Music editing - MuseScore

[Boilk]

I’m not especially quick with Muse but for me certainly better than writing it out, and for amending or changing my mind for harmonies. Like most things the more I use it the more efficient I get - but I still have those ‘now how do I do that’ moments. Very good for transposing. What I could do with is a way of copying pdf music scores into Muse.

I use MuseScore, because it was free to download and use. Recently updated the software and happily found it has an improved piano sound, to rival Sibelius's. But it does have some annoyances - will keep my old version of Sibelius for sure.

[Dave2002]

I'm not sure either.
I have V6
I would find 16 staves too restricting even when i'm making cheesy arrangements for my village band (alternative clarinet parts for those who started playing 6 months ago and a mixture of clefs for those who are used to brass band style parts etc etc).
I'm not keen on any software that requires internet access to work....I often work in quite remote places (bits of Scotland) and off to India in January where I have no idea whether I will have internet where I'm working ...(it looks like one of the gigs might be in a tent in the Rajasthani desert )

Too many software vendors are pushing this subscription "scam" now. I notice that another program I have - Gemini - for finding duplicates, which morphed into Gemini II (which I didn't buy), is now "on offer" - but look at the small print - 1 year subscription!

I looked at the review page you linked to for different edit systems. I was surprised to see mention of Lilypond, which I never quite got to grips with. I have used LaTeX quite extensively in the past, but I figured it was just too awkward for music. Some people seem to recommend Dorico, which still seems to be available as a stand alone package, and seems to have been written by developers originally working for Avid (Sibelius). It possibly has a lot in common with earlier versions of Sibelius. There is now also Dorico Elements - see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steinberg-D...dp_ob_title_ce (around £80-£90) about which I know relatively little. Might be worth investigating/considering for a stand alone system.

[Richard Barrett]

Some people seem to recommend Dorico, which still seems to be available as a stand alone package, and seems to have been written by developers originally working for Avid (Sibelius). It possibly has a lot in common with earlier versions of Sibelius.

No it doesn't, it's really based on a different approach. It might eventually end up being better than Sibelius but so far it's quite limited in comparison.

[MrGongGong]

No it doesn't, it's really based on a different approach. It might eventually end up being better than Sibelius but so far it's quite limited in comparison.

That's what I heard as well
One of the things I learn't from a visit to STEIM a few years ago was to stop thinking about software as always having to be the "new" thing. I met and worked with some folks who had been playing with the same patch/controllers for years rather than getting a new "toy" then doing a gig the next week with it before getting another new "toy" and so on.

If something works and does the things you need there is no need to get something new and have to start again..........i'm about to make a score for a gig on Saturday, i'm going to write it on postcards and place them round the building for folks to play when they encounter them.....and for that and sharpie is perfect...but for the 8 channel piece i'm going to use something else (actually Audiomulch which has been in the same version for many years.......)

Learning how to make non-playing graphics was a revelation for me using Sibelius, I don't really need it to play things back "accurately" .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No it doesn't, it's really based on a different approach. It might eventually end up being better than Sibelius but so far it's quite limited in comparison.

Unless I've remembered incorrectly, "earlier versions of SIBELIUS" had nothing to do with AVID?

[Dave2002]

Unless I've remembered incorrectly, "earlier versions of SIBELIUS" had nothing to do with AVID?

I’m pretty sure you’re right, but didn’t Avid get involved somewhere along the line?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Unless I've remembered incorrectly, "earlier versions of SIBELIUS" had nothing to do with AVID?

The Finn brothers (who developed Sibelius 7, Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7 Student - in that order, using the Acorn [RISCOS] operating system) eventually sold Sibelius to Avid, who actively developed it for a while, but then announced they weren't going to develop it further - then they did a partial U-turn, but marketing became confusing and remains so.

Dorico does seem to be very good, but as I'm still using the 1998 version of Sibelius 7, I'm not in too much of a hurry.

[MrGongGong]

I’m pretty sure you’re right, but didn’t Avid get involved somewhere along the line?

Sibelius was originally created by Ben and Jonathan Finn for the Acorn Archimedes.
Like other successful software made by enthusiasts it was bought buy a big corporation (AVID) in 2006
AVID then closed the UK offices and moved everything to the USA
It was a big controversy at the time and lots of protests
But you can't blame them for selling it .... the same thing happened to Cooledit which was bought by Adobe and lost some of its interesting (as esoteric ?) features in the process.

[MrGongGong]

The Finn brothers (who developed Sibelius 7, Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7 Student - in that order, using the Acorn [RISCOS] operating system) eventually sold Sibelius to Avid, who actively developed it for a while, but then announced they weren't going to develop it further - then they did a partial U-turn, but marketing became confusing and remains so.

Dorico does seem to be very good, but as I'm still using the 1998 version of Sibelius 7, I'm not in too much of a hurry.

Snap
I found that some of the versions past V6 (Sibelius 6 as opposed to the old 6) have lost some of the things I use most
they also describe the licensing in a rather tangled way so


£16.58 1-Year Subscription, Paid Monthly

Really means

£198.96 - 1 year subscription, paid monthly at £16.58 per month

[Dave2002]

Dorico does seem to be very good, but as I'm still using the 1998 version of Sibelius 7, I'm not in too much of a hurry.

From this I figure that you haven't actually bought or tried Dorico. Has anyone, who reads these posts - and who'd like to comment?

Looks like the previous version of Dorico Elements - currently in the region of £80-£90 - was limited to 12 instruments/staves. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steinberg-4...4874101&sr=8-1

Perhaps the newer one is similarly limited also. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steinberg-D...dp_ob_title_ce

[MrGongGong]

I have music to write so only watched the start
but this seems to sum up what I hate about Sibelius 7
I'm sticking to V6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKx1wnXClcI

[Dave2002]

I have music to write so only watched the start
but this seems to sum up what I hate about Sibelius 7
I'm sticking to V6


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKx1wnXClcI

Very entertaining - watch it when you have time. I wonder what Richard B thinks - hasn’t he got V8? Some of the issues look remarkably similar to those in MuseScore, which at least has the benefit of being free. The quick glimpse of Dorico in the video suggests that that one might actually be better.

Some of this software can be so complicated that only “expert” users can actually get it to work. OTOH that reminds me of playing some musical instruments - should we admire players for their skill at making the instruments sound so good, and playing “effortlessly” or should we castigate instrument makers for conning us into playing instruments which should have been designed and made better so that more people could play well? Software has only really been around for about 50-60 years so maybe it has a bit of a way to go yet.

[MrGongGong]

Some of this software can be so complicated that only “expert” users can actually get it to work. .

I think it's all down to what you want to do, whether you have the time to put in and whether you are interested enough.
Not much different to learning anything else really.
Sibelius in it's basic form isn't complicated. It's capable of lots of things that you might never use but how does one know what one might want or need ?
For an orchestral piece I wrote a few years ago I had to learn how to have non playing graphics. I wanted different staves to have different repeats, something that Sibelius (and all the other available software finds very hard or impossible, BUT is very simple with a piece of paper).... learning how to make things look right even though they are "unplayable" by a computer is sometimes necessary.

[Dave2002]

Import/Export data between music programs

Discovered yesterday that one of our group has some old software, which apparently isn't supported now. Not sure exactly what it is. However, he can scan in scores, and edit them. I noticed that MuseScore has several export/import modes. Two possibly useful exports are to midi and to musicxml. It may be that my friend can process musicxml files (import then edit or print) and possibly return them back to me.

I thought I'd try the midi export. It works immediately with Garageband (I know, I know ....) though the instrument assignments change. Having previously been through the "Reaper is much better" discussion, I thought I'd try Reaper again. Indeed the midi file can easily be loaded into Reaper, but then I hit a block which I note has been reported as a real put-off by others - there's no sound output. I've looked at documentation, and videos but it does look as though this is a major problem. Maybe it's very easy to fix, but until I know how to do it, I'm not going to get much further with this tool. Shame.

I suspect this is something I tripped up over before. If the input is midi, then to get sounds, the system needs to have some instruments set up, and a synthesiser.

[MrGongGong]

I thought I'd try the midi export. It works immediately with Garageband (I know, I know ....) though the instrument assignments change. Having previously been through the "Reaper is much better" discussion, I thought I'd try Reaper again. Indeed the midi file can easily be loaded into Reaper, but then I hit a block which I note has been reported as a real put-off by others - there's no sound output. .

You need to have a virtual instrument to play them in Reaper (or most other DAW)
Garageband is mostly virtual instruments so will work straight away.