Making Notes

[OCTO]

http://blog.steinberg.net/

I know that this blog is devoted to the development of a future software, however I strongly recommend it.
Many great thoughts on music notation can be found there (maybe not what we all agree), and what I like the most is a modest approach of the author.
Daniel S names other notation software as "products" which makes completely sense for me, and with completely neutral criticism of "products"s characteristics.

[wess-music]

The blog is really very interesting.
But as far as know, Daniel S. is going to generate software more or less closer to Sibelius rather than to Finale (or something else we could compare at the moment). I am reading very carefully his ideas and what he told me in private correspondence (soon after I finished my Henle-like font "Vintage GHMA" which I am glad that you already use it) is that the first version is going to be something very intuitive and easy to work with, not a time consuming like Finale for instance.

Few days ago I read that he has made the first presentation of the program in USA.
What I like most from the samples I've seen – the legato bows, Bravura font, the allotment (music spacing) plus the beams.
He told me that the initial version will have no any kind of graphic editor, which for me means that it will be dedicated more or less to the enthusiast. Most probably, on some further level of development, he (Daniel) might want to add more versatile options, but since we've not seen it yet, I would only wish great success to Daniel.
I hope it will be a pretty good alternative.

[John Ruggero]

Ease of use and powerful are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and I too am hoping for the best for his project.

[OCTO]

I am really looking forward to see it!

[Vaughan]

I've been following Daniel Spreadbury's blog with much interest and fascination, as well. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the release of his program with great anticipation. Fin and Sib are both very old programs and still full of legacy code and throwbacks to old user interfaces and remnants of old system workarounds. The whole idea of using a program of this complexity which has been designed and written completely from the ground up is a thrilling prospect. Following the blog makes one realise how compex music notation is and how many factors have to be taken into account and I find it very encouraging to read about the new ways Making Notes is trying to deal with perennial problems, beyond what either Fin or Sib are capable of.

[VaughanM]

Ease of use and powerful are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and I too am hoping for the best for his project.

Indeed, but when typesetting any real-world music, something will soon come up that needs to be different to a program’s default. You find the tweak, hopefully commit it to memory, and that’s what the real learning curve is. I think music notation is too diverse in content and possible appearance to be otherwise. Becoming a seasoned user is working out what tweaks suit your particular corner of music.

It’s great, though, that Daniel S. & Steinberg are thinking hard about issues that have not necessarily been addressed by makers of other software packages. Carefully thought-out default settings could create a lot more beauty/less ugliness for relatively little effort.

[Vaughan]

Carefully thought-out default settings could create a lot more beauty/less ugliness for relatively little effort.

Amen!