What is the nature of the Finale incompatibility with Catalina? What does the future hold?

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Charles Kiefer Posted October 22, 2019 23:37

I was a happy PrintMusic Mac user but it was discontinued and I had to upgrade at some cost to Finale 25.5, which is much more than I need. I will switch to Catalina. I have some questions: 1) Am I right that I have no alternative other than to pay $149 to upgrade to Finale 26? 2) I will probably have to pay yet another upgrade when Finale 27 is released in a year or so? 3) If I switch to Catalina, is there any functionality in my 25.5 or is it effectively worthless? 3a) Specifically, after upgrading to Catalina will I then be unable to export any of my Finale files to XML so that they might be imported into other software such as Sibelius. In other words, do I need to export all my Finale files to XML before upgrading to Catalina? 4) In the wake of the retiring of PrintMusic, am I to rightly assume that MakeMusic is on a path of abandoning the Mac OS?

3 comments

Date Votes

MIKE ROSEN Edited October 22, 2019 23:57

I’m just a forum member, like you, so don’t take my word for gospel.

On the other hand, can you trust any software company spokesperson?

1. If you want to stay compatible, it looks like you will have upgrade to do so.

2. No. Once your Finale version and OS play nicely together, any further upgrading will be up to you. You can skip any number of upgrades, and jump back in when you feel the need.

3a. Probably. But that’s what happens, with upgrading.

3b. I haven’t heard anything about XML conflicts with Catalina, so you are probably fine.

4. Finale abandoned PrintMusic in 2014, for both Mac and Windows. The only reason that it’s still available for Windows is that Windows will still run a 32-bit application. They are not going to develop PM further for either platform.

MIKE HALLORAN Edited October 23, 2019 01:05

First off, 26 is not fully Catalina ready. That said...

1) Check your favorite reseller. If not in a hurry, MM sometimes has sale pricing—be prepared to pounce when they do.

2) No one outside of MM has a clue when 27 will ship. If you need 26 to be compatible with OS 10.15, plan on upgrading when the time comes. Are you really in a big hurry to update the OS?

3) Much of 25.5 works for me in Catalina on my test machine. It’s not supported of course and, if I needed support for that, I’d be on my own. as I already have 26, it’s not an issue for me.

3a) No reason to think that. The free Dolet 7 plugin extends MusicXML 3.1 functionality to Finale 2009–2014.5 now. This lets you exchange files with those using older versions. Sibelius .xml support has always lagged behind MakeMusic but it does work.

https://www.musicxml.com/dolet-plugin/dolet-plugin-for-finale/

4) Nope, you are flat-out wrong. We know this because, if you were right, 25 and 26 for the Mac would not exist. MM has announced that they are working on making 26 fully compliant (like 25, it’s only partially so now).

In 2010, Apple announced the abandonment of 32bit by 2014. In fact, Finale 2012 was originally announced to be 64 bit only as was OS 10.10 Yosemite. Both Apple and MakeMusic kicked the can a few years down the road—Apple kicked it further than MM did.

Charles Kiefer Posted October 23, 2019 16:59

Thank you Mike and Mike. Terrific information and advice. As you probably could tell, I was worried about rendering my 25.5 files untransferable at some point in the future because 25.5 would be inop and the only way to make the transfer would be to buy 26 or its successor. Worst case now is to hand my files to a friend with 26 and have them export them to xml with Dolet. I’m relieved (and really glad to know about this plugin).

Someone had an online upgrade to 26 for $99. I can’t find it right now, but I’m going to keep looking. It’s too bad that MM doesn’t have a junior version for people like me that don’t need all the bells and whistles. That said, if I’m lucky and spend ~$99 every three years, it’s worth it.

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