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Author Topic: Music notation software  (Read 6456 times)

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Québécois

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Music notation software
« on: April 18, 2008, 02:28:40 PM »

I am a big user of ABC to document and share the music I play, yet I found an interesting shareware product that fits between ABC and the well-known commercial (and expensive) music notation packages. It's called MUP and it costs only $29.

Like ABC it uses very simple text files as a source and produces scores and MIDI outputs. It also allows to write complex partitions for those who may need to write dots for multiple instruments. Those used to ABC will find similarities in entering notes by name with a simple syntax.

It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux but its installation also requires Ghostscript and other bits if you want all the printing features. You can even get the source code if you are into software development and want to add your own features.

Read about it on the Akkra web site.

(I am not in any way related to that organization, I just found their product interesting).
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Simon

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2008, 05:22:37 PM »

You might like to try Lilypond as well.. it's free and can produce very complicated scores. Other free programs are PMW (Philips music writer) and extensions of ABC like AbcPlus. All are based on textfile input.
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playandteach

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2013, 11:16:49 AM »

Does anyone know of a software package that allows melodeon tabs (French style) to be put under the music? I have Sibelius but it doesn't have this feature - unless it's hidden.
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Roger Howard

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2013, 12:14:42 PM »

TablEdit is widely used in France, eg by CADB etc.

It might be worth a look. It's at

http://www.tabledit.com.

Roger
« Last Edit: March 11, 2013, 12:59:39 PM by Roger Howard »
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Howard Jones

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2013, 12:53:00 PM »

I've only had time for a very brief glance at this, but what does this offer that ABC doesn't?  At first glance it looks very similar to me.  Why reinvent the wheel?

I couldn't even look at their example output without finding a postscript viewer.  Most ABC editors will produce pdfs direct, and there's an extensive library of music in this format.  More sophisticated score-writers are needed to produce more complex music, but for the type of music most melodeon players are interested in then ABC does the job.

Roger Howard

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2013, 01:05:48 PM »

TablEdit will, I think, produce a full tablature, with fingering and chords etc., if you tell it what your keyboard layout is. Bernard Loffet has some "blanks" set up on his site, if my memory serves. Personally, I found it fiddly to get the software to do precisely what you want, though it's a good while since I tried it. However, it's much used in France and has been around a long time, I believe.

Roger
« Last Edit: March 11, 2013, 05:23:45 PM by Roger Howard »
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2014, 10:50:30 AM »

I have been happily using Personal Composer for about 15 years, but I am now thinking of buying a tablet for a variety of uses, one of which will be to carry my music notation around with me, so that, wherever I am, I can access the 1,000+ tunes I have notated. Personal Composer will not run on a tablet and its producer, who is about to retire, has no plans to produce a tablet-friendly version.

Can anyone recommend a music notation package that they have experience of using on a tablet?
« Last Edit: October 30, 2014, 11:35:54 PM by Bob Ellis »
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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2014, 11:35:23 PM »

Since my previous question elicited no responses, I will refine it. Having done a bit more research, I am now thinking about purchasing Sibelius First. I would be grateful if those with experience of using this music notation software could post their impressions of it, either good or bad.
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Ollie

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2014, 12:18:54 AM »

I use Sibelius 7, and it is excellent. It has its flaws (writing music without time signatures and fixed pitches is hard, but I doubt you'll be needing to do that!), but is overall an excellent piece of software. If the sheet music that you have posted on the forum before is what you want to carry on doing, Bob, then Sibelius will be absolutely fine.
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syale

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2014, 12:25:54 AM »

I use Sibelius 7, and it is excellent. It has its flaws (writing music without time signatures and fixed pitches is hard, but I doubt you'll be needing to do that!), but is overall an excellent piece of software. If the sheet music that you have posted on the forum before is what you want to carry on doing, Bob, then Sibelius will be absolutely fine.

And after a few messages between James Fitton and myself it is easy to export MusicXML files from Sibelius and convert the files to ABC with EasyABC. EasyABC has an import function that will take the XML files and translate directly to ABC.
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #10 on: October 31, 2014, 09:24:37 AM »

Thanks, Ollie and Syale, for your replies.

What I want to be able to do is to continue writing sheet music the way I do it at present, with fingering above the stave and a bass line below it. I also want to be able to play back the music as a midi file or something similar, to import and export from other music programmes and to export as a PDF file. The conversion to and from ABC mentioned by Syale will also be useful. I also want the software to run on a tablet to make my music library more portable.

Your responses suggest that Sibelius First (a lot cheaper than the full-blown version) will do all that I want, but does anyone know whether it is suitable for use on a tablet running Windows 8.1?


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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2014, 04:20:39 PM »

The only thing  I have against Sibelius is its extreme cost!  >:(
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2014, 05:21:55 PM »

I can't afford £400 for the full version, but Sibelius First is available on eBay for about £60, which I could manage, if it is worth the money. It is not clear from the positive responses about Sibelius whether they refer to the full version or to First. I would appreciate some specific feedback about Sibelius First or about other software in that price range that people have found useful.
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2014, 05:42:56 PM »

Right, here's a question. Is there a programme that will produce written music, from a sound file?
I should add, that I have downloaded Tunepal, and it has yet to correctly identify any tune, I have whistled, sung, or played, to it.


John
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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2014, 06:21:34 PM »

I've been looking into transcription software recently but my general conclusion has been: it's really difficult!
Getting written music from a sound file reliably is pretty much impossible, however I thought there must at least be something which could plot the pitch over time, but the best I've managed to find is a Python library which might allow me to do that myself. The biggest problem with automatically notating the sound is the multiple layers; if you use a tuner application on a tune it'll most likely only pick up the bass notes/accompaniment for most of the tune.

I might have a bash at writing something myself at some point. I've managed it manually so far by slowing the audio down a lot, filtering for a select range to remove the bass etc, and then trying to roughly identify notes. Luckily I only have to do that for really awkward tunes these days, as it's pretty time consuming, and I've gotten a bit better at listening and picking things out by ear.

It may not recognize your accent ;) ;D ::)

This was a hilarious problem when Nintendo tried to bring out a voice-controlled game called Hey You, Pikachu! in the UK. It worked fine in Japan and I believe in the US, but it fell short when it met anyone north of Oxford >:E
« Last Edit: October 31, 2014, 06:23:39 PM by robotmay »
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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #15 on: October 31, 2014, 07:10:13 PM »

I've been using Music Publisher (mup) for at least 14 years and the latest version does almost everything I want. It is reasonably priced, certainly a lot less than Sibelius. The abc feature isn't as good as it could be but if you understand abc it is easy to do the editing. MUP produces midi, mp3, and wav files very easily -even I have managed those! So would I recommend itas a notation package? Most definitely. Just hunt for it on the web and download it to try it and pay later when you've tried it out.

Nigel
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syale

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #16 on: October 31, 2014, 08:23:52 PM »

Right, here's a question. Is there a programme that will produce written music, from a sound file?
I should add, that I have downloaded Tunepal, and it has yet to correctly identify any tune, I have whistled, sung, or played, to it.


John

One thing you have to remember with Tunepal, you can set the fundamental key from the options (click on the spanner (wrench) in the top right to get to options). You can also set set a key independent search with this caveat... "key independent search searches will find tunes in any key, played in any key but are much less accurate"

Stephen
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Lyra

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #17 on: November 01, 2014, 10:25:43 AM »

I use Scorecloud express on my ipad for musical dictation but more as a fun thing than in anger. The problem is that it is basically too accurate - it writes precisely what you play - so if your timing is a bit out, it writes it that way. The results vary from hilarious to actually not bad at all (that's mainly from other people playing). I've only used it for whistle tunes, though - not sure how it copes with chords.
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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #18 on: November 01, 2014, 11:09:05 AM »

If you want scoring software cheaper than Sibelius, musescore is worth a try. Multi platform and free.
See http://musescore.org
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Music notation software
« Reply #19 on: November 01, 2014, 12:50:06 PM »

Thanks, Anahata, for suggesting musescore. I have just checked out their website and it looks interesting. However, it states that it does not allow editing facilities on mobile platforms. If this includes tablets, then that would be a major drawback  for me as I want to be able to note down tunes and edit them on the tablet I am about to buy just as soon as my bank balance has recovered from the shock administered to it this week by M. Clément Guais!.

I've also had a look at Lyra's suggestion of Scorecloud, but the reviews say it has several annoying bugs and charges you for certain hidden extras. The overall verdict of one reviewer was "in general it is pretty bare bones in terms of notes, articulations, and such."

In fairness, these are both free programmes and you get what you pay for, so it looks as though I will need to pay a bit more for what I want. So, I have decided to download the trial version of Sibelius First and see whether that suits my needs.
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