Music writing software?, What do you use? Options

[teacherterri]

Okay, if no one uses Sibelius what programs are you guys finding useful for arranging and printing music?

Thanks,
tt

[kaboombahchuck]

Metro 5 by Cakewalk

[macmax]

Logic Audio Platinum.
Has the most developed Score functions of all the major sequencers, which should endear it to a sibelius user, Its also , for my money at least, the most powerful and useable midi and audio production package in existance.
It is always a personal thing i suppose, and you will hear a lot of people advocating Cubase and Digital Performer as well as Protools.
I can also add , that i have PT and Cubase as well as logic.
Protools is probably the best AUDIO package but lacks real weight in its midi department.
Cubase seems less efficient with processor power and a little more prone to glitches and crashes than logic, especially when running short on RAM .
Logic is the best all rounder.Has the most powerfull midi editing functions, and While it is quite complex, its only coz it does so much, and if one approaches it a stage at a time , its no harder than any other app to learn.
Sibelius V2 is very good, as a music DTP app, and a great improvement over V1, but for all round performance Logic's the one for me.
max

[superoland]

Don't agree with what you say : wrong !

Best is Cubase score even though I hate Cubase and never use it for audio stuff.
But score functions work much better and produce much better and accurate results than Logic.

I f we talk Notation of course.

On the Midi side, logic kills cubase. No questions.

[geedoubleyou]

Check out Finale from Coda, http://www.codamusic.com/coda/

They specialize in music notation software, and they have a free version Finale Notepad with a reduced feature set. So you can try before you buy.

It also depends on your application. Are you starting with a blank page and placing notes on the staff? Or are you creating midi files, that you want notation for?

If you are doing midi files, be aware that the apps have to analyze the performance. Depending on the sequencer resolution setting, and quantize settings, the results may vary using the same data. You may have to do some editing to make the notation accurate.

I prefer DP3's notation over Cubase, seemed more accurate to me.

;0

[teacherterri]

Hey thanks for the replies. geedoubleyou, for the most part I want to use a midi to play one line of music at a time then be able to go in and fix or manipulate, definitely transpose, etc. I would love it if I could scan in a page of music then manipulate it. I heard you could do that with the new Sibelius. I have used Finale's Allegro but can't do all the stuff I need to with that, like incomplete measures for example. Finale seems way more complicated than I want to deal with most of the time but I have used it some. I haven't looked at note pad though. I'll do that.
I would like to know more about Cubase. Does anyone know if there are trial versions of that available?

Thanks...