MakeMusic Finale SongWriter 2010 - Music Notation and Composition Software

• Finale SongWriter's Launch Window saves you time by putting everything at your fingertips
• Choose to open an existing file or create a lead sheet with up to 8 staves from scratch with the Setup Wizard, which configures things like instrument transpositions
• Use the textured paper background to make your on-screen page easy on the eyes and apply document styles to personalize the look of your scores
• QuickStart Videos guide you through the process of putting your music on the page

• Enter notes with your computer keyboard and/or mouse and hear their pitches
• Click notes onto the staff or enter notes with the numeric pad and keys 'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F' and 'G'
• Drag notes up and down to find the pitches you want
• Play your MIDI keyboard (or any other MIDI device) and see the notes appear instantly
• Use your MIDI keyboard in combination with your computer keyboard and mouse to enter notes and chords
• Import MIDI files
• Import MusicXML 2.0 files - unlike MIDI files, MusicXML allows you to transfer the sounds and graphical elements in your file to other applications including older versions of SongWriter

• Allows multiple lyric verses and automatically spaces the lyrics to match the notes they're attached to

Guitar and Bass Tablature

• Set-up Wizard includes Tablature (in standard tuning) for guitar and bass
• Tablature can be generated automatically by dragging standard notation onto a Tab staff, or you can create it from scratch by typing numbers directly into the Tab

Chords

• Enter chord symbols by typing in their names or playing them with a MIDI keyboard
• Change or delete notes without changing your chords
• Enter chords before entering notes and easily create chord-only charts

Percussion Notation

• Whether you're an expert user customizing percussion scores, or not sure where a bass drum goes on the staff, the software gets your percussion notation to look and sound perfect in no time
• The process of getting notes on percussion staves to look and playback exactly the way you want them to have been simplified
• Simply drag the cursor over the staff and on-screen feedback indicates whether you're about to enter a snare, bass drum, or other percussion instrument - and displays the appropriate note-head
• Dragging notes up and down the staff scrolls smoothly through all available instruments
• Automatic playback configuration - your snare will playback with a snare sound - and so forth - without any manual intervention
• Seamlessly copy music back and forth between percussion and standard notation staves

More

• All notes space themselves automatically as they're entered and
• You can add dynamics, tempos, chord symbols and rehearsal marks to your lead sheet

Repeats

• Adding repeats is easy and they playback automatically
• All numbers and brackets are automatically entered and lined up
• Repeat numbers are automatically followed by periods
• Backward Repeat Bars or Repeat Endings can be defined to find their targets automatically
• You can specify whether repeat text and brackets appear in all staves or just the top staff

Create Codas

• Automatically creates space, text, and symbols as well as controls playback

Tuplets

• Default positioning looks great, even when the tuplet begins with rests, and tuplets automatically reposition when notes are raised or lowered on the staff
• Tuplet brackets avoid rests and staff lines
• Brackets follow the angle of the stems when on stem side and follow the angle of notes when on the note side

• Hear your songs with played back using a professional software synthesizer - no hardware required
• These sounds have minimal system requirements (compatible with nearly any computer) and offer consistent playback when your SongWriter files are heard in NotePad and other MakeMusic products

Human Playback

• The Human Playback feature will play your music as you would want it to be performed, even if you enter notes with your computer keyboard or mouse
• You can choose a variety of musical styles

Mixer (New)

• Integrated controls for each staff enable you to set volume and panning as well as choose to mute, solo, or record
• Adjust parameters for all staves using convenient knobs and faders for each staff - all in real time during playback

Reverb Options in Playback

• Customize the room size and reverb level to control the overall reverb effect in playback.
• You can audition real-time changes to volume, panning, and instruments with controls added to the Instrument List

• Print professional-quality sheet music
• Create MP3, WAV, or AIFF files - press one button and save your SongWriter files into an audio format for recording onto an audio CD, or save as MP3 to play on an iPod
• Export MIDI or MusicXML files
• Post your music at the Finale Showcase, a free site hosted by MakeMusic where people can see, play, and print your music

• Finale SongWriter takes the work out of composing and arranging and lets you concentrate on the inspiration
• Transpose to any key and try different tempos
• Type a chord name to hear how it sounds and see its guitar fretboard
• Offers composers and arrangers idea-generating tools to save time and suggest creative options
• Band-in-a-Box Auto-Harmonizing - automatically turn your melody into 2 or 3 voice harmony
• Drum Groove - easily add custom drum parts in a variety of styles
• Add to the list of available styles by placing any MIDI file into the Drum Groove folder
• Multiple Undo lets you reverse any number of changes you made in the current session (even past the point you saved your score)