Tantacrul video on Finale

[benwiggy]

Lord knows the internet doesn't need more armchair analysis of Finale's demise... but Tantacrul (Martin Keary of MuseScore) has created one of his usual entertaining, informative, if somewhat self-indulgent videos about Finale.

https://youtu.be/Yqaon6YHzaU?t=282 (I've spared you the initial 5 mins, which are largely irrelevant.)

There's some nice bits on the early history; and his trademark critique of the interface experience; but the most interesting part is in the Conclusion towards the end:

https://youtu.be/Yqaon6YHzaU?t=3474

where he shows from SEC filings that Finale revenue was already declining in 2010, as SmartMusic revenue increased and eventually overtook it. While Finale was still crucial to using SmartMusic, the acquisition of Weezik, turning SmartMusic into a web/cloud-based system that used MusicXML rather than Finale files, was the death knell.

He also states that "In 2022, it was announced internally that the company was getting out the music creation business."

The bottom line is: unless the company had heavily invested (money and time they didn't have) in the late 00s, to completely modernize the codebase and interface, this was always going to happen.

[David Ward]

It's entertaining (for a while), although maybe a bit exaggerated about some things. eg As I'm sure you remember, it's easy enough (not obvious, I agree) to change a font globally in Finale via the menu Document>Data Check>Font Utilities, but in his video he makes a great jokey performance of not being able to change a font globally.

[benwiggy]

It's certainly true that Finale's interface is (was?) full of inconsistencies, and you would have to do things in different ways in different parts of the app; or do things in several places to achieve one thing. Perhaps MM could have made more changes to the interface, if not the actual "notation" code; though this would have probably just annoyed veteran users who were familiar with how things were, rather than encouraging new users.

Ah well.

[OCTO]

It's entertaining (for a while), although maybe a bit exaggerated about some things. eg As I'm sure you remember, it's easy enough (not obvious, I agree) to change a font globally in Finale via the menu Document>Data Check>Font Utilities, but in his video he makes a great jokey performance of not being able to change a font globally.

Exactly, he could change the fonts globally with Font Utilities. But he didn't mention that MuseScore can't change the music font to any user font. Also, he didn't mention that there is no option to change all text fonts at once—you need to specify each one in the Text Styles. It's almost as much work as in Finale.

I’m not a big fan of Tantacrul’s videos—they are condescending and pretentious, with a high dose of self-indulgence. He acts from the perspective of a self-proclaimed superior software design (MuseScore), while commenting on an ancient software that has created wonderful scores for almost half a century.

Finale is difficult; it is not flawless. But still, it is great software.

There are plenty of things that could be said about MuseScore after Tantacrul's involvement:

• MuseScore is no longer capable of exporting part of a score as a graphic, for instance.

• Every score opens a new instance of the app (I’ve never seen this before!), so if you have 10 open scores to work with, you end up with 10 open MuseScore applications—each eating up your memory.

• It is not able to use custom music fonts.

• It is not able to create a simple box or vertical arrow (useful for educational purposes or new music).

• SVG export does not export at 100% but at 600% size, exporting all pages separately without any option to choose.

This is just what I can recall without even using MuseScore.

But Finale’s ability to create a superior-looking score is without a doubt. Finale’s Staff Styles is an amazing tool not found in Sibelius or MuseScore (I have never used Dorico). Recently I have seen a score of Dieter Ammann "glut" - it is extremely complex and beautiful score. Other works by Wess Music are just proof of Finale's class.

I believe many will continue using Finale, even keeping old machines running only for that purpose (such as with SCORE on DOS).

[John Ruggero]

On the other hand, I've never read an unkind word by Daniel Spreadbury about Finale.

[OCTO]

On the other hand, I've never read an unkind word by Daniel Spreadbury about Finale.

Not only that, he never commented badly on his ex-employer, Avid (and Sibelius).