Are you running any other music (or graphics) software, such as a DAW? Non-Finale software might also influence the hardware you would want to buy.

So far as upgrade discounts for Finale (and required hardware to run it) the Finale site at https://store.makemusic.com/Store/ should provide you some initial information.

Thanks for the prompt reply.  I found the workstation specs for both the Windows and Mac versions of Finale 26 on the product site you pointed me to.  I have other music software I would like to upgrade (or replace), but I am working under the assumption now that Finale will be the most resource intensive.

• Master Tracks Pro
• X-Or Editor/Librarian
• M, MAX (David Zicarelli) interactive tools

The question that remains on this thread is what my migration path would be for my old Finale 97b files?  I am assuming I will need to first port them to the current O/S file system, whatever I choose, but then would Finale 26 be open them directly or is their a further migration step I would need to take before Finale 26 could access them?

Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

Michael

Once you decide on a computer, download the Finale 26 demo to see if you can convert the Finale 97 files. Start by bringing one of them over to your new machine (do you have a means to do that? Thumb drive? Internet/Dropbox?) to try before you spend time on your entire catalog.

Customer support has responded to my question and says that the current version of Finale supports the old Finale 97b files with any need for conversion.  That's great news.  My next step is to port them over to a current O/S platform (which is probably going to take professional help), which is necessary if for no other reason than to preserve them   I can then download a 30 day trial version of Finale to experiment with accessing them before moving forward with an upgrade/purchase of the latest Finale software.

Let me ask, while I have you here: what is the current standard for MIDI integration.  My old system relied on Apple MIDI Manager and it was quite intuitive and useful.  What is the best utility in that area these days, for both Mac and Windows platforms.

Thanks again,

Michael

Can't answer your specific midi question, just a note about opening old files. The oldest files I have on hand are from Finale 2002. I was able to open those easily with Finale 26. Everything was there, but there were a lot of wrong fonts that needed attention. I don;t remember what Finale 97 was like, but any features that have drastically changed might also cost you some time. Things like engraver slurs, the entire method now used for expressions using categories is different. Staff lists are different now from how they were in 97. We now don't optimize staves, we hide them. The mass mover tool and tempo tool are gone. The new articulation features might also cause problems.

I would just take your time, make backups constantly, if you have hard copies to use as reference that would be a help also. Good luck!