Which Notation Software?

[ccollinsmith]

I find that some things are just easier to write in notation. Sonar's notation is a nice add-on, but it isn't really industrial strength.

So I'm looking at Finale and Sibelius. On first glance at the demos, I'm liking Finale better. But Sibelius has such a strong reputation that I don't want to make an impulsive decision.

Any thoughts on these two notation programs? Advantages of one over the other, Things to look out for, Ease/Difficulty of use, etc.?

Thanks.

[No name]

Haven't tried Sibelius. But I have used Finale (before my computer crashed unfortunately). I say go with Finale. The whole time I used it I found it incredibly easy and user friendly. But then again, I haven't tried sibelius so I can't say which one is better. Just throwing in my 2 cents on Finale.

[fitch]

i haven't tried Finale .. but I do think Sibelius is fab..

does everything very quickly and logically and with no fuss..

sibelius.. definitely very easy to use.. i'd be surprised if you even had to open the manual

[ccollinsmith]

i haven't tried Finale .. but I do think Sibelius is fab..

does everything very quickly and logically and with no fuss..

sibelius.. definitely very easy to use.. i'd be surprised if you even had to open the manual

I've been reading all over the internet on the Finale vs. Sibelius debate. Seems almost like it's a matter of which one you started with... like the host debates often are.

Some people say that Finale is almost impossibly hard. Some say it's buggy. Some say that Finale is more flexible and can do more than Sibelius can do.

Neither one has a particularly attractive GUI, but the one for Sibelius is almost unbearably bland. Is there any way to change it?

I'm definitely going to be mulling where I come down on Finale vs. Sibelius. It seems to be easier to make simple edits in Sibelius, that's for sure. Anyway, I'm still interested in hearing more people's experience.

Thanks for the feedback.

[trappist]

Just had to ask....any freebie notation software?

[Meffy]

trappist: Well, in Windows I don't know. But for Linux there's Lilypond. It integrates with the Rosegarden DAW. I've downloaded these for use on a newly updated Fedora Core 3 box, but not yet installed 'em. If you can believe the write-up on the Lilypond website, it beats the pants off both Sibelius and Finale. Never having used either, I can't offer an opinion. :-)

Meffy

[peter01]

for a low cost scoring alternative on windows with an uncluttered interface, you could give this a try:
http://www.geniesoft.biz/products/score ... writer.htm

[ccollinsmith]

Just had to ask....any freebie notation software?

I just found this, for Windows...
http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

But it's limited to 8 staves. And it costs (a nominal) $25 to upgrade to MIDI import/export capabilities... Haven't figured out whether it has MIDI input capabilities yet.

[rushwanabee]

I second the motion of peter01!! I will add though, there are versions of Score Writer for Mac OS 10 and 9. For low cost, there is nothing better than Score Writer, my opinion:) Seriously, this is the program where you will need the manual as little as possible.

If you want more, Overture is the name and it is superb. Overture 4 will be coming out hopefully in April and will have VST! I prefer working through an excellent notation program myself. Geniesoft will allow you to use Cakewalk instrument definitions for patch names in tracks.

I've tried Finale, Finale Allegro, Finale Print music and Sibelius, and a host of other notation programs. The Geniesoft line is clearly the choice for me. I highly recommend the demos to check them out. They support Windows and Mac OS X and 9 and you can share both platforms files. Cheers.

[renlute]

I considered both Finale and Sibelius before buying the latter this spring. One of my musicologist friends is a Finale user, and he even suggested Sibelius since it has a reputation for being easier to use. Both seem to be comparable as far as output and complexity of music they'll handle is concerned.

I also considered SCORE, which I had learned over 20 years ago at Stanford (where the now-retired developer was a professor), but although it has world-class formatting capability and is thus used by many classical music publishers, its user interface was never very friendly and has not kept up with the more commercial competition. I don't have the patience and don't need the finicky output -- Sibelius is quite good enough now.

I'm quite satisfied with Sibelius' ease of use. I started using it quickly. The few things I couldn't figure out (often without reading the manual) I soon got answers to in the online chat forum.

[VitaminD]

sibelius.. definitely very easy to use.. i'd be surprised if you even had to open the manual

whats a quarter note?








*:P *

[kilroy]

i haven't tried Finale .. but I do think Sibelius is fab..

does everything very quickly and logically and with no fuss..

In stark contrast to Finale, whose learning curve is so steep it is almost straight up.

To be fair, Finale does output some fabulous looking notation, and it will do anything you want...but be prepared to jump through some flaming hoops to figure out how to get it.

[herodotus]

I like midisoft.

It's notation editor is the most intuitive I have seen (for me, that is.)

I especially like:

Support for duplets, triplets, quadruplets and other tuplets up to groups of 32.