I have been using Printmusic for a few years now, but 2 things drive me nuts:

1. no click
2. the sounds stink

Any ideas?

Dan

It's difficult to get a music program with good orchestral sounds, there's a problem called Acoustik or something, with very good piano samples, but even then it's not really close to the real thing.

I can't name any programs with good violins or cellos, I tend to use programs purely for ideas and then translate it onto piano later.

Manuscript paper, 2B pencil, eraser & ruler.

AMEN.

Yep, me too .

(Though I prepare my scores using Finale - version 3.0 which is approx. 13 years old)

Wow - Finale 3.0... Does that even run on XP (or Vista) anymore? I still have that on 3.5 floppies that I got back in my college days. I tried installing it on an old PC running Win2K a couple years ago, but I'd since lost the installation keys, so I ended up purchasing a newer copy. As I was taking some Masters courses at the time, though, I got the student rate - which was a steal...

I do most of my actual composing at the piano with manuscript paper and my trusty 0.7 mm mechanical pencil, but very quickly after I compose something, I notate it in Finale 2007.

I use my old Mac to run it - (LC520 if anyone is into antique computers ) and this new mac for everything else. I just never upgraded Finale because I liked the version I had and didn't want to have to spend time learning new ways when the old ones were perfectly ok. When the old computer dies, I'm in trouble.

Ditto. Although I use Notepad. Bleh...

I love mechanical pencils. I love erasers. I can't keep enough manuscript paper around so I often print my own. What computer program I use depends on whether I'm going for a recording or notation as a final product. If I'm going for a recording I'll use my trusty (and recently rebuilt) Logic 5.51 PC. If I'm going for notation I go to the family PC with Finale 2004.

I use Finale most of the time and paper now and then. Sibelius seems to have some nice features, but I have not used it much in a few years.

With Finale you can use the Garritan sounds, which are quite good. The assignment of patches and the control of the instruments can be tricky (at least up to Finale 2006).

I use Sibelius...also for digitally produced music I use Steinberg Cubase...both of these I received for free from my school...

When I compose I use pencil and paper to quickly notate what I'm playing, then I use Encore to produce a score someone else can read.

Ed

i use sibelius with my own samples of orchestral sounds (my dad worked with the person who made the music to the gladiator and the whale rider - comes in handy every once and a while)

Zac

Manuscript paper and a pencil if I'm sat at the piano. On the computer I use Rosegarden . It can output to any softsynth for sounds, and it exports to LilyPond to produce some great looking scores. It uses Qt though, so Linux users only.

I use manuscript paper. When ideas are coming too fast, I use a digital recorder and go back and transcribe. Zoom makes a good one for under $200 altho I prefer my Edirol which was a good bit more.

I struggled with Finale for years then sighed and coughed up the money for Sibelius. If you own a legit copy of Finale, amazon.com has the competitive upgrade to Sibelius for $139. It is $199 at the Sibelius site.

For me, this is not an "either-or" situation. All three are useful to me. Sadly, Finale has become a bundle of duct tape and chicken wire held together by chewing gum. Most of the guys I know who still use it have not actually given Sibelius a legitimate look.

I started back in 1987 with MOTU's "Professional Composer" notation software. That evolved into "Composer's Mosaic" but only went to OS 9 and they stopped developing it anyway. A pity because it had a good feature that only appeared in Sibelius in version 5: the infinite scroll window. I bought Sibelius 4 to use with OS X and that's what I currently use.

For anything MIDI and audio I use Digital Performer 5.

I use Sibelius 4. I don't use any of the playback facilities though, except for checking whether my tempi are about right. Basically, I don't do anything with it that I couldn't do by hand.

Pencil, eraser and manuscript paper... for rough sketch... then Finale... then for a mock- up recording I use Logic Pro 8.

i used Sibelius before i got my keyboard. i also realized that songs that didn't sound very well on Sibelius were beautiful on the piano, so i use it if at work to capture ideas, but i try not to discard anything until i try it out on the piano.


a little off topic, anyone know of any staff rulers? if that makes sense. I don't really like the look of computer generated or printed staff paper. I think it is a lot more special to do my final drafts in hand and i've been wanting something like this for a while. even considered making my own, but was a little difficult lol...

I use Melody Assistant.

Most bang for buck I think. It is feature packed and really cheap. But the UI is a bit quirky and doesn't look professional at all. I'm quite happy with the print results though.

I use the playback function in Sibelius 4 as a final check to pick up any note errors (a missing accidental etc.) that might have escaped notice, and I find that a useful feature. As a string player however, listening to the string sounds is rather painful.

And don't forget about the brain.

John

Contrary to popular belief, you also need that when you're using a notation program.

(You wouldn't believe how many people buy such a program and believe that this makes them composers.)

I use PrintMusic now, mainly because Sibelius Student edition is not compatable with Vista and my PX-320 keyboard..

Although not my first choice, PrintMusic works very well for me and is easy to use.

Guess I'm the odd one. The sounds are kind of "eh" but I use Noteworthy Composer (or good old pencil/paper/eraser.) I've just never been able to get used to the interface in other programs, though maybe I've never tried hard enough.

Noteworthy does have a demo version if you decide to give it a try. If so, I strongly recommend browsing the keyboard shortcuts--rarely need a mouse with it.

I considered Noteworthy, it seems quite popular (for the cheaper software out there) but I needed something which works on both PC and Mac so went with Melody Assistant. Not sure how they compare feature wise but they would be in the same class.

I use Mup (www.arkkra.com). Though I only use that for the final typesetting - what I use to compose is a piano and a tape recorder. I record the composition-in-progress over and over until I get it right, and then transcribe it.

I use Reason 3.0. for everything, I do compose with melody assitant notation software just to keep the feeling in memory.

as for samples, when it comes to the qualitiy of the sound I'm motivated by low medium quality samples even, so I don't do nothing to improve the sound. I think getting better sounding samples will only improve the quality of the instrument by a small fraction, the reason work comes in when you have to get up close and personal with programs like kontaxt and giga. and if your pro, you'll make them soudn real nice.

but in the end, i doubt there is a true digital instrument that match the sound quality of the real deal, it make fool people with untrained ears, and mayby if intermediant ears, doubt it will plz a verterian.

Just manuscript paper and pencil for me. I don't even bother with an eraser... if I make a mistake I cross it out and start again. These days I've been so lazy with key signature/time signature and even accidentals that I'd just write (5b) next to my clefs instead of writing out the flats explicitly.

I type it all up in Finale again though. But I don't bother with any playback setting. (I used to try and make my Finale recordings "perfect" a few years back, but I've come to the concolusion that that's a "wrong" philosophy completely)

For recordings, I've got hold of a Yamaha CLP-330. Because it plugs straight into the computer you make 1) noiseless and 2) human recording: how cool is that?! The sound sample is questionable, but after re-EQing you can actually end up with a really nice sound. And this also guarantees that you can play your piece before you have it recorded