[ANN] Ten Music Notation Programs, second edition

[jrethorst]

each program's defaults represent a set of decisions made by that program's designers as to the best that program can offer. Why would the designers do anything else?

If only this were true, at least, in the case of Finale. There have been numerous threads on this site that have discussed the shortcomings of the Finale defaults. Why would the designers allow this? I have no idea. But I do know that there are many settings that have to be modified to be able to produce professionally acceptable output in Finale.

Good point. Meaning no disparagement to the many people who love the program, Finale IMHO is due for a serious rewrite. The Finale sample in this document looks good to me, though, so I'm guessing that the professional engraver from VSL Music did not follow all the defaults. Maybe the program's designers feel that changing too much would distract the current user base, I don't know.

[jrethorst]

Small further clarification. Most of the contributors would take issue with any suggestion that their engravings are any less than top shelf professional quality. Six are music publishers; two (including Daniel Spreadbury) are music software developers; one is a composer; one designs music fonts. Many accepted the invitation to contribute partly as a way to showcase their work.

[jrethorst]

Sorry that the link to the file managed to disappear. It's now here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19Ar9it ... share_link

[Fred G. Unn]

I had forgotten about that comparison. I would be curious to see an updated version, especially to see how a knowledgeable MS4 user would handle it.

[MichelRE]

it would certainly be nice to have an updated version, considering Dorico is now Dorico 4, and Finale is up to... what, Finale 28? I've forgotten their naming convention.

and do all of those programs still exist? are they all being actively supported and developed?

[Fred G. Unn]

and do all of those programs still exist? are they all being actively supported and developed?

Encore supposedly has a new version on the way. Their site still states "Fall 2022" though, so we'll see. Graphire Music Press and SCORE are pretty dead, although still have their legacy users. Graphire's site hasn't been updated since 2000. I guess Overture 5 is still around, but I don't personally know anyone using it.

[jrethorst]

> Encore supposedly has a new version on the way. Their site still states "Fall 2022" though, so we'll see.

Their site shows something that looks like Overture 5 and lists a bunch of features. Does anyone know where this will fit in the Overture -- Score Writer (i.e. Overture lite) lineup?

[jrethorst]

> Graphire Music Press and SCORE are pretty dead, although still have their legacy users.

Someone named Mansfield bought Graphire and is now selling it for $40. I think there was something on this forum about it. Email address for inquiries would be something at mansfield.com. IIRC it runs on some recent version of Windows; the Mac version runs in the classic OS9 environment, which the Sheepshaver emulator handles well.

[jrethorst]

> Graphire Music Press and SCORE are pretty dead, although still have their legacy users.

Don't at least half the publishers who still do their own engraving use Score? I guess it's no longer for sale, at least by a company? Maybe Ebay has it . . .

[jrethorst]

> I would be curious to see an updated version, especially to see how a knowledgeable MS4 user would handle it.

I'd like to see it in MS4.