Jason Loffredo returns to Scoring Notes to talk to Philip Rothman and David MacDonald to review Finale version 27, the latest release of MakeMusic’s flagship music notation software. Headlining the new features in v27 are deep support for the two open standards championed by the W3C Music Notation Community Group: Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL), and MusicXML. Tighter SmartMusic integration, playback improvements, and user interface enhancements round out what’s new.

We cover it all, along with our take on what these new features mean for the future of Finale. We also offer our suggestions on what could be improved as Finale enters its fourth decade, and if you listen closely, you’ll get Jason’s step-by-step instructions on the “SMuFL shuffle” you’ll need to do to make the most of the new version.

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