MakeMusic has unveiled Finale 2008. According to the company, the latest upgrade offers “unprecedented playback options, major productivity enhancements and even more control for the perfect page.””The missing feature in notation software is the ability to add an audio track,” stated John Paulson, chief executive officer of MakeMusic, Inc. “By adding this audio feature in Finale 2008, you can hear your songs come to life with a real vocalist, or hear your concerto performed by a real instrumentalist. Finale differentiates itself from competitors with this exciting new capability.”

Here’s their info on the upgrade….

Enhanced PlaybackMusic comes to life with recorded/imported audio and newly integrated sound libraries:

• Finale can now record/import a mono or stereo audio file to enhance playback. No other notation software offers this capability.
• More than 250 world-class instrument sounds from the makers of the acclaimed Garritan Personal Orchestra are included free. In addition to orchestral instruments are saxophones, trumpet and trombone mutes, jazz bass and drums, guitar, marching percussion, world instruments and more. See the full list at www.finalemusic.com.
• Multiple sound libraries now work together seamlessly. Combine all the included sounds, add Native Instruments-supported libraries (available separately), hear them all in playback and save the results in an audio file.

Increased productivityThe latest interface improvements offer intuitive efficiency and allow users to accomplish more without changing tools:

• Copy music, adjust expressions, transpose, add repeats and much more – all with one tool.
• Intuitive keystrokes can select measures or partial measures horizontally and vertically – without visiting a menu.
• Multiple tools support copy/paste, measure additions, transposition, measure layout, auto-orchestration and much more.
• Streamlined menus, more powerful contextual menus and intuitive keystrokes.
• New ScoreMerger™ easily combines parts into a score AND joins multiple scores/movements into one document – even if they don’t contain the same number of staves, or have different instrumentation (another Finale exclusive).

Perfect pagesThe professional quality sheet music you expect from Finale, now faster and with more options:

• Document Styles can instantly personalize the appearance of new documents, controlling text and music fonts, all libraries, text, graphics and page layout.
• Enhanced Setup Wizard offers more options and control and provides intelligent page layout – automatically adjusting system position, size and space between staves – to reduce white space on the page.
• Colored noteheads have multiple applications and are especially popular in elementary education. Select Boomwhackers® tuned percussion tubes from the Setup Wizard, and Finale automatically configures the noteheads with the Chroma-Notes™ colored music system and ensures this staff plays back integrated Boomwhackers sample sounds.

Additional new features include Vista Support, improved scanning, new and fully searchable help documentation, expanded MusicXML support, Human Playback support for additional sound libraries and much more.

Pre-orders are now being taken; Finale 2008 will begin shipping in July 2007.