typesetting programs

Moderator: kcleung

Post Reply
samthegreat
regular poster
Posts: 39
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:56 pm
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Jacksonville, FL, US

typesetting programs

Post by samthegreat »

Heyo!

Does anyone have a recommendation on the best typesetting program to use? I am looking for something with plenty of keyboard shortcuts, but with the capabilities of using modern notations (spoken-notes, glissandos, etc). Sibelius, Finale, Lilypond...?
daphnis
Copyright Reviewer
Posts: 1635
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 7:15 pm
notabot: 42
notabot2: Human

Post by daphnis »

Finale and Sibelius are both great but both have their quirks. Test drive a demo of each to form your own opinion.
Yagan Kiely
Site Admin
Posts: 1139
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:16 am
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Perth, Australia
Contact:

Post by Yagan Kiely »

From experience, Sibelius has more shortcuts, but Finale's shortcuts are better.

They are just more logical (to me) and easier to use.


Score is also very good.
http://www.scoremus.com/

It pretty much does absolutely anything, but it is the opposite of user friendly.

For example: http://www.scoremus.com/gifexm.html
ras1
active poster
Posts: 164
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:28 pm

Post by ras1 »

I really like Lilypond, which can do almost anything, but is a total pain to learn. If you have quite a bit of experience, you can actually typeset quite a bit quicker than with Finale or Sibelius.

Bad part: The only way to listen to what you wrote is with a pretty low-quality midi, and it won't play the notes as you put them in. It's really better for typesetting than composing. Oh, and since the whole thing is text based, no keyboard shortcuts (or does that mean that everything is a keyboard shortcut?).
Vivaldi
active poster
Posts: 407
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:54 pm
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Malaysia

Post by Vivaldi »

Although Lilypond requires a steep learning curve, I really like it as the engraving is comparable to traditional music engraving.
samthegreat
regular poster
Posts: 39
Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2007 11:56 pm
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Jacksonville, FL, US

-

Post by samthegreat »

That sounds like what I'm going for (Lilypond). The majority of typesetting I will be doing will be arranging original musical theatre scores. I don't mind a learning curve; any of these programs will take getting used to, but I want to be able to type quickly eventually. (I'm a ninja with Noteworthy Composer, but the program is just too limited to be useful with my current projects).
Yagan Kiely
Site Admin
Posts: 1139
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 8:16 am
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Perth, Australia
Contact:

Post by Yagan Kiely »

(I'm a ninja with Noteworthy Composer, but the program is just too limited to be useful with my current projects).
Ditto! Easiest program to use and do things quickly, shame it is limited.
Vivaldi
active poster
Posts: 407
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:54 pm
notabot: YES
notabot2: Bot
Location: Malaysia

Post by Vivaldi »

You can also try Encore. The engraving is quite nice and it uses a Windows Graphical Interface like Finale.
Post Reply