Notation Software

[Rafael F. Compte]

Hi guys,

I'd like to enter the conversation on notation software. Music notation
is one of my main interests. As most classical musicians I am familiar
with Sibelius and Finale and i think I'll risk and say there is no
native replacement yet. After trying a few apps, nowadays I find myself
learning the Lilypond typesetting language, as i think it is really
versatile and a great choice, but not for everyone, because it is
totally different and more difficult, not to mention that most people
would really prefer a GUI. It would be incredible if there were a full
featured graphical front end. There's interesting and promising proyects
like Canorus but on an early stage of development. Most people will
probably agree that Rosegarden is the best choice as a graphical
notation program. It is very good and I really like it, but it is mostly
a sequencer. I'll quote The Rosegarden Handbook:

"Rosegarden aims to present scores with the best possible layout
compatible with its primary focus as a sequencer application. This means
that although the editor supports chords, overlapping and nested beamed
groups, triplets and arbitrary tuplets, grace notes, dynamics, accents,
text and so on, it does not provide as much fine control over layout
(especially in contrapuntal music) as a dedicated score editing program
might. Rosegarden does not aim to produce typeset-quality score,
although it can export LilyPond files, which may form a good basis for
typesetting."

So it doesn't really aim to be a full featured Lilypond front end but it
does provide a good set of features, however not a full set as the best
known proprietary software.

Yours truly,

Rafael F.