Music Notation Software

[Kraellin]

i've posted a number of links to software before, but this time i'm asking for help. i'm looking for music notation/music writing software. the only catch is, it needs to be either free or fairly inexpensive, like in the $50 range or so.

it also needs to be fairly simple. i actually have a couple of the more expensive, more elaborate types, like cakewalk and that sort, but i need something quite simple, more along the lines of the old Deluxe Music 3 type.

it would also be quite handy to be midi compatible.

and, it MUST be able to print out the music in standard notation.

i'm not interested in limited demos or trials, unless they lead to what i've described above, including the price range.

so, if you know of something like this, please, post a link here or even just a name and i'll do a search.

[Doug Nelson]

http://lilypond.org/web/

Don't know anything about it, it just kept coming up in google searches.

[Kraellin]

hmm, from what i can see of lillypond (and thank you for that, btw), it's a notation writer. i suppose i shld have mentioned that i do want to be able to hear what i input, either by manually inputting or through midi. lilly seems to only write notation. you enter it into a text editor and then compile that file and it writes it out in standard notation.

so again, thank you, but that wont suffice.

[Kraellin]

ok, this one is looking pretty promising: http://www.anvilstudio.com/ . i've got it installed and playing with it now.

[James Penner]

I don't know if you've seen it or not, but you might also want to check out http://www.finalemusic.com/SongWriter/.

[Dave.Cox]

I have a set of music fonts that I downloaded sometime ago. They allow you to create music notation in your standard word processing program, or graphics program using standard text. I can't remember where I found them, but you can search for "music font" and you'll find quite a few.

[chillin]

Notation Composer is a one that does what you want... I think, but it isn't 50.

[Littlecoo]

Oooo... Deluxe Music! Yeah I remember using that for belting out many a high school music composition assignment that was then printed out on ye olde dot matrix printer- ACK!
Needless to say I don't miss it lol.
Here is a mob whose software I have tried and I quite like, they have a couple of robust, well-featured offerings around your price range: http://www.musicaleditor.com/

[Kraellin]

james, that looks really close to the criteria i set up. thanks

dave, that sounds a lot like lillypond, which doug mentioned, but thank you

and chillin, that also looks very close, except it's $150 instead of $50. still, might be worth taking for a spin to see if it's worth the extra $100.

thanks, guys. i appreciate this!

if anyone else has anything, please, continue

[Kraellin]

oh, that one looks good too, littlecoo! am listening to their web/online music thing now. very clever!

thank you

[Steve Conway]

Audacity.......FREE!

Steve C.

[Kraellin]

steve, audacity can write music notation? i thought audacity was a wave editor?

[lkroll]

Hey Craig. Just caught this thread. You know how frugal I am. Just did a quick check on Sourceforge's site (don't know if you have done this yet or not). Below is the search link.

http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_...music+notation

[Kraellin]

thanks, lyle. yes, i've been on sourceforge looking. i think that's where i first saw Anvil. but always appreciate more links

i'm getting some great help here so far. how bout is anyone USING any of these that they could give me a first hand, quick review of what they're using and if they like it or not?

[Steve Conway]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

steve, audacity can write music notation? i thought audacity was a wave editor?

It does wav, mp3's, and even some midis. Have to admit that is what I use it for, but someone said it would also give you notation. Admit I haven't tried that, and they didn't mention how to do it.

Someone else here did mention Anvil Studio. I know this will notate because I have used it for that.

Steve C.

[Kraellin]

thanks steve. i'll look closer at audacity. i do have it installed; just never really looked very closely at all the features. so, i'll do that.

as for anvil, i have that installed and it's pretty darn close to what i was looking for. and it's free so, thanks

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by Kraellin

thanks steve. i'll look closer at audacity. i do have it installed; just never really looked very closely at all the features. so, i'll do that.

as for anvil, i have that installed and it's pretty darn close to what i was looking for. and it's free so, thanks

My apologies in advance for resurrecting a two year old thread. But this was one of those threads that appears at the bottom of another thread with the suggestion that it may contain related info, and I just couldn't resist piping up.

Well, I can't comment on Anvil cuz I've never used it, but as it so happens, if you're still looking for reasonably priced notation software, there's a product that I used for quite a while that I really liked for its simplicity, yet full-featured capabilities as a notation-based sequencer: Midisoft Studio. I bought version 6 for about $60 back in 2001 or so. A few months after I bought my copy, I d/l'd a patch -- think it was v6.01 or something -- and then a couple months after that, the company went out of business. I was bummed, cuz Studion 6 had bugs and quirks that I was expecting to be worked out in a future version, but such was not to be . . . or so I presumed. A couple years later, I ran across a copy at a computer store, and it was a new version -- priced about the same, or maybe even a bit less than the copy I'd bought originally. Apparently, the rights to Studio had been purchased by somebody else and they came out with an update. Much the same, but as I recall, some of the quirks had been dealt with. I don't recall the name of this new publisher, but if you're still interested in a cheap notation-based sequencer, let me know, and I'll dig out the CD. Far as that goes, before posting this note, I did a google search, and ran across a bunch of sites offering free d/l's of Studio in various versions, including 6, so you could do the same, d/l a copy and give it a try -- see if it fits your needs.

What I ended up doing with it, was I used it for almost all my composition work because the interface was so much more intuitive than Allegro or Sibelius (and it was WAY cheaper anyway), and then after I'd fleshed out my compositions fairly well, I'd export the midi files to Cakewalk Pro Audio (later Sonar) and do all the serious tweaks there. Pro Audio/Sonar also have the notation-based functions, but it's an afterthought and not very robust in capabilities. It worked just fine for doing minor edits to the midi files, though.

And if you've found something cheap that you like, well, pass it along, okay? I'm always interested in this sort of thing. Unlike most folks, I guess, I prefer writing music the old fashioned way -- notes on staves, although I will make allowances for advances where I prefer doing this sort of thing on the computer rather than paper (usually), the same way I prefer a word processor to a typewriter.

[pixelzombie]

here's another possibility, and it is free:

http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/

[Kraellin]

thanks, cooltouch and pixelzombie. i ended up buying creative music 5, which is apparently one of the iterations of cakewalk. it has a lot more than i want, but it does have notation capabilities and piano roll mode, which is one of the features i loved about deluxe music.

but, do feel free to continue posting other candidates