Notation software advice, what would you recommend?

[Mornats]

Hey basschatters,

My bass tutor is very sensibly getting me to start notating music (listening to it by ear, working it out and writing it down) - which is fantastic, and I've decided that I need to start notating my own music. so, for the tasks my tutor's set for me, I want to write it down on blank sheet music paper so I'm not getting any help but for my own stuff I'd like to have some software where I can pop the notes down and have it create a midi file so that I can play it back so make sure it sounds like what I think it should.

Any advice on which software I could use? I'm PC-based but do have a MacbookPro but my preference is very much for PC software. I don't mind paying but something less than £50 would be ideal.

Cheers!

[MrTaff]

I use Tuxguitar, it's not perfect but it works well enough for transcribing, plus it's free.

[pietruszka]

I use finale notepad, also free and you can play what you write back to your self (which I'm sure you can on all programs). The only downside is that you can't save it as a pdf to up load on to here say, or change the key signature or time signature in the middle of a transcription.
I'll check out Tuxguitar.



Dan

[Doddy]

I use Sibelius,although it's out of your price range. ....I use a pen and manuscript paper a lot
more though.

[stingrayPete1977]

I have Musescore which does exactly what you want and I think its free!? In fact I think this was your recommendation Doddy when I posted a similar thread over a year ago?

[stingrayPete1977]

In fact......http://musescore.org/

[lowdown]

If you want to go to £83.00 [download price] new kid on the block [b]'Notion 4'[/b]
It comes with a very nice sample library - And all the Instruments are mapped out to staffs, so no setting up.
It is very easy to use and has Jazz fonts as well as all the usual engraving fonts.

All dynamic and articulation markings are mapped to the samples, so you will get a great idea of how it will really sound.
Especially useful on Orchestral or Big Band arranging.
I have been using Sibelius up until now, but not sure where future upgrades are going now that the London office has been shut down.


[url="http://www.notionmusic.com/products/notion4.html"]http://www.notionmus...ts/notion4.html[/url]

Garry

Edited January 13, 2013 by lowdown

[charic]

Tuxguitar and power tab user here for bass and guitar related stuff.

[Bilbo]

Another Sibelius user here

[Mornats]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, there's a few here for me to try out. I did notice a Sibelius First which is around £90 - still more than I wanted to pay really but perhaps another option...

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1358103114' post='1933195']
Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, there's a few here for me to try out. I did notice a Sibelius First which is around £90 - still more than I wanted to pay really but perhaps another option...
[/quote]
Well musescore is free and does what you said in the op, takes a few seconds to download and easy to uninstall if you decide to upgrade, I have been reading for two years on and off and its far far far more advanced than me

[lowdowner]

GuitarPro 6... not sure how much though as it's a while since I bought it - very easy to use, different bass sounds, can be used for other instruments and drums too. Very capable and really recommended.

[oggiesnr]

I'm another musescore user. It works fine although it has it's indiosyncracies, the MIDI playback is really useful and the fact that it was free was a big bonus.

Steve

[JamesBass]

Sibelius user since I migrated on to a MacBook, however on PC I used guitar pro[b] [edit] [/b]might be worth it as that way you'll get a look and feel for free?

Edited January 14, 2013 by charic
Suggestion of pirating software

[JapanAxe]

I use Sibelius First - bought it bundled with an M-Audio keyboard for less than the software on its own, then flogged the keyboard. Net cost - less than £30 IIRC.

[visog]

Try Cakewalk Music Creator. You can get it new for £35ish or older versions are cheaper. It has a good score editor with multiple clefs and its not a bad entry level sequencer for playing your bass into and recording. (You'll need an audio interface for a good signal for that if its something you want to do but that can come later.)

The sequencer (and soft synths) it comes with means you can set up practise tracks with drums too.

Main negative is that it doesn't notate slap very well as this needs quite specific dynamic markngs for left-hand slaps, etc but for most music stave reading and writing its great.

Edited January 13, 2013 by visog

[skidder652003]

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1358106319' post='1933273']
Sibelius user since I migrated on to a MacBook, however on PC I used guitar pro, [b]SNIP[/b], might be worth it as that way you'll get a look and feel for free?
[/quote]
i was going to suggest that but bottled it!

[gelfin]

Sibelius here to. Also Photoscore which you use to scan music scores and import into sib . (can be a bit hit and miss though)

[Norris]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1358098191' post='1933088']
In fact......http://musescore.org/
[/quote]
+1
Had great fun over the weekend with this

Edit: In fact I was going to start a thread just to tell everyone how good Muse Score is.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Norris

[Dood]

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1358099226' post='1933116']
If you want to go to £83.00 [download price] new kid on the block [b]'Notion 4'[/b]
It comes with a very nice sample library - And all the Instruments are mapped out to staffs, so no setting up.
It is very easy to use and has Jazz fonts as well as all the usual engraving fonts.

All dynamic and articulation markings are mapped to the samples, so you will get a great idea of how it will really sound.
Especially useful on Orchestral or Big Band arranging.
I have been using Sibelius up until now, but not sure where future upgrades are going now that the London office has been shut down.


[url="http://www.notionmusic.com/products/notion4.html"]http://www.notionmus...ts/notion4.html[/url]

Garry
[/quote]

Look out for some news on Notion 4 soon. We are going to be having a look at it on the blog!

[paul_5]

I'd on Sibelius first and loving it. If you need to produce pdf files for posting online then why not just do a screenshot and tidy it up in a photo app?

[Skol303]

I use [url="http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/"]Tuxguitar[/url]. It's free and they have a penguin with a guitar as their logo. What's not to like?

I tried the demo of [url="http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php"]GuitarPro[/url] (£50) and thought it was great - at least for my fairly simple needs. But I don't write notation enough to warrant paying for it... yet.

[url="http://www.sibelius.com/home/index_flash.html"]Sibelius[/url] is what I always hear quoted as the being the favourite option among people who read/write on a regular basis.

Maybe start out using freeware and migrate to a commercial package once it warrants the $pend?

[lowdown]

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1358168987' post='1934065']
Look out for some news on Notion 4 soon. We are going to be having a look at it on the blog!
[/quote]

I hope it's not a discount - I just purchased and downloaded a few days ago..
Must say that it is great, very easy to use and the bundled sounds are very usable [Orchestral, Jazz and Rock]
Easy to import Sibelius and Finale files using Music XML files with good results, leaving all the articulations intact.
Nice clean PDF export as well.
Has Sequencer style MIDI underlay, so you can do velocity style editing.
You can also import Audio files into the project, and export the score as an Audio file as well as MIDI or XML.

With Sibelius being up in the air at the moment after the takeover, i just went for it.

Garry

[Dood]

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1358170450' post='1934108']
I hope it's not a discount - I just purchased and downloaded a few days ago..
Must say that it is great, very easy to use and the bundled sounds are very usable [Orchestral, Jazz and Rock]
Easy to import Sibelius and Finale files using Music XML files with good results, leaving all the articulations intact.
Nice clean PDF export as well.
Has Sequencer style MIDI underlay, so you can do velocity style editing.
You can also import Audio files into the project, and export the score as an Audio file as well as MIDI or XML.

With Sibelius being up in the air at the moment after the takeover, i just went for it.

Garry
[/quote]

Not a discount this time but we've recently blogged about winning a copy: (Now closed) [url="http://blog.basschat.co.uk/win-a-copy-of-notion-4-0-with-rockschool/"]http://blog.basschat...ith-rockschool/[/url]

[oggiesnr]

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1358169823' post='1934078']
I'd on Sibelius first and loving it. If you need to produce pdf files for posting online then why not just do a screenshot and tidy it up in a photo app?
[/quote]

If you need to produce a pdf then download a program (I use CutePDF) which acts as a printer option ie when you go to print you select cutpdf as your printer and it then asks you where to save it and under what name.I regularly produce music and artwork for off-site printing this way and I've never had a problem.

Steve