MakeMusic has released Finale 2012, a major new version of the music notation software. The new release introduces ScoreManager, which intelligently controls the way music looks and sounds.

“Finale 2012 continues to expand on the renowned power and flexibility that has established Finale as the leading notation software product in the world,” said Karen van Lith, MakeMusic president and CEO. “Musicians I’ve spoken to are extremely excited about the new ScoreManager because it lets them perfect their music – to their individual taste – more quickly than ever before.”

Finale 2012 also includes Unicode font support, broadening Finale’s visual possibilities, additional Garritan sounds which reinforce Finale’s reputation of providing the highest quality playback, and several advances facilitating greater collaboration.

“Over the years, Finale has become so much faster and easier to use,” said ASCAPLUS award-winning composer Chris Opperman. “Truly, you are only limited by your imagination. There isn’t anything Finale can’t do.”

Finale 2012 in brief:

• ScoreManager – Finale’s new ScoreManager helps musicians quickly make their creations look and sound any way they wish. Advanced control over staff playback and appearance are now in one convenient place.
• Unicode text support – Musicians can easily access any character in today’s fonts, facilitating the creation of music in any language and the use of previously elusive font characters.
• Music education tools – Finale 2012 saves music educators time while helping them provide more for their students. More than 1,000 customizable worksheets and repertoire titles are included, as well as fonts created for music education and exclusive support of SmartMusic, the interactive music software for band, orchestra and voice.
• File sharing – Expanded.PDF support and graphic capabilities bring music to word processing and graphics programs. Music XML 3.0 offers collaboration with users of hundreds of other music programs, and additional enhancements redefine playback with other Finale products.
• Additional improvements – More Garritan sounds, new staff spacing tools, new fonts, auto-detection of MIDI devices, new tutorial guide and user manual with integrated video, and more.

Finale 2012 is now available for download at www.finalemusic.com. MSRP is $600. Upgrades start at $119.95.