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LEO NABBEN Posted
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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.

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MIKE HALLORAN Edited
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Finale 25/26/27 can do this., 25/26 to MusicXML up to 3.1; 27 to xml v.4.0. You had three years to update any version to 27 for $79-$129 depending on what sales were going on. Now the cost is $149 and includes a Dorico license.


Nice of you to want it for free, I suppose, but that is unlikely.

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Nathaniel Walker Edited
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I'm seeing better results importing MusicXML 4.0 into MuseScore 4.x vs. Dorico 5.x, and the difference is pretty big/noticeable - at least for me.  That is basically all I've been using Finale for the past 2+ years - opening up MusicXML that people share to me because it tended to handle the output from anywhere pretty well, while spitting out sane output that tripped up other applications less often.

 

I guess MuseScore will become that solution, moving forwards, since it has always had the best MusicXML support outside of Finale (and Dolet, by extension).

 

For people who want to be able to archive open the MusicXML that requires the least amount of extra work to "look as close as possible" to Finale, then it may be worth exploring keeping MuseScore around for that purpose.  Dorico 5 is better than Dorico 3.5 or 4, so I expect it to improve, but it's definitely behind the alternatives in that area.

 

I'd still do all new work in Dorico, though.

 

I still think PDF > MusicXML as a long-term archival strategy.  Too much time wasted re-doing the same work with MusicXML when you want to open and print something out.

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MIKE HALLORAN Posted
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MusicXML export from MuseScore 4 is certainly better than Dorico 5 nowadays, that's for certain. Import from Finale depends but I also give the edge to MuseScore. A couple years ago, both were horrible. 

 

In the Dorico forums, Michael Good points out that there are features and functions found in 27 that Dorico and MuseScore can't handle (yet?) and this will affect MusicXML 4 imports from Finale. As he invented MusicXML and didn't retire from MakeMusic till earlier this year, it's a good idea to pay attention to that.

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Nathaniel Walker Posted
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I just imported the same file into MuseScore 3.6.2 (Rel. 01/2021) and the formatting is practically identical to the source Finale file, like the MuseScore 4.4 import.  Same result.

 

So, the disparity between it and Dorico (in this area) has existed at least for the past 3.5+ years; and I'd argue longer, considering Dorico 3.x was bordering on useless when it came to MusicXML Imports.  I don't think Dorico was ever approaching on par with MuseScore for this.

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