Finale Guitar
Finale Guitar
Manufacturer: eMedia
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There’s plenty of software around to help aspiring Eric Claptons master their first E major, or wiggle their first wah wah pedal–the Finale Guitar platform is virtually unique in guiding would-be axe-heroes through the confusing world of guitar notation.
The key to the Finale method is an interface that allows you to play directly from a MIDI instrument onto your computer, whereupon the software will automatically convert your notes into proper notation (or TAB). You can also scan sheet music, or click notes in with a mouse. Once you’ve accomplished that, you can master the more refined techniques. Move notes to neighbouring strings by using the cursor keys; edit TAB notes with a simple keypush; specify frets for those jazzier melodies; notate your own staccati, crescendi and glissandi; even watch with horror as the notator diligently takes down your bum notes. And should you get bored of that old axe, Guitar Finale is also configured for a multitude of other stringed instruments–banjo, dulcimer, lute, mandolin and so on–as well as a plethora of non-fretted instruments, from handbells to percussion, from woodwind to flugelhorn (well, maybe not the last). And when you’ve assembled your one-man-band, and notated your musical noodlings, you can then print out your achievements and publish them on the Net: maybe even, indeed, on Finale Showcase “the world’s gathering place for sharing great sheet music”.
But is Finale Guitar the best in the market? That’s tricky to say because the only direct competitor is Finale Allegro, the more expensive and slightly more sophisticated predecessor to this very software. –Sean Thomas
Good…but limitedAfter using Finale’s “Printmusic! 2002″ for a long while I was beginning to find it highly restrictive due to there being no tablature features at all, especially being a guitar teacher. Many of my students have little or no ability to read music (it ain’t cool!) so I would have to write out many of my lessons for them by hand so they could happily play their Metallica riffs without busting too many brain cells!
I thought my prayers were answered when I saw Finale Guitar up on Amazon, and they were…sort of.
To be fair the software is excellent, it has a vast array of features that are mostly user friendly and if its not, the manual is great to get you out of a rut.
I have used it to copy out transcriptions, picking and legato exercises, etc. in both notation and TAB and they came out great, looking very professional.
However, much to my surprise I found the most restricting parts of the program were the guitar features!
The problems came when I decided to really test the program and see if it would be able to accurately TAB and notate Van Halen’s “Mean Street”, a tune that uses many guitar techniques such as tapping, muting, harmonics (tapped, artificial, etc.), tremelo effects, etc.
Being Finale *GUITAR* I thought the program would be able to do this but it was not to be! Markings for tapping are not included (unless you tediously type the letter T above notes using the text tool and position them yourself), the harmonics markings are very basic, there is no way of indicating mutes or ghost notes (x’s with rhythm) and tremelo markings are also non-existent.
I know that these sorts of markings are lesser used but as the program is called Finale Guitar you would have thought they’d have everything covered, very disappointing.
Steve Vai says “Finale’s Guitar notation is superior to any other”…perhaps so Steve but have you tried to write out any of your solos yet!
All in all the program is good enough if you want to do fairly basic notation, there are many good features but unfortunatly some aspects let the program down, hence the lower rating.
For the price you can’t really argue though and it is probably the best of its kind at the moment.
Worth a buy!
At last a programe that is easy to use for guitarists like myself. It is one of the easiest and most complete notation and tablature software for fretted instruments. It gives all the tools to write your own music with good quality, so it looks profesional. This is worth a buy!
Unique, and so useful
Turns MIDI files into 6 string tab for guitar, or any other kind of tab (Ravi Shankar or Vilayat Khan tuning on your sitar, sir?). Really easy to use, all of the orchestra type notation seems to be there (I’m not really a musician - just a guitarist!) and it was dead cheap. My printouts look just like the guitar tab bits in the magazines. Ace. And it’s cheap. I’m a happy man!