MakeMusic has announced the forthcoming release of Finale 2008, their music notation software for music professionals. Finale costs $600; upgrades from 2007 cost $99.95. Finale 2008 is expected to ship in July.
Finale 2008 is aimed at musicians, composers, engravers and educators looking to turn their ideas for songs into music. The software lets you record your thoughts in musical notation and also lets you hear them using hundreds of included instrument sounds.
The 2008 edition sports a slew of new features, including the ability to record or import a mono or stereo audio file; additional Garritan Personal Orchestra virtual instruments (more than 250 all together), keystrokes to select measures or partial measures horizontally and vertically; ScoreMerger — combine parts of a score and join multiple scores and movements into a single document; an enhanced Setup Wizard that offers more options and control; new searchable help and documentation, expanded support for the MusicXML format, and more.
Mac system requirements call for a G4 or better (Intel included), Mac OS X v10.4 or later, CD or DVD-ROM, 800 x 600 resolution, 256MB RAM and 325MB hard disk space.