Notation/arranging Program?, What's good entry level? Options

[GeorgeMack]

I'm an amateur musician/arranger longer on theory than equipment, and so far I've been using an entry level music notation and scoring progam called MusicTime. I now have a Midi keyboard and want to connect up to the G4 so that I don't have to manually click in every friggin note and chord.

So far I haven't been able to get the Yamaha UX16 to connect with my program through the USB port (although OMS does see the translator box the keyboard is isolated from both send and receive) and the demo for Finale doesn't either.

does anyone know a good entry level program that is USB aware, for notation/arrangement/scoring? At my level, performance is a bit over my needs. (I usually export midi to Quicktime for playback once I have an arrangement.)

I appreciate any advice, and my price comfort level is probably US$ 300 or so.

Thanks George

[Synthetic]

I might suggest looking at Emagic Logic Audio Silver that is about $300. It will allow you to record performance or you can add note by note and it has lots of nice features for midi composing such as chord memory and groove quantizing. Actually the program is really in depth and loaded with features and may take you some time to get comfortable but it may be worth it in the long run. You can edit midi by either using grid or by actual score as well.

info found here Emagic Website

if you want a suggestion for purchase... try either Musicians Friend or Sweetwater as these are the online retailers I use most. Sweetwater has best customer support and M.F. has good prices.

[GeorgeMack]

Thanks Synthetic. I'll take a look at it.

My 3 chief requirements are printable scores (I do some choir arrangements and small jazz ensembles) and that it accept MIDI input (for speed.) Decent playback, either through the MIDI instrument or Quicktime synth, is the other thing.

An entry level program running $299 is Mark of the Unicorns's Performer. I was instructed from the Tech support crew of Sweetwater.com that it is a great program and is pretty versatile, along with having printable sheet music.


Check it:

http://www.motu.com/english/software/perfo...ormer/body.html

[ghess]

If your primary goal is printed music, use a notation program such as Finale or Sibelius. Logic and Performer are primarily sequencers with limited print capablility as compared with true notation programs. Both Finale and Sibelius have MIDI input and playback. Reading your original post, I suspect the problem you had was with your OMS configuration. If the USB MIDI interface is present in the config, connect the MIDI IN and OUT of your synth icon to the MIDI Interface icon. Be sure to set Finale to use OMS under MIDI:MIDI setup.
That said, if I was choosing a notation program and had no background in either, I would choose Sibelius. It's more intuitive, has a more modern interface and has considerably better MIDI playback.

[GeorgeMack]

I've peeked at Finale but I'll also check out Sibelius. So far I've used an entry level progrm called MusicTime, which plays back in Quicktime and is pretty good for printing.

However, I've had no joy trying to use an USB-Midi connection with it. (Maybe an OMS issue since the Finale demo won't do it either. I'd love to here from a Finale user with USB midi how they have things set up.)

Unless I can get USB to actually reach the instrument, I guess I'll havw to keep on point-and-clicking in my notes, or else get a serial Midi interface.

Thanks to all for your advice

[jockreby2000]

If you find that Music Time is basically OK for your needs, then you could use PrintMusic, which is basically a stripped-down version of Finale. Cheaper and easy to use than the full version, though of course with less options. Or you could use the free Finale Notepad. The print quality of both of these is much better than MusicTime.

The full version of Finale should be able to import your MusicTime files (as they are basically stripped-down Encore files, IIRC).

The other thing about PrintMusic is that you can open Finale files in it, and vice versa. So if you decide to upgrade to a higher version in the future, it shouldn't be a problem.

Coda

Good luck with it anyway.

[GeorgeMack]

Thanks I'll check that out as well. Anyone have experience with USB-connected MIDI with this program??

[Doug Miner]

I have used ENCORE, FINALE and now SIBELIUS. For someone new to notation software, I would say that SIBELIUS is currently the best way to go for ease of use and very nice looking output, plus it has the best MIDI implementation of any notation program and it works in Mac OS X. Less powerful than FINALE, but more automated and generally faster.