Finale Notepad 2012
It just became available. 15 Feb 2012.
As announced, it is free again.
(registration required for SN)
Win/Mac
http://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/Default.aspx
The competition is heating up!
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Comments
It's very limited. Firstly, and for me most importantly, it's not available for Linux. Secondly, it only allows one verse of lyrics. I'm sure there are other important limitations. And anyway, what's wrong with MuseScore? OK, I'll admit MuseScore's not perfect either, but it does all I need at the moment, and it looks as if it will soon do all I'll ever need it to do.
I don't think MuseScore has much to worry about if that's the (free) competition.
Just taken a look the 8 stave limit is going to put most serious musicians off for a start.
Once MuseScore 2.0 is released it will be no competition IMO
And, having spent far too much of my life fighting Finale's arcane UI I, for one, will not be tempted back!
I imported the same midi file to Musescore and NotePad. Musescore broke it out into 5 clefs/voices, as it should have. Notepad only generated two clefs. You'd need a lot of fingers on your right hand to play it.
There is a comparison on this site with an older version of NotePad.
http://musescore.org/en/comparing-musescore-and-finale-notepad-feature-….
Perhaps someone with the time can update that page?
In reply to Issues with midi input by DougEdmunds
I'd love it if someone else did, I'm too busy to be reliable. But I want to see that chart updated, so I'm trying to make a note of it and maybe I can find time...
I think the important note about "competition" is that perhaps Musescore is what forced MakeMusic to decide again to make NotePad free. Musescore is clearly the better choice, and yes, 2.0 will make it no comparison. But it would be nice to think that MakeMusic actually feels threatened enough by Musescore to change their policies in reaction...
In reply to Yes, updating this chart would be great by wolftune
I went and updated the chart! And added some things. It makes it clear that already there is no comparison.
In reply to I did it. by wolftune
Nice job! I'm glad MakeMusic provides Notepad, as it makes it possible to view files in Fimale format even if you don't have a fuller version of Finale available, and perhaps even make small edits. Good tool for that purpose, it seems, but no way could I see choosing to use it over Musescore for even relatively simple projects.
In reply to Nice job! I'm glad MakeMusic by Marc Sabatella
Someone noted to me recently that Harmony Assistant from Myriad Software is a worthy comparison to Musescore, and I agree. Harmony Assistant is not FLOSS but it is available for Windows, Mac, *and* GNU/Linux; and H.A. is a one-time price that includes all updates forever; and the developers are remarkably responsive and respectful to users. H.A. is the closest I know of to a more mature version of Musescore. It does about everything Musescore does and more without the crippled features like any of the scaled down versions of Finale or Sibelius. Also, H.A. has some unique features not present in any other software.
I recommend Musescore overall, but Harmony Assistant is the one program I otherwise don't hesitate to recommend for people who can't wait until Musescore 3 or 4 or whatever when Musescore might really have most of the requested features...
I don't think Finale NotePad 2012.r1 not accepting grace notes is correct, but I did encounter this (could be a problem with MuseScore though): #15010: [MusicXML] Multiple acciaccatura appear as multiple appoggiatura
Bar numbers don't show either - only in the full version apparently.
There was a couple of other things, but it does have some good points in comparison.