MakeMusic Inc. has announced that Finale 2006 is now shipping. The new version of the music notation software includes: a built-in Kontakt Player from Native Instruments; Garritan Personal Orchestra Finale Edition, which offers over 100 instruments; Studio View, a new tool for teaching music composition; TempoTap, which allows musicians to use their fingers to control the nuances of rubati, accelerandi, and ritardandi; and more.
Upgrades from earlier versions of Finale are US$149.95, except for Finale 2005 users, who only need to pay $99.95. Suggested retail price for the full version is $600, with discounts available for volume license purchases and educational users. System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.2, a G4 processor, 256MB RAM and 200MB hard drive space. 1GB RAM is recommended for use of the Kontakt Player and/or the Garritan instruments, while an additional 800MB hard drive space is required for all the Garritan sounds.