Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Monday, July 03 2006 @ 12:15 PM CDT

I'm wondering what is the difference between these two programs (besides price =P)?.

Thanks in advance.

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Monday, July 03 2006 @ 07:55 PM CDT

I use Finale now, and used Finale Allegro before that. I don't remember all the differences, but I do know remember that the tech support people that I would call on the phone would be far more familiar with the "real" Finale product than the "hobbled" Allegro product. So they would give me a solution for a problem, and I would try it, and I would say, "I don't see that feature on my product." And they would say, "Oh, you don't have Finale, you have Finale Allegro. OK, let me look in my book now to see how to solve your problem."

I do know that Finale can export graphic files of any part of a page that you desire. I have found for myself that this is the most useful feature of the "Real" Finale software. I teach music, and I create written tests using Word, and importing graphics created with Finale. Finale Allegro can export graphics too, but only as an entire page, and not at a very good resolution (at least mine wasn't, around 5 years ago).

All this was true five years ago and before. Maybe it's all changed now, I don't know. I looked on the Finale page just now, and they used to have a comparison chart to see the differences between the various software titles, and that seems to be gone now.

If you are a student or a teacher, or have a student in your house that could buy the product for you, you can save a pile of money with the education discount. Without the education discount, Finale Allegro might be the best bet.

Best wishes to you,

John Stebbe

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Tuesday, July 04 2006 @ 06:58 AM CDT

I use Finale and always get the latest version just so it will work correctly with my computer, etc. Since I do scores that can become quite complex, Finale is the only choice. It can do almost anything you might ever need to do. Yes, the learning curve is steep, but there are lost of tools to help you along, and a nice support staff.

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Tuesday, July 04 2006 @ 07:37 AM CDT

Straying off the topic a smidge... I would like to have some musical notation software but I probably only need something fairly basic and easy to use - any suggestions?

Many thanks

KK

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Tuesday, July 04 2006 @ 10:43 AM CDT

If money is an issue, Finale NotePad is a small (and very limited) program that can be downloaded for free.

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

It will allow you to generate and print sheet music.

I have several friends who do a lot of composing/arranging that use Sibelius.
How does this program stack up against the others?

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Tuesday, July 04 2006 @ 10:59 AM CDT

I find that now that I have Finale's workflow in my brain, Sibelius just doesn't seem to work for me. They appear to have some neat features in the newest update, like live edits (correct the score, and parts are automatically corrected) and some other things, but I got Sibelius when Finale was dragging its heals on OS X compatibility, and went right back to Finale as soon as they got their act together again. I think it's personal preference, but there were so many hoops to jump through for me to set up Sibelius, then updates, then updating the updates and finding the serial number, etc.

I also find that I tend to 'skip' versions of Finale. I went from the 2004 to 2006. Of course, I suppose that the Intel Mac will make any notation software creators have to do either an update or a patch again, or risk losing customers to the 'other guys'.

If you can afford it, or get the education/church pricing, the Finale full edition is really worth it. Notepad is nice to try, but so limited, that I find myself frustrated by it. The imtermediate editions are OK, I guess, but all have limitations that don't always 'hit you' until you're trying to print a piece that's supposed to be ready to rehearse tomorrow, and it's 2:00 AM, and you just remembered that the baritone player reads treble, not bass clef, and ...

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Wednesday, July 05 2006 @ 07:43 AM CDT

Quote by: kristyjo I find that now that I have Finale's workflow in my brain, Sibelius just doesn't seem to work for me. They appear to have some neat features in the newest update, like live edits (correct the score, and parts are automatically corrected) and some other things, but I got Sibelius when Finale was dragging its heals on OS X compatibility, and went right back to Finale as soon as they got their act together again. I think it's personal preference, but there were so many hoops to jump through for me to set up Sibelius, then updates, then updating the updates and finding the serial number, etc. I also find that I tend to 'skip' versions of Finale. I went from the 2004 to 2006. Of course, I suppose that the Intel Mac will make any notation software creators have to do either an update or a patch again, or risk losing customers to the 'other guys'. If you can afford it, or get the education/church pricing, the Finale full edition is really worth it. Notepad is nice to try, but so limited, that I find myself frustrated by it. The imtermediate editions are OK, I guess, but all have limitations that don't always 'hit you' until you're trying to print a piece that's supposed to be ready to rehearse tomorrow, and it's 2:00 AM, and you just remembered that the baritone player reads treble, not bass clef, and ...

Yes, that used to happen to me too, when I used Finale Allegro. It's a big expense to buy the full version of Finale, even with the education/church discount, but it is worth it to me to know that my software is not hobbled in any way.

If you work for a church or school, you might see if your employer can buy it for you. Then you can install the program both at home and school, at no cost to you. Finale allows for at least two install authorizations.

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Friday, October 13 2006 @ 09:41 AM CDT

Hello everyone,
I'm new here and I've been looking at a few types of music notation software (as an "upgrade" to Finale Allegro, which I've been using for 6 years). This may be a "cross-category" question, but here it goes--is it more efficient to compose/arrange music using GarageBand, move the file to LogicExpress, do some fine tuning(quantizing), and then use LogicExpress to print your music?

Thanks in advance for your expertisejavascript:emoticon('')

Caroline

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Friday, October 13 2006 @ 10:12 AM CDT

Quote by: momluvsmusic Hello everyone, I'm new here and I've been looking at a few types of music notation software (as an "upgrade" to Finale Allegro, which I've been using for 6 years). This may be a "cross-category" question, but here it goes--is it more efficient to compose/arrange music using GarageBand, move the file to LogicExpress, do some fine tuning(quantizing), and then use LogicExpress to print your music? Thanks in advance for your expertisejavascript:emoticon('') Caroline

I think it depends on how you are "composing" music. If you are using Garageband's loops a great deal to compose, then this might be OK. However, if you prefer composing music note-by-note on a real music staff (like I do), then Garageband is a horrible program to try to do that with. Also, it has very little ability to do even slightly-complex things, like speeding/slowing the tempo within the piece, changing key signature partway through, doing true "repeats" with second-endings, adding lyric text below the music for printing, showing fingering/chords/tablature, etc. If you want ANY of these features, you probably want to start in a program that is more geared toward serious composition, then EXPORT the file to GB or Logic. My personal favorite is much cheaper than Sibelius or Finale, and has as many (or more) features, is updated/supported better, and has Windows/Mac/MacIntel support... and you can download a free trial to see how you like it. My only complaint is that the user interface is a little busy and complex at first, and takes some getting used to, but most complex software is this way. After a few weeks, I was using it easily. Click here to go to the 'Harmony Assistant' web page to read more about it... it is $70 US, and has no strange copy-protection hardware. The company also sells a trimmed down version called "Melody Assistant" for about $20 I think. They also sell a CD of a HUGE number of sampled instruments you can add (sort of like a jampack) called "Gold Soundbase", which gives you bagpipes, accordians, balalaikas, tons of church organs, synths, etc.

And.. welcome to Macjams, I think you'll have fun here!

Oh... wait! We have ANOTHER Caroline! Let's see Caro1ine (cjhoose) is in Iowa, Caro2ine (caroline) is in England, and so this makes you "Caro3ine"? :-)

ttfn,
Drakonis

Re:Finale: Alegro vs. PrintMusic
Friday, October 13 2006 @ 01:52 PM CDT

Hello Drakonis,
Thanks for the quick reply. My preferred method of composition is hooking up a fairly unsophisticated keyboard(eKeys evolution which came with GarageBand) and starting to plug away. I don't use too many of the loops(except for the drum loops) and I find the GB instruments a bit limited(compared to what I've seen of the LogicExpress and Finale demos). I compose very little original music; I'm more of an arranger and transposer (I'm an accompanist a singing studio).
So... what I'm looking for is an efficient program(I find notation via keyboard a bit slow) that will 1) accurately print (with very little tweaking) the notes I play from a basic keyboard 2) edit multiple tracks(and have more control over the "clean sounds" of software and real instruments, i.e. acoustic piano) without having the playhead on the grid turn red and stop playing halfway through the piece 3) accomodate tempo changes, time signature changes, key changes, duplets,triplets/quads., rubato, accelerando, etc. 4) transpose music quickly(most singers need this done yesterday!), both in printable form and audio format(i.e. exporting to iTunes and burning to a CD) 5)export files(yes, not import) in MIDI format. A student of mine has a Cakewalk program on a PC and wants to play around with the file.
I'm praying really, really hard that such a program exists. Hopefully I don't have to buy both Finale and LogicExpress.

Cheers,
Caroline