Bob, I've tried many notation programs over the years.

I still use Encore, which I learned about 1993. I cannot recommend it now because of questions about their support, but I've been a beta tester for decades and it works for me. I even did symphony orchestra parts with it last year.

Sibelius is a fine choice for serious work and far more powerful but it is quite difficult to master. The company also got rid of programmers so its future is in question.

Finale seems to be a stable company. The product also is difficult to master but extremely powerful and much used. If I'm not mistaken, a starter version is offered on the PG Music website. *

MuseScore is free and promising but buggy.

I know some here use Noteworthy Composer. I haven't tried that, nor a new one, Forte. I've been meaning to look at Notion, which looks promising.

Many of these you can try by downloading demos that often do everything but Save a file. The trick is to find one where the user interface makes sense to you. In this way, it is similar to choosing a DAW.

I still hope all these programs (including BIAB) adopt a full implementation of Music XML for seamless file transfer. That's the future.

* EDIT: check these links on the PG Music site for Finale and Finale PrintMusic:

http://www.pgmusic.com/finale.win.htm
http://www.pgmusic.com/finaleprintmusic.win.htm[/color]

Last edited by Matt Finley; 10/27/14 05:00 PM.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors