of JW Plug-ins
With the release of Finale v27.3, eight of the popular JW Plug-ins are included with no additional installation required. The eight plug-ins included are: JW Change, JW Accidentals, JW Copy Part Layout, JW Note Spacing, JW Patterns, JW Rhythm Copy, JW Space Empty Rests, and JW Staff Polyphony.
revised instrument list
Our revised instrument list ensures your notation looks great the first time—no matter which instruments you’ve chosen—and that you hear the correct sounds when playing a document. We’ve also added to the list of instruments you can use when starting a new document or editing an existing one.
MusicXML 4.0
The latest version of MusicXML provides even more control when transporting your compositions. With more information than ever now being captured in a MusicXML file, you’ll be able to efficiently and confidently send files between practically any modern music software.
quality-of-life updates
We’ve tackled a lot of known issues, such as unexpected installer behavior and unusable display scaling on Windows, crashes due to macOS quirks, and problems with printing.
system requirements
previous versions
With every upgrade Finale accumulates additional benefits like features, fixes, sounds, and more. If you haven’t upgraded in a while, you’ll enjoy all the latest additions plus the benefits from every intervening version. Highlights include:
Finale v26
- Articulations stack automatically when you add more than one articulation.
- Existing articulations automatically avoid collisions as you add or adjust slurs.
- Note stems adjust as necessary when placing a tremolo or roll on a note, whether the note is flagged, unflagged, or part of a beamed group.
- Flip articulations from note side to stem side with a keystroke.
- Finale’s expression and articulation libraries have been overhauled, expanded, and refined for playback.
- Whether you prefer one-, two-, or three-letter suffixes, Finale now recognizes your favorites as you type them, and sets them up to look and sound great.
Finale v25
- Rewritten to offer full 64-bit support, Finale can make the most of your computer and the latest operating systems.
- When entering notes into transposing staves, the new Finale plays the correctly transposed pitch both upon entry and playback.
- ReWire support facilitates synchronized playback with digital audio software including Digital Performer, ProTools, and Logic.
- Easily create tall time signatures, which greatly aid in score readability.
- Plus: backward and forward file compatibility, expanded MusicXML import/export, immediate Human Playback response, a new ARIA player that simplifies the selection of instruments and reverbs, new visual results including contoured dashed slurs, and more.
2014
- Improved accidentals and rests ensure you effortlessly create perfect notation, particularly in music with more than one voice or layer.
- Keyless scores, while possible in previous versions, are now one-click easy.
- Beat-attached SmartShapes – including hairpins, trills, and others – are easily assigned, both in terms of appearance and playback.
- Plus: expanded linked parts, percussion enhancements, a clean new look, and many core improvements including a new audio engine.
2012
- The Score Manager lets you quickly change staff name, transposition, clef, playback, and more – all in one convenient place.
- Unicode text support gives you access to ALL the characters in any font and makes it possible to communicate in more languages.
- New music fonts are added, including an improved handwritten font (Finale Copyist), and a harmonic analysis font (Finale Numerics).
- Plus: a new Space Systems feature, PDF export, expanded file-sharing capabilities, and more.