Music notation software recommendations? (1 Viewer)

[Eagle Mum]

I’d like to buy the best possible music notation software as an aid for HSC compositions. The local high school uses Flat which seems limited. The music teacher uses Sibelius software. We are thinking of purchasing Sibelius Ultimate, but wondering if anyone would recommend any other software (based on features rather than cost).

Sibelius Ultimate is available on a monthly subscription basis & subscribers apparently have access to software updates, however has anyone purchased Sibelius Ultimate as an upfront purchase - did you have to pay any additional costs to get software updates?

 

[idkkdi]

I’d like to buy the best possible music notation software as an aid for HSC compositions. The local high school uses Flat which seems limited. The music teacher uses Sibelius software. We are thinking of purchasing Sibelius Ultimate, but wondering if anyone would recommend any other software (based on features rather than cost).

Sibelius Ultimate is available on a monthly subscription basis & subscribers apparently have access to software updates, however has anyone purchased Sibelius Ultimate as an upfront purchase - did you have to pay any additional costs to get software updates?

musescore is decent and free.

not sure about how it stacks up to sibelius ultimate tho.

 

[Eagle Mum]

musescore is decent and free.

not sure about how it stacks up to sibelius ultimate tho.

Thanks very much for the MuseScore suggestion. I looked it up - the fact that it is open source would be terrific for the future if/when he’s better at programming. For the HSC though (I probably don’t need to tell you), ‘off the shelf’ software with features and capacity that comfortably exceed imaginable requirements would save a lot of valuable time.

 

[quickoats]

Thanks very much for the MuseScore suggestion. I looked it up - the fact that it is open source would be terrific for the future if/when he’s better at programming. For the HSC though (I probably don’t need to tell you), ‘off the shelf’ software with features and capacity that comfortably exceed imaginable requirements would save a lot of valuable time.

It’s open source but by no means “rough” and requires zero programming experience. Very intuitive to use so try it out before you pay for any of the more expensive options.

Musescore is probably easier for a student to grasp use than Finale or Sibelius which is a time saving feature in itself.

 

[Eagle Mum]

musescore is decent and free.

not sure about how it stacks up to sibelius ultimate tho.

It’s open source but by no means “rough” and requires zero programming experience. Very intuitive to use so try it out before you pay for any of the more expensive options.

Musescore is probably easier for a student to grasp use than Finale or Sibelius which is a time saving feature in itself.

With two votes for MuseScore, I’ll certainly pass on the recommendations. Thank you!
Could you please comment on how Finale and Sibelius stack up against each other? In particular, have you been able to hybridise the use of one of these commercial packages with MuseScore to get the best of more than one program?

 

[Eagle Mum]

After QO’s comments about potential difficulties with Finale & Sibelius, I found this reddit thread ‘Choosing a notation software: MuseScore v Finale v Sibelius v Dorico’ but now am even more stumped about the choices. Reading about the history of Sibelius/Dorico software developers, the latter is supposedly more user friendly because its developers learned from their experience with Sibelius, but it’s a relatively new product. Would love to hear from anyone who has experience with Dorico (including anyone who’s done HSC Music focused on composition).

 

[quickoats]

With two votes for MuseScore, I’ll certainly pass on the recommendations. Thank you!
Could you please comment on how Finale and Sibelius stack up against each other? In particular, have you been able to hybridise the use of one of these commercial packages with MuseScore to get the best of more than one program?

Opinion is based on googling finale and sibelius and thinking their interface looked a little bit confusing.

Think of it a bit like Photoshop or Facetune. Yes, Photoshop is the *better* editing tool and is much more powerful program, but the free Facetune app is easier to use and if all you want to do is edit your instagram posts, there is no point going for Photoshop as it's going to take more effort to learn the difficult 'professional' system.

I wouldn't think it's super easy to use more than one program since each would (probably) have their own proprietary file extension which may make going in between programs a challenge.

 

[Eagle Mum]

Thanks idkkdi & quickoats for taking the time to reply.
Definitely will ask him to try MuseScore. Still intend to buy a commercial product but will heed your advice and not buy the top of line product straightaway, but get him to trial the free starters to see which user interface he likes best. I note that MuseScore also does have a Pro commercial product as well.

 

[Great Southern Land]

I think Noteflight is a pretty good music notation software. I haven't done music for 3 years now but I really liked it.