music notation program recommendation

[Pete OHanlon]

Steve_Harris wrote:

I remember the happy days when Sibelius was first developed under RiscOS,

RiscOS - that's a blast from the past.

Steve_Harris wrote:

It was a knockout app then, sounds like it's only improved.

I couldn't agree more. Yes, it costs a little bit more than some of the competition, but it is definitely worth the extra.

the last thing I want to see is some pasty-faced geek with skin so pale that it's almost translucent trying to bump parts with a partner - John Simmons / outlaw programmer
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

[J Dunlap]

There's Sibelius and Finale, as others have mentioned, but they're expensive. MagicScore[^] is a cheap one ($50) that has a lot of nice features and is easy to work with.

[Fernando A Gomez F]

Here are some ideas. [^] :cool:

A polar bear is a bear whose coordinates has been changed in terms of sine and cosine. Personal Site

[Ed Poore]

I vote as well for Sibelius, you can get an educational discount as well now.  Can't remember the details but Google for them.

[Sebastian Schneider]

I am really curious (no pun or offense intended, I am asking in earnest), how hard is it to get a permanent, full-time job in the music business (not as in "Universal" and "Sony", but as in "orchestra" or "theatre")? I heard the competition is quite hard, and that it is very difficult to find something suitable.

Cheers, Sebastian -- Contra vim mortem non est medicamen in hortem.

[hairy_hats]

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

RiscOS - that's a blast from the past.

From the present[^], actually. It had anti-aliased fonts and a taskbar of open applications when Windows was in short trousers. And you've always been able to skip copying a file that won't copy instead of stopping the whole action! :mad:

[Christopher Duncan]

Overture[^] is the only other one I can think of. Here's a couple of considerations. First, many of the major products are shipping with a bundled version of GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra), making it very easy to play your scores. I ran an Internet radio station for the GPO folks for a while and can highly recommend that library, especially if it's bundled. Nice folks, too. The other thing to talk about is Cakewalk's Sonar. The notation and printing isn't as rich as products like Finale and Sibilius, but that's because it's a MIDI sequencer that has a staff view rather than a staff notation system that also speaks MIDI. That's not just a semantic difference. If you need to tweak the notation itself, get a notation program. However, if you want ultimate control over the MIDI playback of your score, in my opinion Sonar is the most powerful system out there for PCs. It's what I use in the studio for all my MIDI composition and editing. So, it's all good stuff. Just a matter of which directions your needs lie.

Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalStrategyConsulting.com

[J Dunlap]

Christopher Duncan wrote:

First, many of the major products are shipping with a bundled version of GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra), making it very easy to play your scores. I ran an Internet radio station for the GPO folks for a while and can highly recommend that library, especially if it's bundled. Nice folks, too.

I'll second that - very high quality, for a good price. Can't beat it if you're looking for affordable high-quality instrument samples. :)

[joelgarabedian]

Hi Marc, There's a relatively new product on the market, which I think might be called Notion. I haven't tried it myself, but it comes with a built in orchestral sample set and a soft synth, so it can play back scores with a decent level of realism. As someone else has mentioned, Sibelius is very popular for professional scoring, but most good sequencers (Cubase / Logic / Cakewalk) also offer very good scoring facilities, in addition to full audio recording and mixing capabilities if those might be of use to your son.

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

Try Sheet Music Software[^].

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