MakeMusic Inc. on Monday announced it’s shipping Finale 2006, a major new revision to its music notation software for Mac OS X and Windows. New features in this release include improved music playback, new education tools, and more professional controls. Finale 2006 costs US$600. Upgrades from 2005 cost $99.95; other upgrades and academic pricing are available. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.2 or later, G4 or higher, 256MB RAM, 200MB hard disk space.
Music playback has been “dramatically improved” in this release with the addition of Native Instruments’ “Kontakt Player” software and Garritan Personal Orchestra Final Edition, which includes more than 100 instrument sounds.
The new Studio View feature lets users teach music composition using standard notation instead of computer symbols. TempoTap is a new feature that lets users control nuances of rubati, accelerandi and ritardandi with their finger, captured in realtime. Engraver Copy & Paste lets users customize how content can be cut and pasted between documents and drag-copied.
Other new features in Finale 2006 include texture paper, automatic notehead resize; automatic chord analysis, mid-measure repeats, embedded graphics coda system creation and much more.