Free music notation software?

[neueliteratur]

I've tried various free softwares on the web, but they suck. (keeps crashing, doesn't allow me to export as pdf...)

And I can't afford Finale or Sirius.

Do you guys have any solutions?

ps) Been using guitar pro for a long time, but it doesn't allow me to arrange the bars in a normal way (like, 4 bars per line...) and I can't do specific things (specific accidentals... I want to put a F# but it will correct it automatically as Gb)

[koolkeys]

Musescore- http://musescore.org/

Don't know if it has everything you need, but it's the best free score package right now in terms of how well it's put together and how clean it is.

Brent

[neueliteratur]

Musescore- http://musescore.org/

Don't know if it has everything you need, but it's the best free score package right now in terms of how well it's put together and how clean it is.

Brent

that's the one that keeps crashing

[koolkeys]

Oh, ok. Sorry. I don't use it myself(I use Finale), but I remember it being pretty decent. It's been a while though.

Have you tried Melody Assistant? I really don't like how it's laid out or the workflow, but a lot of people like it. I think it's shareware or something?

Brent

[deaf dunderkwac]

not free but brilliant:
Harmony assistant @ $85
and Melody Assistant @ $25
I use(d) melody assistant but have no need no mo' but I use the virtual singer once in awhile.
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/harmony.htm

[funky lime]

http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/

or http://lilypond.org/
with a frontend such as http://www.denemo.org/index.php/Main_Page

you didn't specify OS, but these are for linux; you could perhaps run a live-cd or usb-stick distro to run this stuff without having to install linux on your computer.

go ahead, drink the kool-aid. we can all go see the aliens together.

[standalone]

Among the cheap ones, this is great ($49):

http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/

[ratatosk]

Lilypond is the only one I was really happy with -- but it's essentially learning a programming language, and I wasn't happy with the GUI front ends.

One GUI program I did like, but was too cheap to fork out for, is Finale PrintMusic -- a cut-down version of the full suite, and it's $99. It's very flexible and I didn't feel like I was missing much, since I don't need to score for more than 8 instruments or so. I have used the full Finale professional version, when I was a music student, and of course it was nice too.

If you're willing to do the learning for Lilypond, my own humble suggestion is that you install jEdit, with the LilyPondTool extension. Then dock your windows all together and assign a few keyboard shortcuts to "Run" and "play"... It can be maddening but it's very flexible, even beyond what some of the commercial tools can manage.

It just costs you time, oodles of it, to learn And I haven't touched it in a while, looking back now I'm kind of mad that I don't remember a lot of stuff even after just a few weeks away.

[derix]

Lilypond with Frescobaldi (on Linux)
NtEd
Musescore
Denemo
Rosegarden

[mauseoleum]

Why dont you just use a piece of toilet paper? Or a napkin.

[Borbolactic]

Why dont you just use a piece of toilet paper? Or a napkin.

...While you wait about 12 years until MuseScore catches up?

Version 4 is at the Beta and is supposed to include VST plugins besides the stock soundfont(?) files for the instrumentation. Getting close to a DAW... perhaps more my kind of DAW. Maybe a great way to learn music notation.