Lots of free VSTi's, but is there free:

[SparkySpark]

Interesting little slice of history, Sparky. Thanks.

The rest of them are confidential!

/Sp-Sp

[trappist]

Lots to think about....thanks.

[bobaudio]

Interesting little slice of history, Sparky. Thanks.

The rest of them are confidential!

/Sp-Sp

$7m worth of software development down the toilet. Sucks to be one of the paying customers....

And this, my friend, is another reasons why open-source is so great. While this code is locked in a vault, open source programs continue to mature bits at a time (pun intended).

[SparkySpark]

Hi again,

Thanks for the replies.

Open source is a great thing, but most companies are (obviously) not displaying their code. In this case it might not have made a big difference, as there was, well, a LOT OF code... ...and in LISP.

Writing software code for notation software is extremely complex and time-consuming. First, one needs to be able to create a graphics app. Then, one has to manage the audio side (which was where Igor Engraver excelled). Last, there is a lot of logic involved when it comes to displaying the music correctly. There are only so many people who need notation software, and as a consequence, I don't think this would be a suitable open source project. But I could be wrong of course, and I hopefully am!

In any case, the story I told is not really that dramatic - the amount spent was not exceptionally high for a large software project.

Just for the record, I have no bitter feelings towards the Finale or the Sibelius people - I met them during NAMM and MusikMesse and we always had a good time. (The fact that I don't like their software is another thing... .)

Yours,

Sp-Sp

[bobaudio]

Hi again,
... I don't think this would be a suitable open source project. But I could be wrong of course, and I hopefully am!
...

I don't use notation software, but this program might make you wrong:


http://www.rosegardenmusic.com


I don't know if its any good, but it appears to have notation ability.

[bobaudio]

... as there was, well, a LOT OF code... ...and in LISP.

Oh, LISP? Thank goodness it is locked in a vault somewhere!!!

[Meffy]

bobaudio: If I understand correctly, the "notation part of Rosegarden" is really a separate project, Lilypond. Very impressive. :-)

And I wouldn't imagine hacking Emacs using any language but LISP. Lovely language, really it is.

[Guckli]

Rosegarden got its own gardenvariety notation thing built right into it, on par with Musicator 2.0 or something, but it can export to Lilypond - or rather write files in Lilyponds script language. I've been using both for a while now and I'm just waiting for dssi-vst compability to increase a bit before I make the final switch to linux.

And I wouldn't imagine hacking Emacs using any language but LISP. Lovely language, really it is.

Indeed.

[SparkySpark]

Hi,

I'm of course aware of Lilypond/Rosegarden as there are only that many notation software packages available (due to the complexity in programming, as stated above). At the time I was watching the competition Lilypond wasn't really much to take notice of, but perhaps things have changed here. Funnily enough, what sets the best packages out from the rest is actually the notation logic - i.e., should the beams go this way or the other way, etc. As I already said, I'm not sure of Lilypond's status today.

/Sp-Sp

[SparkySpark]

BTW, perhaps I forgot to mention that we developed the world's most advanced (at least at the time) community for musicians and their online sales and distribution of sheet music and MP3s. Some of you might want to join it - I guess it's still possible and rather active and might be worthwhile if you want to make new friends geared towards sheet music in particular.

Take a look here, for example: http://www.noteheads.net/jennifer-snyder

/Sp-Sp