MuseScore 4 is out. It’s the first update in nearly two years, with major improvements to the user interface, layout, engraving, playback features — and a brand-new sound library to top it all off.
smufl
22 in 22: November music font on sale for 22% off
The Notation Central Black Friday sale continues with November 2, the premium music font with more than 1400 symbols for Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico, which mimics the slightly weathered look of traditional music engraving.
Finale version 27.3 adds eight powerful JW tools, fixes some linked part issues
MakeMusic has released Finale version 27.3, adding native installation of eight of the most popular and powerful JW Tools. Longstanding issues affecting voiced linked parts and other areas have also been addressed.
22 in 22: All NorFonts are on sale for 22% off
The Notation Central Black Friday sale continues with NorFonts. This is the beautiful and growing catalog of music and text fonts by Nor Eddine Bahha, who has fully embraced SMuFL font design, giving Dorico and Finale v27 users more distinctive options.
Finale version 27.2 adds new jazz template, native Apple silicon support
Finale version 27.2 runs natively on Apple silicon Macs for the first time. All default documents and document styles in v27.2 are now SMuFL-based, and, in a welcome surprise, there is a fully revamped SMuFL-compliant jazz default file and document style.
A brief history of music notation on computers
Music engraving dates back well before the computer age, but it’s easy to forget that the computer-aided portion of the history spans back a good long time. We summarize that history and explore a few key moments leading up to the present.
An Expression Tool expedition in Finale
Understanding how expressions work in Finale is essential for creating dynamics, tempo indications, and so much more. These detailed video tutorials cover every aspect of expressions, including design, placement, positioning, playback, as well as how to transfer them between files and get creative with their use.
Finale version 27.1: SMuFL burrows deeper
The Finale v27.1 update brings deeper SMuFL integration into Finale. It is now possible to convert legacy non-SMuFL-based documents to SMuFL-compliant documents, and to import font metadata directly into Finale’s document settings. Plug-ins and libraries are also updated to use SMuFL.
Music Notation Community Group reviews progress; discusses future MNX format
The W3C Music Notation Community Group held its 2021 annual meeting. The major discussion topic was the status of MNX, the new music notation format. In addition, the group reviewed recent achievements such as MusicXML 4.0, SMuFL 1.4, and a new documentation generator.
Outsmarting Smart Shapes in Finale
Smart Shapes in Finale are lines, trills, slurs, octave lines, hairpins, pedal lines and other objects that “smartly” adjust their positioning based on the layout the score and the items to which they are attached.