The music industry has been transformed profoundly by music notation software. They’ve simplified the process of creating music for arrangers, composers, producers, and aspiring musicians.
Music notation software have made it easier for professionals to compose music by saving them time and effort. They’ve also opened the doors for people who love music but don’t have a musical background to create scores even if they don’t play an instrument or know how to read sheet music.
So, is Finale PrintMusic the best software for you? In this article, we’ll walk you through this software’s features, advantages, and disadvantages to help you decide.
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Finale PrintMusic Review: At a Glance
PrintMusic writing software will make it easy to place your music on the printed page if you’re preparing a score and parts for your next song. With PrintMusic, your music plays back with superb sounds and nuance, providing you with rapid feedback on your progress.
The software also offers unique suggestions, from harmonizing melodies to drum sections, and it generates outstanding sheet music that will motivate your performers to play even better.
Pros:
- Handwritten and engraved appearance
- Various note input methods, including mouse, computer keyboard, and MIDI keyboard
- Supports VST/AU plug-ins for professional playback
- Produces publisher-quality sheet music easily and quickly
- Instant performance feedback
- Large ecosystem for better scores sharing
Cons:
- Notation font looks old-fashioned when printed out
- Importing graphics or adding graphics to a score is difficult
- Key commands can be too complex for beginners
- Relatively costly
Note Entry Methods
Finale PrintMusic is a music notation program that allows you to input your music in any way you want quickly. While scanning, you can use a palette to input notes and rhythms in real-time, specify instrumentation, and click notes, accidentals, and rests onto the staff.
You can also use the free SmartScoreTM Lite software to produce correctly transposed playback, speed up or slow down tempo during notation, notate an acoustic instrument as it plays a melody, and scan existing sheet music.
Playback
Finale has a flawless playback; the software library includes more than 128 instruments, including professional marching percussion sounds from Row-Loff. The software also provides instant feedback as it plays your music, allowing you to proof and refine your work to perfection.
The notation software has an integrated mixer that balances your music and places it in a sonic space using panning, reverb, and other effects. And human-like playback brings your creations to life with the nuance of live musicians.
PrintMusic is compatible with all third-party VST/AU instruments and effects, giving you virtually limitless sonic possibilities.
Note and Marking Input
There are three basic note entry methods; Simple Entry, Speedy Entry, and HyperScribe.
Simple Entry is the most basic entry method of PrintMusic and one of its most powerful. You can simply use your mouse to place notes on the staff. Alternatively, you can type the notes in quickly with your computer or play them in with a MIDI keyboard for more speed. And you can even enter articulations, expressions, and other items while you’re entering notes.
Another quick and efficient input method is Speedy Entry. This tool is especially useful if you intend to use a MIDI input device; you can enter music quickly by using one hand on a MIDI keyboard and the other on the numeric keypad or by only using the MIDI device. You can also easily edit existing music.
Finale’s ability to record and transcribe a live performance in real-time is one of its most useful features. To do so, you’ll use the HyperScribe tool, which records your performance almost as quickly as you play it.
Export and Import
PrintMusic makes it simple to import and export your music; you can import your sheet music from any Finale version to Flat using MusicXML, the standard exchange format for sheet music, and include all of your notation details.
Also, Finale PrintMusic allows you to export JPEG graphics of any section or page and add music to any word-processing document. This means you can effectively share pictures and sounds and easily export audio, EPUB, Finale 2012 MIDI, PDF, and classic SmartMusic Accompaniment files.
Furthermore, if you need to transfer your music to your iPod, you can easily create MP3, WAV, or AAC files.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Finale PrintMusic has shortcuts for every command found on the software to make it easier for musicians to compose, playback, or delete notes, to name a few commands.
PrintMusic software left nothing to chance as it developed a lot of shortcuts covering all the commands to save the musicians time and effort and leave them focusing on their music.
To master the art of using PrintMusic keyboard shortcuts, all you need to do is visit Finalemusic.com and learn about all the keyboards shortcuts available.
Engraved and Handwritten Appearance
PrintMusic offers both engraved and handwritten appearances for your music. There are a lot of fonts now available for musicians to meet all their preferences. So when you install Finale PrintMusic, twenty-four fonts vary between handwritten, engraving, and other font types are automatically installed directly into your system’s fonts folder.
Most items in Finale are created with font characters, including text and musical symbols (such as noteheads, clefs, and expressions). You can use different noteheads, treble clefs, or whatever you want to make your music look the way you want it to.
Furthermore, you can freely mix fonts within lyrics, text blocks, and chord symbols. For example, you can use the Shape Designer to combine text characters with musical symbols or have selected lyrics italicized.