Lovers of MuseScore, and I think we have a lot of users here grit your teeth, watch WHOLE thing, the end might surprise you.
No Animal was harmed doing the making of these video's (and will probably be improved because of it). I think Finale's and Dorico's "turn in the barrel" is coming up.
Musescore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hZxo96x48ASibelius
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKx1wnXClcIIf nothing else they were fun to watch
Enjoy (or not)
Larry
This fellow really tears into these two programs from a software design perspective. But he's right. I found both to be difficult, and I've tried every music notation software I could find.
Here are a few of his memorable lines:
"The sheer number of buttons and menus became overwhelming."
"The sloppy attention to detail is everywhere".
I'll let you watch to determine which program these comments are about.
For the record, I have both but don't use either of these.
I have those two as well as Finale and Notion 6 and don't like any of them, they all make me wince.
Actually one of these days some sharp kid is going to revolutionize scoring apps, and get rich, and in the end that scoring app will be as easy to use as using professional voice recognition to write complex legal documents and as intuitive as using a calculator.
EDIT
but I will say you get MORE for free from MuseScore than you do for a few hundred bucks from ANY of the other music notation vendors: in this case you get MORE than you pay for.
It's akin to NOW getting a professional use DAW, essentially "SONAR Platium," for free from BandLab, versus how much we sunk into to CW products over the years, or even just the LAST upgrade to SPLAT.
LOL
End Edit
Larry
Though it’s unsupported, has no future, and is filled with serious bugs, I still use Encore.
That's like me and FORTRAN LOL
I think it's a lack of interest in the actual writing out of music. Look at my thread right here about Biab's own notation and print functions. A few enthusiastic responses, that's it. Anybody think the gazzilions of bedroom producers and DJ's care about notation? I think these notation companies are a small labor of love in a losing cause.
Bob
Agreed, a niche of a niche community
I think it's a lack of interest in the actual writing out of music. Look at my thread right here about Biab's own notation and print functions. A few enthusiastic responses, that's it. Anybody think the gazzilions of bedroom producers and DJ's care about notation? I think these notation companies are a small labor of love in a losing cause.
Bob
Exactly Bob. IMHO the main reason for the lack of music notation is that the USA Patent Department will except CDs for copyright applications. Thus no need for notation. It used to be that you needed music notation to get a patent.
Go browse Sheet Music Plus, or Music Notes and you will see a lot of dots. Every classical music composer requires good notation and good engraving capabilities. Middle, High School, and College band music is all in notation. Heck, even the Real Books you buy in the store now are in computer generated notation (not hand written, but sometimes in a handwritten font). Film and television scores all originate in notation.
While a lot of bands play either by ear or with a chord/lyric chart, there is still a lot of room for notation. If you look at the iPads that backing bands on your favorite music shows use, you'll also see notation. From where I sit, notation is still very much out there.
Even when musicians know the songs intimately, because they've played them so many times and have them memorized, they will still have music in front of them. And you will never see a conductor stand in front of a full orchestra and just say, "Okay lets play Beethoven's 5th, but instead of C-minor, let's do it in D#-minor and give it a swing beat. Then let's just jump into Mozart's Moonlight Sonata on the turnaround. And we'll let the oboe and clarinet trade fours during the Largo. Okay let's go. Ah, one-two-three..."
I would enjoy trying that, John!
But I have made money since junior high writing music for those who can’t. It’s an essential skill for some of us.
Yes, of course BUT...what percentage of the general home "producer" market is it? It's exactly the same question, what percentage of home wannabes make to the pro level? Hitting the lotto percentage I think.
To me the only reason that makes sense for all the buggy notation programs that never get fixed including biab is the ROI is just not worth it.
Bob