How to open .mus (Finale) files?
I was a music major until I switched to IT.
I've developed an interest in arranging recently so I got my old arranging text book.
It comes with a CD of files (.mus, finale). I was hoping to be able to open these without installing Finale. I have GNU/Linux installed and that would probably be a hassle.
Comments
Welcome, https://musescore.org/en/node/273075 ?
no way, it is a proprietary format. Export to MusicXML in Finale, import that in MuseScore
As mentioned, you'll need to get these into MusicXML format to be able to access them in any software but Finale, but you don't need the full version of Finale to do that. The free Finale Notepad will do the job just as well.
In reply to As mentioned, you'll need to… by Marc Sabatella
does that export to MusicXML?
In reply to does that export to MusicXML? by Jojo-Schmitz
Yes. Notepad is pretty old at this point - 2012 - so it might not be the latest and greatest in terms of its export features, and it's possible some newer Finale files won't open correctly, but it works great for my old files.
Finale while not free was and as far as I still know is the industry standard. They created the music xml format!
In reply to Finale while not free was… by dmckeigue
Finale did not create music XML.
https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/when-sheet-music-goes-digital-the-life…
In reply to Finale did not create music… by underquark
That story appears to have some holes in it. He says that when he first started, MIDI didn't exist. He does not say exactly when that was, but by calculating from other things he says, that appears to be sometime in the '90s. MIDI was created in the early '80s and first implemented in 1983. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI#History)
But no, Finale definitely did not create MusicXML.
In reply to That story appears to have… by TheHutch
He says that when he entered the job market, MIDI didn’t exist. Considering he just retired last year, and the announcement of his retirement says “after 44 years as a software engineer”, that puts the beginning of his career at 1979.
Anyhow, it’s true Finale didn’t create MusicXML - but they did buyout the company that did and hire its founder, and then they effectively owned the format for years.
In reply to He says that when he entered… by Marc Sabatella
Ahh! I must have missed that. The text appeared to conflate "20 years ago" and the time that MakeMusic got sold (2011) with "when I entered the job market". So I was thinking that he started working in the early '90s.
In reply to That story appears to have… by TheHutch
Midi may have been standardized in the early 80's, but the precursors had been in development for almost a decade before. I remember being in Music School in 1973. There was talk of coming technology that was going to replace real musicians. Not good news for us performance and music ed majors.
In reply to Midi may have been… by bobjp
The idea of "coming technology that was going to replace real musicians" is MUCH older even than that: Arthur C. Clarke wrote a (Hilarious!!!) sci-fi short about the idea in 1957 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Melody). The player piano was invented in 1896 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano). None of that is more than tangentially relevant to the creation of MIDI, which is a specific standard for interconnecting electronic musical devices.
"In the early 1980s, there was no standardized means of synchronizing electronic musical instruments manufactured by different companies. Manufacturers had their own proprietary standards to synchronize instruments ... In June 1981, [Ikutaro Kakehashi, the president of Roland] proposed developing a standard to the Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim ....
At the 1983 Winter NAMM Show, Smith demonstrated a MIDI connection between Prophet 600 and Roland JP-6 synthesizers. The MIDI specification was published in August 1983.... In 1983, the first instruments were released with MIDI, the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Prophet 600. In 1983, the first MIDI drum machine, the Roland TR-909, and the first MIDI sequencer, the Roland MSQ-700, were released." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI#History
In reply to The idea of "coming… by TheHutch
Well, Google can tell us all kinds of things. My point is that in 1973 serious work about this was underway. Enough so that music professors knew about it. Not a work of fiction or hearsay. It is exactly relevant, as a precursor.
In reply to Finale while not free was… by dmckeigue
In this part of the World, the industry standard is without any doubt Sibelius.
In reply to In this part of the World,… by graffesmusic
Sibelius is bigger than Finale in Europe, and has probably pulled even or possibly even ahead of it in the US by now. But overall Finale was definitely the bigger player for most of the past few decades, having had a 10-year head start.