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Notation software thread, 2019 edition


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I'm not sure who you gave $40 to, but I'm not aware of any tiered system of which you speak.

Musescore Pro is $49 per year:

https://musescore.org/en/node/268268

Thank you Jonathan.

 

Furthermore:

Of course we shall see what in fact the future holds...

 

I have seen what the future holds. I was a member of the OLGA before it was taken over by Ultimate Guitar (and yes, I am still a member at a mere $69 annually).

Don

 

"Yes, on occasion I do talk to myself, sometimes I need an expert's opinion."

 

Alesis DG8, ARP(Korg)Odyssey Mk.1, Roland JU-06 & Keystation61. Stratocaster if I get tired of sitting.

 

 

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I don't think Musescore Pro is necessary at all if you're just using it to make scores. I think Musescore Pro is all about sharing online, having online access on all your devices, etc.

 

https://musescore.com/upgrade?feature=gopro

 

To a point I agree with you Joe. However between the features you get with Pro (some of which were previously free) and the cross platform (which, by the way, isn't free), I decided to go with the Pro.

Don

 

"Yes, on occasion I do talk to myself, sometimes I need an expert's opinion."

 

Alesis DG8, ARP(Korg)Odyssey Mk.1, Roland JU-06 & Keystation61. Stratocaster if I get tired of sitting.

 

 

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I don't think Musescore Pro is necessary at all if you're just using it to make scores. I think Musescore Pro is all about sharing online, having online access on all your devices, etc.

 

https://musescore.com/upgrade?feature=gopro

 

The Musescore acquistion by Ultimate Guitar has been discussed here before. Briefly, Ultimate Guitar used Guitar Pro, a software program primarily designed for guitar notation for online playing of the extensive library of propriety files created in Guitar Pro that have the GTX, GT5 or GT4 suffix.

 

I suspect, but dont know, that the acquistion of Musescore has enabled Ultimate Guitar to have own their own online player of these files and others created in Musescore. Charging for the Pro version, or an Ultimate Guitar subscription, means they can afford to pay royalities to all the copyright owners of the available songs.

 

This means that ongoing development of the free version of Musescore is assured and the copyright owners get something via the Pro version or online player each time a shared file is used in that environment.

 

Thank you Markay. I couldn't have said it any better. That's why I'm still with them.

Don

 

"Yes, on occasion I do talk to myself, sometimes I need an expert's opinion."

 

Alesis DG8, ARP(Korg)Odyssey Mk.1, Roland JU-06 & Keystation61. Stratocaster if I get tired of sitting.

 

 

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Rudy, perhaps Sibelius is more widely used in the UK and Europe? That would make sense, as it was originally a UK-based company, and Finale is produced in the USA.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Rudy, perhaps Sibelius is more widely used in the UK and Europe? That would make sense, as it was originally a UK-based company, and Finale is produced in the USA.

 

Could be. I really have the feeling its' inverted here. The Finale users are the exception.

Rudy

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

After recently trying MuseScore (crude, but functional) and Dorico (awesome, but overkill for me), I settled on Notion. It has a simple and clean interface and does everything a non-professional like me needs. It also has two-way integration with the Studio One DAW that works very well.

 

On another note, rumor has it that Steinberg will put Dorico on sale by the end of May as part of its 50-year anniversary.

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I started on Notion, and still have it (even the latest edition), but don't really use it now that I have both Finale and Overture. I may put it up for sale if preSonus allows that. I liked it at first because it was focused more on composers than publishers, but for survival's sake, they then took more of a turn towards educators. I respect the team greatly (the leader even went to my school), and it does perhaps have the best tablature tool, but I'm not very good at tablature and don't want to waste time producing it for others.

 

I heard rumours that Dorico may go on sale soon, even though not part of the current 20th anniversary sale for Cubase.

 

There is a notation blog or help site (not sure which it is) that recently showed some output examples of the Big Three, and I found the engraving aspects of Dorico to still not be as professional as Sibelius or Finale, but surely that will improve over time. I even think Sibelius has a bit of a leg up on Finale at the moment, for legibility of symbols and clear separation of close-spaced stuff such as time signatures.

 

Overture is a good tool to have at hand, and affordable. Encore as well, but I never went beyond the trial as I'm still not confident enough of its future. MusicXML support is critical at this juncture, and its follow-on will probably be what separates the wheat from the chaff going forward.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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  • 2 weeks later...

From now until 27 May, 2019, you can get the full versions, updates, upgrades and crossgrades of Dorico Pro and Dorico Elements with a 30% discount! Just use the following code during checkout:

 

DORICO-30

 

You have to act fast, as you can't complete the purchase until they review your cross-grade eligibility based on the document or screen shot that you upload during the attempted purchase (which then terminates pending review, with a promise of 48 hour turnaround).

 

Not sure what the final price will be, as it self-discounted to $195 from $279 before I tried to check out, so it seems the 30% was automatically applied. But I don't remember if there's tax or not.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I use Finale when I am creating charts from scratch. Tried StaffPad briefly, but my handwriting is too atrocious to make it work.

 

I also use Musescore when I find someone has posted something in that format that I want to work off. If I only wanted to make lead sheets and were starting over, I probably would have been content with Musescore.

 

The one game changer for me would be a program that does a truly accurate job of converting PDFs into an editable format. That would save me a lot of time. But I've yet to find a program that does a good job of that (i.e., without requiring time-consuming corrections).

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On Europe vs North America,I believe y'all have it nailed: Finale has the edge in the USA, Sibelius in Europe/UK.

 

Someone mentioned the demise of the Finale-provided forum, and IMO that's true -- I'd go further and say that Behringer just did the same thing. If you're looking for Finale help, try Finale Forum, which is volunteer run and also hosts forums for Sibelius and the late lamented Cakewalk.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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Well, Dorico 2 is now installed (and authorized/registered), but it won't launch, as the splash screen says "waiting for connection". Not sure what that's about, as it's a bit of a chicken-or-egg when it's the first time and you don't have a way to set any preferences or settings in advance.

 

UPDATE: It was just VERY slow to launch. It seems to work fine on my system. The rendering is the easiest on my eyes of the Big Three (Dorico, Sibelius, Finale). I like the core workflow, at least. We shall see whether this becomes my primary notation app for new projects.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Hmmm, everything I read about Dorico sounds pretty promising, however I have so little motivation to learn a new program now that I've gotten used to Sibelius' idiosyncracies.

People that changed over from Finale/Sib to Dorico, how would you describe the learning curve?

It's not a clone, it's a Suzuki.
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Another thing to say in favor of Dorico is that the plug in instruments it come with sound WAY WAY better than Sibelius. For example, the "violin" sound in Sibelius is laughable at best. But the Dorico violin sounds like a violin. Yes, it sounds fake, but it gets you a helluva lot closer.
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From now until 27 May, 2019, you can get the full versions, updates, upgrades and crossgrades of Dorico Pro and Dorico Elements with a 30% discount! Just use the following code during checkout:

 

DORICO-30

 

You have to act fast, as you can't complete the purchase until they review your cross-grade eligibility based on the document or screen shot that you upload during the attempted purchase (which then terminates pending review, with a promise of 48 hour turnaround).

 

Not sure what the final price will be, as it self-discounted to $195 from $279 before I tried to check out, so it seems the 30% was automatically applied. But I don't remember if there's tax or not.

 

Mark- where was this announced? I suspect it's due to a summer arrival of Dorico 3. I'd guess they'd want at least a month after the promotion is over for a price/return guarantee to elapse, so maybe in early July?

 

I know Daniel Spreadbury has mentioned in the past that the Dorico team wanted to retime the Dorico Pro release date to better coincide with summer back-to-school buying season.

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I started with Finale while in grad school. Back in those days Finale had a ridiculous learning curve. I understand that it's much better now.

 

I used Encore for a while and it was ok for lead sheets but not much else. I switched to Sibelius somewhere around 2.0 and currently using 7.0 on a PC. I find it very stable and don't plan to upgrade.

 

I have looked at Dorico and I have to admit I'd like to make the switch I seem to keep waiting for when I have more cash.

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