music notation program recommendation

Marc Clifton

My son needs to write down some of his violin compositions, and while he's done it on paper, he needs the ability to fiddle (no pun intended) with the timing, etc. Any recommendations for a program that lets you enter musical notation and perhaps play it via midi/built in audio? Thanks! Marc

Thyme In The Country
Interacx

People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith

lost in transition

Marc Clifton wrote:

Any recommendations for a program

HARK!! I hear someone in trouble...Here comes Google yepe:laugh: Google it, I bet there is, I used some years ago and nope I don't remember there names but they worked very nicely. God Bless, Jason

Programmer: A biological machine designed to convert caffeine into code.
Developer: A person who develops working systems by writing and using software. [^]

Indivara

One of my former colleagues (who was also a music pro) used a product by Cakewalk (I no longer remember which one) http://www.cakewalk.com/[^]

_

My Favorite VS Add-on - ResOrg[^]_

Josh Smith

There are two very popular ones: Finale[^] Sibelius[^] I've used them both, but only an early version of Finale (98, i believe). Sibelius was better, back then. I don't know which one is better now. If you're not looking to drop a wad of cash on it, look at the Finale "notepad" freeware app. It might suit your needs.

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]

ricecake

A long time ago I taught my mother how to use Noteworthy Composer[^], and it suited her OK (she is not very computer savvy). I have no idea if there is anything better out there or not, it's been a long long time since I've looked for this kind of software.

-- Marcus Kwok

Dan Neely

My sister's a voice major, and my brother intends to major in sax performance. She endorses Finale, he prefers Sibelius.

-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.

Josh Smith

dan neely wrote:

She endorses Finale, he prefers Sibelius.

They both give good advice. :)

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]

Pete OHanlon

I use Sibelius[^] a lot. It's absolutely invaluable, and has some fantastic features such as checking rhythms and time signatures, and checking to ensure that you haven't noted impossible pitches. I can't recommend it highly enough. I also like Sonar[^] from Cakewalk. I first used it at version 2, and each version just gets better and better. It's particularly useful for me because I can mix in live instruments with MIDI with little to no fuss.

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.

toxcct

My voice for Cakewalk too. but it is a huge product, which is maybe too much for your need. maybe GuitarPro is ok then (no, it doesn't focus only on guitar :rolleyes: )

[VisualCalc][Flags Beginner's Guide] | [Forums Guidelines][My Best Advice]

El Corazon

jason_lakewhitney wrote:

I hear someone in trouble...Here comes Google yepe

I don't like trying to predict his thoughts, but I expect, since the subject of music has come up many times, that he was hoping someone at CP had experience and favorites. Google produces many options, but always unclear what is best. User experience can cut down that evaluation time significantly. :-D

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

Jim Crafton

Sibelius is really nice! Finale is for posers.

¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Techno Silliness

Mike Dimmick

I remember using it to assist a friend in composing his Music A-level final composition piece, in 1996. Trouble is, he was scoring it for virtually full orchestration, and you had to have a pretty expensive sound card to get one which supported enough simultaneous voices and notes to actually get a decent idea of what it would sound like. I think he now uses Sibelius.

Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder

hairy_hats

Pete O'Hanlon wrote:

I use Sibelius[^] a lot.

I remember the happy days when Sibelius was first developed under RiscOS, and people were buying Acorns just to run it on... *sigh* :sigh: It was a knockout app then, sounds like it's only improved.

lost in transition

Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:

User experience can cut down that evaluation time significantly.

Yes, I know. I was just joking around:-D, if you recall I did give my user experience. Unfortunatly, I was unable to remember the names of the software I used over 10 years ago.:confused: It is hard at times to understand what some people are meaning when they post a thought, mainly because you can not see their face or hear their voice. Not to worry, I took you comment as only making a point, me too. God Bless, Jason

Programmer: A biological machine designed to convert caffeine into code.
Developer: A person who develops working systems by writing and using software. [^]

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: