What (if any) Music notation software do you use?

[Jacob Royal]

What music notation software do you use when you write on the computer?

I use Finale PrintMusic 2009. After hearing the quality of some of the midi's here, I regret to getting this one.

[Chris Alpiar]

yea it will definitely happen, and notion seems to be closest, but still a few light years away. The main problem is that printed music is meant to be interpreted by a live musician, and a computer is an exact reproduction of the input. DAW lets you massage in ways you couldnt in notation (as each performance of every sample of every sample library will respond differently to that single eighth note, and to each articulation). So there will be a LOT of 'fuzzy logic' to connect the rigid score meant to be [varied levels of] interpreted loosly, and a lot of leeway to notate for humans the precise and often skewed and awkward recording of 'massaged data' in the daw timeline.

Personally I would prefer a shift in the business model of the current trends of teh music industry to allow for a new era of flourishing economy for musicians and orchestras and big bands. Because even if they come up with a notation program that uses samples to sound really really live, it will still be one dimensional and I would take 102930192830192301x over to work with live players who interpret rather than a machine

[Ray Kemp]

Pete,

I'm glad you put this up because it demonstrates exactly why notation can NEVER reproduce REAL playing. It was never designed to. If it were, you'd need at least a page of information for every bar.
So any argument/discussion can only be on comparisons between software, forget the real thing because it's in a different place.

Ray

[pete whitfield]

I don't get the point you are making Ray? Is notation of no significance in communicating information? Is a new online version of notation software of no significance? Is the opportunity to embed one of the main communication tools of music in a discussion forum like this not relevant?

[Ray Kemp]

You're right Pete, on reading my post I realize I said "notation" when what I meant was "notation software applications that try to play the notes expressively but fail miserably".
My apologies.

Ray

[pete whitfield]

I don't see where noteflight claims to play notes expressively. It aims to communicate the language of notation. Are you saying notation is a communication tool that fails miserably? Please clarify your point. On what level does it fail as a means of expressing the communication of notation? Are the notes themselves not important to music?

[Ray Kemp]

Pete,

The subject of this thread is not about the usefulness of notation.
I am certainly not arguing against the usefulness of notation.
I do not doubt the usefulness of "noteflight" as a teaching aid.
Jacob apparently thought the audio output of a notation application may produce a lifelike recording.
ALL notation applications fail miserably trying to achieve that including noteflight.

Ray

[Ario]

principally finale... never managed to get friendly with sibelius - and everything else is simply not worth it.

VST's are the real thing (If you can't afford the REAL thing).
You've gotta check around on the internet and see what suits your taste...

I absolutely recommend Edirol Orchestral, for this VST programme is not too expensive, doesn't cost much RAM, takes less than 1GB on your disk... Updates are for free, and on top of all, it sounds amazing...

But be sure, that it is unlikely to find a computer programme, which would replace any musician!

Summary: Finale 2009 + Edirol Orchestral rocks! (And it all just needs about 1GB!!!!)


Ario.

[Jan Civil]

Notation is SO far from being an absolute language it's absurd to expect a notation program to make viably expressive music.

Just take a single articulation, say a clarinet. "Staccato". That's one marking, maybe a couple variances according to strength in some people's notation. Now look at reality: how many variances in duration might there be in a performance, just given this one sign?

[Jeremiah Pena]

If people want more realistic sounding music, there's no doubt that DAW's are ahead of Notation software at the moment. I myself use Cubase Studio, which has notation built into it. When I need printed music, I just open up the notation editor, make a few tweaks to get it to look right, and then print it.

[Alexander Sadovski]

I am optimist and I hope that in one or two years time there will be at least one notation program, which will be able to produce audio output with quality of lifelike recording. I do not know which one it will be, but Notion3 and Finale or Overture with ARIA-GPO4 are not very far from achieving it and such notation program will overperform DAW.

[Chris Alpiar]

While I really appreciate the optimism and wish I could share it with you, I disagree, I think it will be a lot longer to achieve all the nuance needed to work with all the different sample libraries - keep in mind each library has different articulations that are slightly different. Composers today generally mix the best libraries to create a more realistic and unique orchestral sound (i.e. to not sound like everyone using EWQLSO only which is very flatline imo). So how a staccato note is played with VSL or SAM or LASS or EWQLSO or GARRITAN or whatever, each one is different and so how can a program understand all that? Or that you needed to layer one crescendo with another longer one and hide the cutoff of the first to make a swell sound right for the tempo/moment of your piece, etc etc.

Its going to be a long time till the finer points of working with sample libraries is going to work with a notation program to really sound live and real

Alexander Sadovski said:

I am optimist and I hope that in one or two years time there will be at least one notation program, which will be able to produce audio output with quality of lifelike recording. I do not know which one it will be, but Notion3 and Finale or Overture with ARIA-GPO4 are not very far from achieving it and such notation program will overperform DAW.

[Ray Kemp]

Sadly, many here already think the output from their present notation app or DAW is of a high or at least presentable standard. If our ears are not capable of detecting the problems or as in my case I know the problems but struggle to tweak in the right places to correct them the technology can never succeed in sounding "real".

Composers depend on the ability of the performer/s to present a truly expressive representation of their work.
Therefore, in the absence "real" musicians, composers MUST train their ears and technical skills to get anywhere near a passable representation in their own music room/studio.

As Chris Alpiar says,
Notation apps are a million miles from there at the moment, that is, if you really listen to the recording and not just imagine what it could be like while hearing.