Music Writer Software

bandman322 · Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:22 pm Post subject: Music Writer Software

Suggestions and a place to get a good deal!!!

Thanks in advance!
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"To be a teacher you need to be as good a performer as you can be: you'll have more to impart to your students musically." - John Haynie

jophst · Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:28 pm Post subject:

Hey there fellow cajun ... if you have KazaA and high speed internet, you should be able to download Finale ... illegally of course, but it does work. Don't use it to make money or anything. In that case, you would need to purchase it. I think I have a copy lying at my house somewhere ... I could burn you one and send it to you if you like.

Where did you teach?
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LittleRusty · Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject:

Uh, I don't think the decision point on whether to pay for the software is whether you use it to make money, but whether you use it at all.

If you are in school you might be able to get a school discount.

O-Dawgg · Regular Member Joined: 28 Dec 2002 Posts: 63

If you're looking for suggestions on what to buy, play music by notation technologies is $40 at samash.com right now. If you want something more powerful finale costs about $200 I think, and Sibelius, which I would get, is $700, but it can do stuff that the others can't.
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woo · Veteran Member Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 128

Try a great program called Harmony Assistant. It is made in France. It is cheap yet as powerful as most notation programs costing 5-10x's as much. You can try it for free as well although limited printing. Check it out at:
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/index.htm

The support is superb. I tried many programs and stumbled onto this gem. Can import midi files to transcribe (great for those Xmas tunes) as well as karaoke files. You can also record a live track. They have an even cheaper program with tons of features called Melody assistant. Again, the program is affordable- $70 bucks for HA and $20 for MA. That includes lifetime upgrades.

Hope that helps. Woo

rlspitzer · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:54 am Post subject:

I've had really good luck with Finale's Print Music. It runs about $60 and has done everything I've needed.

_ConnMan · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:09 am Post subject:

Finale, that's what I use. I got my copy through my church's Minister of Music. Finale gives students, churchs, and schools discounts on their products at a reasonable savings. That would be your best route. I've also seen some on eBay for sale, especially an older version. They go fairly cheap that way.

Good Luck!
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Kanstul 1600 "WB" w/ Kanstul two-piece B3C & S72 BB
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_Don Herman · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:27 am Post subject:

Finale Notepad is a free download for Mac and PCs and compatible with Finale, arguably (no doubt) the best-known and largest-distributed "pro" notation program. It's here: www.makemusic.com

Before getting Finale, I tried number of free and share ware programs. Some were pretty darn good! Some were just lousy, and some were good at some things but lousy at others... Finale's biggest hangup (for me, anyway) is that it's power comes with a learning curve. Much better now than a few years ago, though.

Harmony Central ( www.harmonycentral.com ) used to have links and reviews to various shareware notation programs (and lots more); not sure if they still do (hey, I've already got mine -- look and see!)

HTH - Don

HTH - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

_ConnMan · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 10:30 am Post subject:

Don's right, Finale isn't the easiest to work with in the beginning, but as you become more experienced with it you catch on to it.
_________________
Playing For Him,

Kanstul 1600 "WB" w/ Kanstul two-piece B3C & S72 BB
Connstellation 38B
Kanstul 925 Flugelhorn (copper bell) w/ Kanstul two-piece BFL3C w/ 119S BB
Jupiter 416BL Pocket Trpt.
www.measureofgrace.com

PhxHorn · Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:01 pm Post subject: Finale

Having used Finale for six years, I'd recommend it. I'm not really an advanced user, but I can get the charts looking pretty nice. I started with the '98 version, and it took awhile for me to get going--several hours at least. You can go through the tutorial over a period of several days. The problem is that you tend to forget how it works if you don't use it for awhile. I'd recommend taking notes as you go along.

It also takes awhile to get your default settings dialed in. There are a million ways to format a piece of music, and you have to figure out which menu to look under to find what you want. Pickup measures, measure numbers, first/second endings, staff spacing, and plenty of other things to think about. Again, taking notes helps out. Once you get it dialed in, you'll want to save it as a template so you don't have to reset everything for your next chart.

It's not cheap, but the newer versions are much better than the ones from just a few years ago. I don't think you'd need to upgrade very often. I'd say any version after 2000 would be the way to go. The nice thing about Finale is that it's the industry standard, so you can trade files with other people very easily. If you buy it legitimately, you get free help via email or phone, also.

cjdjazztpt · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:36 pm Post subject:

I DO NOT recommend Kazaa for downloading anything. It comes with too much addware & spyware. I might make a suggestion.... AresGalaxy. It's addware & spyware free. It isn't quite as FAST as Kazaa but it's a lot healthier for your computer.
I second the notion for Finale Notepad. When you learn it good enough, it's compatible with Finale. Otherwise Sibelius is a great program as well. In fact it is fastly becoming popular all over the world. From what I am learning of it, it easier to use than Finale and the charts look as good if not better! IMHO

Cory

mfbolton · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject:

Finale Print Music is a great program! I have used it for several years now, and have not run into anything I couldn't do. It is less than a 1/3 of the cost of Finale. The education cost for Finale 2005 is $300, and Print Music sells for $70. I know these prices because I work for a music store that sells both.
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bandman322 · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:14 am Post subject:

Many thanks to you all!!!

After getting Finale I must say that I am very happy with it. I still have a lot to learn about this outstanding piece of software, but I can tell it is almost exactly what I had been wishing for.
_________________
C - Harrelson 750 Modified Bach Strad
Picc - Schilke P5-4
Flugel - Kanstul ZKF1525
Bb - Bach Strad 180ML-37

"To be a teacher you need to be as good a performer as you can be: you'll have more to impart to your students musically." - John Haynie

tptguy · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 9:19 pm Post subject:

I've used and taught Finale for many years. It's incredibly powerful, but yes, it's easy to forget some commands if you aren't using it regularly. It's safe to say that Finale is the gold standard in notation and Sibelius is practically in the same league. Like most top brands, Finale copies good features from Sibelius and vice-versa. Current versions of each are pretty close to each other.

If you plan to use a notation program regularly and seriously you probably better plan on using one or the other. Yes, the learning curve is there, but once you get either under your belt you'll be in good shape and you won't have to relearn down the road. Finale is particularly good because, as you see above, you can start with the smaller versions and upgrade if you need or as your budget allows. That way, you'll be building skills and not be forced to start over. - Kyle

_Don Herman · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:38 am Post subject:

Rich -- Have you tried both recently?

Not a challenge, I'm curious...

Background is, I've been using Finale for 5 - 10 years now. When I first got it Sibelius wasn't out (or, wasn't available -- take your pick). A couple of years later, roughly five years ago, Sibelius hit the scenes and was getting great reviews for ease of use and output comparable to Finale (that is, both were great). I got a trial, and it was easier, but I (a) wasn't using it all that much, and (b) knew enough Finale -- and had it in hand -- so it wasn't worth the switch to me. I did check some user groups, and even managed to correspond with a few "real" composers. Most used Finale, citing it's richer feature set and more common use (plus, they knew it inside and out), but a number praised Sibelius and a few were switching.

A couple of years ago, I trialed again, just out of curiousity. Coda had been making big strides in user-friendliness, and this time around I thought the gap much closer. Hard to really compare, since I didn't spend enough time with Sibelius to get proficient (heck, same argument could be made for Finale even after all this time -- I'm a casual user) and I'd had more time with Finale. But, I bounced it off a friend as well, who was looking for a notation package. He thought Sibelius easier to use, but not by a whole lot (starting from scratch) and ultimately went with Finale. I'm honestly not sure why -- partly due to reviews and such, partly due to advice from other folk he knew, maybe other things.

So, I'm wondering how the recent Sibelius versions compare to the recent Finale versions. I'm not switching (old dogs, not to mention all my upgrade fees over the yeasr!

) but am curious.

Thanks - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

vivace · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:33 am Post subject:

everything at my school is finale. All the teachers have finale and smartmusic and everything else on their macs with the yamaha clavinova keyboards. And that is about hte only program they have on the imacs in the keyboard room.

Despite the fact they are macs, I love finale. I have it on my computer. It is nice adding professional touches to my theory homework.
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dmh737 · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:27 am Post subject:

Start with PrintMusic.It is a great program at a great price. If you do alot of notation you will out grow it but Finale is too overwhelming for a new user(It took me 7 years to outgrow PrintMusic and just moved up to Finale last year). PrintMusic and Finale are basically the same program to operate. If you have PrintMusic under your belt Finale is a breeze.
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_Don Herman · Posted: Fri Oct 08, 2004 10:44 am Post subject:

Thanks Rich... You may be right about Finale's interface moving towards Sibelius, I don't know. I think having a strong contender (outside the multi-thousand dollar packages) pushed Coda in the right direction for less than full time users.

dmh737 -- Good advice about PrintMusic! I've given NotePad to a few friends, too. It's the free download version, not nearly as powerful as even Printmusic!(tm). A lot of casual users, myself included, would have to push some to outgrow PrintMusic! There's also a guitar version that's been out the past few years, fwiw. Back when I got my first copy, Finale was it. I'm glad to see the company is growing and staying competitive. They've also added some nice plug-ins over the years, most recently SmartMusic accompaniment, Band-in-a-Box "Lite", and SmartScore (? the score reader, though the limited Finale version is pretty worthless to me).

Thanks - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley