ttl@aura.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Laundrie) (10/22/90)
I've got a chance to buy the latest version of Music Printer Plus from Temporal Aquities(sp) for relatively cheap (a friend is selling out). Any reviews?
isaacso@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Eric J. Isaacson) (10/23/90)
ttl@aura.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Laundrie) writes: >I've got a chance to buy the latest version of Music Printer Plus from >Temporal Aquities(sp) for relatively cheap (a friend is selling out). >Any reviews? OK. Here's a real quickie. MPP, like any software, has strengths and weaknesses. Among its strengths are a very simple and easy to learn user interface. Notation symbols are attached to keys on the keyboard mnemonically. E.g., pressing c cycles through all the clef options. The real-time MIDI input is as good as in any other notation package I've seen, and better than most. Its palette of symbols is good for standard western music and pop music (although I haven't used it for this at all, so I could be mistaken). Plus, it's got good on-line help so you can virtually dispense with the manual. The drawbacks include relative weakness for pre-standard notation notation. It's got some stuff, but not enough to satisfy an early music person. If you're trying to do music analysis examples, it requires a good deal of fudge-work. Perhaps it would be easier to say that if you want to do serious music publishing or more esoteric sorts of stuff, you want Score or Finale. But for most purposes, it's a very good package. Version 4 is due out soon, I believe, and will include a number of significant enhancements in terms of interaction with sequencer files, improved printer control, more printer drivers, more text fonts (at least a header font which is apparently missing in the current version), and probably a number of other things. We bought a number of copies for the Indiana University School of Music precisely because it is easy to learn, which is important when, for example, you want students to be able to sit down and crank out their homework in a few hours without having to spend three weeks teaching how to work the program, and when faculty are reluctant to do the same themselves. Yet it also satisfies the needs of all but probably the serious composers and perhaps some theorists. (I have no vested interest in seeing TAP succeed or fail--I'm just reporting my person experiences with MPP.) Eric J. Isaacson (the other) Internet: isaacso@ucs.indiana.edu School of Music--Indiana Univ. NeXT Mail: isaacso@bartok.music.indiana.edu Bloomington, IN 47405 -- I am NOT the author of A86 and other -- (812) 855-7832(o)/333-1827(h) -- outstanding software...I wish I were... --
horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) (10/23/90)
Discussion of Music Printer Plus has led me to the following question,
which has probably been asked a thousand times before on this newsgroup:
What are some good, inexpensive music-printing programs for the PC and Mac
(preferably the PC)?
MuTeX obviously won't do; it can't generate multiple staves.
I don't care how difficult the program is to learn or use; all I want is
good output. I don't even care about sound. I don't have any MIDI equipment,
either.
Yes, I'll summarise.
--Scott
--
Scott Horne ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu SnailMail: Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520
203 436-1817 Residence: Rm 1817 Silliman College, Yale Univ
Uneasy lies the head that wears the _gao1 mao4zi_.ttl@aura.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Laundrie) (10/25/90)
Thanks for the review. I did buy the program. My plans are to enter scores for stage musicals, then use the playback feature in a community theater rehearsal environment (and maybe for performances as well). Beats hiring a rehearsal pianist, and I think the playback interface will be easy enough for computer novices to learn. My major gripe is the copy protection. What if TAP fails and so do my limited (2?) copies of the program? At least the playback program (longplay) is not protected. ttl@cs.wisc.edu ~
ttl@aura.cs.wisc.edu (Tony Laundrie) (10/26/90)
Has anybody tried Laser Music Processor ($80 at Leigh's in NYC)? The latest version supports standard MIDI format.