Software at your service

[TimSharrock]

More interesting would be to wonder why we techies call you lot "users", as if you were junkies looking for a fix through using our software

but mcb is a user, at least, I don't think he has written a single music typesetting program....

I have (in FORTRAN, if I recall correctly), and even set some of mcb's music with it, many years ago.... but now I use Noteworthy Composer which is relatively simple and cheap, but may be forced to get a Silbelius for Theo, so he can use the same system at home and at school

[Nick Baty]

This appears to be PC based. Tim, you are being ensnared by Satan's pomps. We will pray for your deliverance.

[Psalm Project]

Finale (and its various manifestations) wedded to Mac... Heaven on earth!

[TimSharrock]

This appears to be PC based. Tim, you are being ensnared by Satan's pomps. We will pray for your deliverance.

Noteworthy is, I'm afraid. Even on my little netbook I have Windows now, but I nearly chose a Linux one

The music-setting program I wrote was on a mainframe, driving a plotter, if that is any better.

My brother-in-law has a mac, as does my best man... does that count?

[Nick Baty]

My brother-in-law has a mac, as does my best man... does that count?

As least you're mixing with the Elect!

[musicus]

The music-setting program I wrote was on a mainframe, driving a plotter, if that is any better.

Impressive. Did you wear a white coat too? I bet the output looked good though.

Can anyone recommend any notation software other than Finale and Sibelius? Please share the pros and cons.

[HallamPhil]

Earlier in this discussion there was mention of the possibility of transfer of documents between finale and sibelius. I tend to use finale because that's what I'm familiar with but recently was given sibelius by another composer whose works I occasionally process. I have a blind choir member who uses sibelius and find no problem in passing docs created in finale to him a sib files. I merely export as xml which can be read by sibelius and then save as the earlier sibelius programme he owns. he is then able to read the music quite easily and sing it beautifully!

[PaulW]

This appears to be PC based. Tim, you are being ensnared by Satan's pomps. We will pray for your deliverance.

I once heard it asked whether people who need Macs are Anoraks…

…may be forced to get a Silbelius for Theo, so he can use the same system at home and at school

I've used Finale for ages. When I first bought it, Sibelius didn't run on Windoze and there really wan't anything else that could do what I needed. Interestingly enough, now that my children are old enough all to have been through music GCSE and having been using Sibelius in school, they prefer Finale, without any prompting from me. Perhaps it is just in our genes! However, they didn't have any problem transporting files from home to school, but could not easily get Sibelius files into Finale, eventually resorting to exporting MIDI and then reading this at home - no good for pieces with text

Is Finale perfect? Nope! Would anything else be better? Not for me. It allows me to set the music that I need to set, including neumes for chant, and to export the music at a high-enough resolution to satisfy the printer for Music and Liturgy, and I can do this very quickly and accurately. Even on a PC, Nick.

Has anyone looked at Igor?

[gwyn]

Paul said;

... Finale ... allows me to set the music that I need to set, including neumes for chant ,

Fantastic. I hadn't realised that Finale had a neume font. Which version of Finale do you use Paul?
Gwyn.

[PaulW]

The chant notation is a plug-in - and it's not free. It's been available for some years now.
You can read about it here.

[John Ainslie]

There's an excellent free chant notation package available from http://gregoire.tele.free.fr

[Nick Baty]

I can do this very quickly and accurately. Even on a PC, Nick

Apart from the 20,000 degrees in computer technology needed to even switch the damned things on.
Being a bear of very little brain, I'll stick with the easier option.
(Although I have conceded one small point and now – occasionally – use Word, nasty though it is. But I do go to confession afterwards!)

[Psalm Project]

OH... have you ever had the annoyance of Word causing the mac to freeze that application on exit and cause you to 'force quit'?
Never happens in Mac 'Pages' - Excel also does that trick (I bought office for Mac last year - some of my friends use those applications). Unlike a PC, which crashes completely or goes into blue screen spasm, on my mac all other open applications run happily while the Microsoft applications go frigid!
Mac is... well... erm, perfect!

[Nick Baty]

Mac is... well... erm, perfect!

Ah! A fellow disciple!

[Psalm Project]

A hymn springs to mind... Liz Poston... you know the one... Jesus Christ the Apple tree... See?
I'm sure there is something in the psalms about 'Apple of my eye'...
The majority of my clerical friends use mac...
If Carlsberg made computers... they would taste like cider!
Do I feel an 'uh oh' coming on?
I must stop!