With the release of Finale Notepad 2009, MakeMusic will now be charging $9.95 for it instead of providing it for free as they have in the past. I thought it might be useful to show what free and open source alternatives are available instead, as I have recently spent some time trying all of these out.

Canorus[/b] (Windows/Linux/Mac)
Canorus is a free extensible music score editor. It supports note writing, import/export of various file formats, MIDI input and output, scripting and more! It is cross-platform, but still under heavy development so it is not yet ready for serious use.

Denemo[/b] (Windows/Linux)
Denemo is a music notation program for Linux and Windows that lets you rapidly enter notation for typesetting via the LilyPond music engraver. This is more of a front-end to LilyPond than a full featured notation editor, and it still has a little way to go in terms of development.

MuseScore[/b] (Windows/Linux)
MuseScore is a free cross platform WYSIWYG music notation program, licenced under GNU GPL. This software is very close to a 1.0 release and seems to be very feature complete. I certainly find it to be a lot more capable than Notepad. It has a built in sequencer so you do not need to use an external softsynth like with many of the other applications. There is also a Mac build in the works. Take a look at the comparison of MuseScore and Notepad on the main page.

Rosegarden[/b] (Linux)
Rosegarden is a well-rounded audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment. Rosegarden is an easy-to-learn, attractive application that runs on Linux, ideal for composers, musicians, music students, and small studio or home recording environments. Unlike the others, Rosegarden is a sequencer with a (very capable) notation editor built in. The only major thing it doesn't yet support is multiple voices in a staff, but there are ways of implementing this. It is a very stable and developed application.

NoteEdit[/b] (Linux)
NoteEdit is a free music score editor for Linux. It supports an unlimited number and length of staffs, polyphony, a MIDI playback of written notes, chord markings, lyrics, a number of import and export filters to many formats like MIDI, MusicXML, ABC Music, MUP, PMX, MusiXTeX and LilyPond and more! NoteEdit is a very capable and developed application, but there will be no more new releases since the developers have moved on to develop Canorus (above). The original NoteEdit developer now develops NtEd (below).

NtEd[/b] (Linux)
NtEd is a new musical score editor for Linux. It supports WYSIWYG editing, multiple voices in a staff, import/export of different formats, etc. It is developing very fast and is already on a stable release.

To sum up, for Windows users, MuseScore is the most full-featured alternative available. Denemo is useful if you need just a front-end to LilyPond instead of a full application. Canorus still has a way to go but is looking very promising.

For Linux users there are more options in the latter stages of development available, since in addition to the Windows apps there is also Rosegarden, NoteEdit and NtEd all of which are very capable. For general composition, Rosegarden does a lot of things well. For specifically a notation editor, any of MuseScore, NoteEdit or NtEd will be very suitable.

For Mac users, I suggest keeping an eye on (or contributing if you have the ability!) the Mac build of MuseScore, in addition to the other cross platform applications still under development.

I hope this helps those looking for an alternative notation editor, now that the only free one will cease to be free in a couple of months. Also, since all of the solutions I have posted are free and open source software, you do not get a neutered version of the real thing as with Finale's product, you get all the features with no serial numbers or activation keys. Also, if you want a feature, contribute it to the project!

Ozor Mox

Useful, thankyou.

I appreciate the effort and intent of this message. As one who once sold technology I understand the viewpoint that Windows is a bloated and unstable platform. Thus for those with limited means the bleeding edge is perhaps the only alternative. Frankly Notepad for $10 is a pretty good deal considering that it's stable and an intro to one of the industry standard products out there.

Personally I bit the bullet and bought Finale back around 1990 (version 3.2). I'm up to version 2004b now. It's not perfect and I'll probably upgrade to the latest one of these years, but it does a lot (which is what I need). Anyone who's a professional musician/composer should be using one of the pro programs. You don't want your creativity limited by your tools. Here in the USA Linux is still the domain of the techie. Someday maybe that'll change, but that's the way it is now.

No problem

I agree that $10 is practically nothing (it's more the hassle of having to pay instead of just downloading), and I'm not saying that it should be avoided altogether. I just thought it was a nice idea to let people know about free and open source alternatives, since I know a lot of people use Notepad as they believe it to be the only free option. In addition, Notepad is purposely limited (no time signature or clef changes for example) to encourage upgrading.

Yes I think you are absolutely right. Many of the options I have posted are extremely capable, but can't (yet) compete with the massive array of options offered by the industry standards. The truth is though, that many people only use a fraction of what those programs offer. That's why so many get by with Notepad and its deliberate limitations, or some of these other £50-100 notation products. Those are the people who would benefit from this information, not the professionals who have already paid for the full Finale or Sibelius packages and have no reason to switch.

Yes Linux still occupies a pretty small market share. I have many arguments against it being a techie-only operating system, but that was not the purpose of this thread, as I was demonstrating free and open source alternatives, not Linux. Some of these applications are cross platform and I was aiming at all computer users no matter what their operating system or technical level.

Not meaning to be argumentative, but I agree completely!

I didn't think you were, I thought you made very valid points and I'm pleased you agree with my reply

For what it's worth, I downloaded and tried MuseScore on 2 computers with different operating systems and, unfortunately, ran into difficulty. Changing the page settings under layout caused some major problems and some editing capabilities (such as deleting rests) didn't work for me.

Just wanted to bump this thread, because the MuseScore developers have recently released a stable version for the Mac (http://www.musescore.org/en/download), and also the current release seems to fix many of the issues noted in older reviews (like http://davidbolton.info/articles/musescore_review.html). So far I'm happy with it.

With it's built-in engraver, the sheet music from MuseScore looks like Hal Leonard's (Finale), with LilyPond export like Bärenreiter's.

Finally, a comparsion table between MuseScore and Finale Notepad can be found here: http://www.musescore.org/en/comparing-musescore-and-finale-notepad-feature-feature

Another intriguing idea - a web based product:

http://www.noteflight.com/

I posted this recently, so no need to redo it.

But not here, so what good is it?

Well I'm glad Kreisler mentioned it - I don't read every single post at PW and somehow missed previous mentions. Very interesting!

The Noteflight web site doesn't make it very clear in their FAQ how easy it is to export your score from their site, e.g. as MusicXML or PDF. I don't have Flash installed on this system, so I can't try this out with their sample scores at the moment.

This is what I use.

http://www.braeburn.co.uk/mp.htm

This thread is a boon to me as I am currently in the market for a good composition/notation program w/playback capabilities.

Background: I've not written down ANYTHING on a computer for over 20 years. It goes without saying that technology has advanced considerably since then. My frame-of-reference for computer composing software consists of two programs, Music Construction Set and Bank Street Music Writer, both for the 8-bit Apple II. In any evaluation I do, I'll peel away the eye candy and graphics vs. 25 years ago and get to the meat of the matter. MCS was essentially a toy, where you'd drag the notes to the staff. You were hard-limited to two staves; no inner voicing capabilities. Bank Street Music Writer was, OTOH, a fairly serious tool in its day, with complete voice independence in dynamics and even articulation envelope. Each note was assigned one of the six voices that the equipment of the time supported. Anything I look at today, must give me that same independent control: the ability for multiple voices on the same staff, in the same bar.

Downloaded Finale Allegro trial last night. Impressions: difficult to use. I could not figure out how to make ties and slurs. Pricey at $200. Also, I do not need to create full orchestral scores. Something for Neoclassical piano music will be adequate.

Noteworthy: pretty basic, but does have the tools necessary for Beethoven's Moonlight 3rd Mvt. Not sure of the printed score quality, but once the output is in MIDI form, it can be transferred (in theory) to a program that specializes in score-print quality. This program is $50.

Three complaints: 1) Tuplets. Noteworthy only supports triplets. How do you then create that 29-note cadenza?; 2) Trills are entered as inline expression text: "tr~~~~". Cheesy yes, but it works, not a showstopper; 3) Rolled chords. These must be written out explicitly with grace notes tied to the final chord as there is no vertical-trill notation.

Okay four complaints: 4) I've found it extremely difficult to do voice independence within a staff on NoteWorthy. Apparently it can be done.

Okay, five: 5) How do you transpose just a small, selected section? For example, a tedious phrase repeated, but in a different key?

Has anyone used NoteWorthy? Is it even a serious contender? At this point, I'm wavering about the $50. It does most of what I need, despite the four (now five) issues, and is pretty easy to use.

Okay, stupid comments I made above. MuseScore does everything I want. It is quite similar to Bank Street Music Writer in its interface, in fact - except, of course, much more powerful as would be expected on modern computers.

It does EVERYTHING I want!

It is extremely buggy, and hard to use at first, but that's okay because it's free open source software and the bugs can be worked around.

My first composition is about one-third completed.

Thanks OP Ozor Mox for the reviews!

I recently discovered MuseScore and have been very impressed with what it can do for a free, open source piece of programming - great for sketching quick musical examples, like the one in this video:



A bit buggy at times, but still terrific overall, and I'm sure it'll continue to improve!

Really? I can't say I've found many problems in the latest release of MuseScore, at least compared to earlier versions. Are you certain you are using v0.9.5?

Yes v0.9.5, and I did work through some of the problems - specifically how to delete "a piece of time" and persistent, unwanted rests at the end of the piece.

It is excellent software once the user attains a certain degree of familiarity with it. No complaints now, esp. considering it is free.

In fact, I can say with confidence it is perfect for my needs.

Ah yes, deleting stuff is definitely counterintuitive in MuseScore. But when you said "bugs" I thought you meant program crashes (which used to happen all the time with earlier versions). So far v0.9.5 hasn't crashed for me. What it still has are some user interface oddities, but I wouldn't call those "bugs" in the strict sense...

Hugh Sung's video blew me away. I've also just discovered MuseScore and for what I want it to do for me, it's much easier to use than my 2004 version of Finale. Yes, I probably will buy an upgrade, but not before trying Sibelius. Right now, MuseScore is enabling me to rescue some very old compositions (mine) and I've decided that I need to do some extensive rewriting. So far, I am impressed that when the software does crash, it has a recovery feature that works. It also shows where instruments are out of range or difficult - I've played with this a little to find out what it will do. Imagine if some real talent could be shaken loose through MuseScore; all kinds of new and (hopefully) rather good compositions! So far I really like my experience with this software!

This is interesting. A while ago when I first recomended MuseScore, it seemed as if everyone ignored my post. Nonetheless, it's good that everyone sees the light now. It's an excelent program with a simple slick interface. Trust me, just about anything you need to get done with practical notation can be done with MuseScore.

If it doesn't have it, you don't need it.
So far, I'm in agreement.
And YES, the interface is great.