Turns out that Finale has a built in ability to mass-convert all of your Finale files to MusicXML. You want to watch this:
Turns out that Finale has a built in ability to mass-convert all of your Finale files to MusicXML. You want to watch this:
The end of Finale. Nothing is infinite. So no software either. Finale is giving a nice discount on the switch to Dorico and is considering giving the switchers the latest version of Finale as well, free of charge.
That's great, but only for the switchers. I think it's important that people can choose for themselves. When I started with Finale (a long time ago) I was also able to choose freely. My choice then fell on Finale. Right now, I want to be able to choose freely again. But since I don't have the latest version of Finale, I miss the batch conversion option. And I can only get this if I choose Dorico.
It would be a nice gesture from Makemusic to create a separate (so not an option within Finale) conversion program with which all Finale files can be converted to music xml in batch. As a result, every (former) Final user can choose freely again.
The problems arise when you have anything unusual on the very first measure - especially large time signatures, tough one of my first attempts failed over a staff style instead. If you have have something that will trip over that first measure misfire, you have to first revert your time signatures to default and perhaps remove staff styles on measure one. My larger scores all have large time signatures, so there will be no batch xml for those two dozen arrangements.
Not if you have large time signatures. You will wind up with signposts everywhere, and an ordinary time signature on the measure the large time signature was in with flags (signposts) on all the others. I know. I've tried.
Yes, I can suppress those signposts, but they are there for a reason so I might otherwise miss something important. For a clean score, you need to remove the staff style though that may be unique to me because Finale is not honoring my staff attributes to not show time signature in score on certain staves - i need a staff style to get the result I want. (note from my signature: I have Finale 27.)
Otherwise though, the score I'm working on in Dorico is looking pretty good - I figure in few days or hours, I'll have a working house style.
A couple of recent posts from Michael Good, inventor of MusicXML, over on one the Dorico threads:
MusicXML files actually contain more engraving details than Finale files. A lot of how Finale displays music is determined by the program, not saved in the file. MusicXML files save all this information that Finale files don’t contain.
So not only would building a Finale converter be a huge amount of work, it would be a complete waste of time. It would make conversions worse, not better.
Remember to check your Dorico preferences if you want to preserve Finale formatting information that Dorico will generally discard by default.
In another, he points out that Finale has features that do not exist in Dorico or any other app. That, too, will make a difference.
Finale 25/26 can batch-export MusicXML 3.1. Those complaining about the upgrade should try it — might not need 4.0. Besides the video above, here is the most recent support doc from MM.
[Exporting MusicXML Files from Finale](https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/25868952458519-Exporting-MusicXML-Files-from-Finale)
This also tells how to use the Dolet 7 plug-in to convert files made in Finale 2011–2014.5 and has a download link.
Earlier versions of the Dolet plug-in for Finale back to 2000 or earlier do exist but I cannot find download links.
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