TKenrick Posted September 25, 2023 Share Posted September 25, 2023 My faithful laptop has died after 11 years of service, so I'm exploring new options for notation software. I've been using Sibelius 6 exclusively since 2006 on pretty much a daily basis, but I'm not keen on forking out for Avid's new subscription model. Lots of my students use Musescore and seem to like it, Dorico SE seems to be a viable alternative, too. Does anyone have any experience/opinions on any of the above? I don't need tons of bells and whistles, just the ability to write out bass parts and the occasional guitar ensemble arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted September 25, 2023 Share Posted September 25, 2023 (edited) I have had Encore (quick), Finale (very capable & very complicated), and finally, Musescore. Muse has quite good support via their web. There's nice selection of arrangements available (of varying quality, naturally). What I like in it is that it is pretty straightforward after learning its style to make scores. Some details may be hard to understand in the beginning (triplets, oh dear), but it is doable. What I dislike is triplets; some things you do seldom can be found fastest by trial and error. It is not super complicated like Finale, it has more features than Encore. Pricing is decent, too. Edited September 25, 2023 by itu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisDev Posted September 25, 2023 Share Posted September 25, 2023 5 hours ago, TKenrick said: ... but I'm not keen on forking out for Avid's new subscription model.... They still have the perpetual license too. They just hide it a bit https://shop.avid.com/ccrz__ProductDetails?rdp=1626729518559&sku=SBDYNAP1001&viewState=DetailView&cclcl=en_US https://shop.avid.com/ccrz__ProductDetails?rdp=1626729518559&sku=SBDYNAP2000&viewState=DetailView&cclcl=en_US The additional upgrades are a waste of money 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoirBass Posted September 28, 2023 Share Posted September 28, 2023 I finally gave in and signed up 3 years ago to the Sibelius licence having used it for all my transcriptions for about 15-20 odd years. Whilst the latest version is ‘better’ it’s fundamentally the same a Sibelius 6. The one thing I really like though is that I can now manipulate all my .sib files on my iPad which has been a life saver on gigs. - not sure that feature is worth the expense though. I’d also be interested to hear what alternatives there are for transcribing simple bass lines that can be saved out as pdf’s 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnR Posted September 29, 2023 Share Posted September 29, 2023 Dorico all the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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