It looks to me as though Finale is the one used by Hal Leonard and all the biggest music publishers. Finale provides nearly infinate control over the appearance of the finished score. It has a steep learning curve but is much easier than it used to be. It's not primarily a sequencing program although it has some sequencing features. Finale's forte is in providing the detailed features and control desired by music publishers. It includes features to line up lyrics with measures any way you'd like, it includes multiple note fonts including a jazz font that looks like it was done by hand (e.g. The Real Book jazz fake book).

It allows you to set up the staff any way you want from a simple lead sheet to a grand staff to an orchestral score. It also lets you strip parts out of the score and produce instrument specific parts.

You can precisely locate any notational ornament and even design your own. You can use the guitar chord font provided or design your own guitar chord symbols. In short, it does far, far more than most of us would need for folk or popular music.

Note input can be by synth keyboard or computer keyboard with several modes provided for each device. There is also a microphone input mode that will transcribe directly from a horn, for instance. The MIDI keyboard input function allows you to simple play a two handed piece of music up to tempo and then sync it to measures afterword for producing a score. Of course you can also use the MIDI keyboard for single note entry.

While clearly at the top of the heap, Finale is best used by someone who uses it professionally or at least uses it every day. If you don't use it pretty much all the time, one tends to forget how certain functions are carried out and that causes frustration.

You might take Finale into the studio as a composition tool but I don't think you'd make it part of your recording or performance setup.

Be aware that the publisher, Coda Music, is constantly churning their customer base. New revs come out about every six months and each “upgrade” costs more than the purchase price of many other music notation programs. I don't update my copy more than once every two or three years.

      - Mark