#dorico

The shittiest thing is that this was preventable. From a comment on Finale’s post:

As a former Tech Lead on Finale (2019-2021) I can tell you this future was avoidable. Those millions of lines of code were old and crufty, and myself and others recognized something had to be done. So we created a plan to modernize the code base, focusing on making it easier to deliver the next few rounds of features. I encouraged product leadership to put together a feature roadmap so our team could identify where the modernization effort should be focused.

We had a high level architecture roadmap, and a low level strategy to modernize basic technologies to facilitate more precise unit testing. The plan was to create smart interfaces in the code to allow swapping out old UI architecture for a more modern, reliable, and better maintained toolset that would grow with us rather than against us.

But in the end it became clear support wasn’t coming from upper management for this effort.

I’m sad to see Finale end this way.

Finale also could allow people who own the software to move it to their new devices in the future, but Capitalism. It’s a pointless corporate IP decision that only hurts users.

There are three main options for those of us who are having to switch: Dorico, MuseScore, or Sibelius.

Sibelius has been Finale’s main competitor for as long as I can remember. It currently runs on a subscription model (ew). The programs are about equal in terms of their capabilities, though I’ve heard Finale has more options for experimental notation. (I’ve used both; Finale worked better for my workflow, but that’s probably just because I grew up using it.)

Dorico is the hip new kid and I’d personally been considering switching for quite a while, but it’s ungodly expensive (about twice what Finale cost at full price). Thankfully, they are allowing current Finale users to purchase at a price comparable (well, still 50% higher) to what Finale used to cost with the educator discount. It apparently has a very steep learning curve at first, though it is probably the best option for experimental notation.

MuseScore is open source, which is awesome! But it also has the most limitations for people who write using experimental notation.

I haven’t used MuseScore or Dorico and will probably end up switching to one of those, but it’s also not an urgent matter for me. Keep your musician friends in your thoughts; it’s going to be a rough road ahead if they used Finale.