andrewn@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andrew D Nimmo) (09/29/89)
I'm looking for info on music typesetting packages and text-based music notation 'standards'. Any info, references etc., would be appreciated. Andrew D. Nimmo -- Andrew D. Nimmo, VLSI and Graphics Research Group, EAPS II, University of Sussex, Falmer, BRIGHTON, East Sussex, BN1 9Qt TEL: +44 273 606755 x 2617 EMAIL: (JANET) andrewn@syma.sussex.ac.uk | (UUCP) ...mcsun!ukc!syma!andrewn
a86@mindlink.UUCP (Alan Rinehart) (10/04/89)
My name is Alan Rinehart and I have been using SCORE from Passport designs since 1987. I have a reasonably active DT music publishing business and am very satisfied with what SCORE can do. I have your address and will send you a sample of my output.. 2029 East 3rd, Vancouver BC Canada
mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham) (10/04/89)
In article <1403@syma.sussex.ac.uk> andrewn@syma.UUCP (Andrew D Nimmo) writes: > > I'm looking for info on music typesetting packages and >text-based music notation 'standards'. Any info, references etc., would >be appreciated. The 'bible' of music notation is "Music Notation" by Gardner Read. There is (and Read has agreed in a letter) there is no comparable book on commercial music typesetting standards. The best software package I've experienced is SCORE (Passport, Half Moon Bay, CA). It is thorough, still buggy a bit in its most recent incarnation, and is quite complex--it is not for the casual user. I recommend it only if you (like I) are interested in investing yourself into the music typesetting or publishing business. It is relatively user-unfriendly and is poorly documented. It is also *very* expensive (over $1000 now, I understand). If you want something easier to use for the purpose of typesetting your own music for performance purposes only, get something else. If you want to compete on the commercial market with Theodore Presser, E.C. Schirmer, Oxford, or C.F. Peters, then you have no other alternative than SCORE and the extensive training you'll have to give yourself to create competitive results. (The much touted Macadoodle programs and Sonata Fonts don't even come close. Period.) Cheers, --Mark ======================================== Mark Gresham ARTSNET Norcross, GA, USA E-mail: ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham or: artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu ========================================
sdo@piccolo.Sun.COM (Scott Oaks - Sun Consulting NYC) (10/09/89)
>The best software package I've experienced is SCORE (Passport, >Half Moon Bay, CA). It is thorough, still buggy a bit in its most >recent incarnation, and is quite complex--it is not for the casual >user. I recommend it only if you (like I) are interested in >investing yourself into the music typesetting or publishing >business. It is relatively user-unfriendly and is poorly >documented. It is also *very* expensive (over $1000 now, I >understand). If you want something easier to use for the purpose >of typesetting your own music for performance purposes only, get >something else. If you want to compete on the commercial market >with Theodore Presser, E.C. Schirmer, Oxford, or C.F. Peters, then >you have no other alternative than SCORE and the extensive >training you'll have to give yourself to create competitive >results. (The much touted Macadoodle programs and Sonata Fonts >don't even come close. Period.) Well, I can't comment on SCORE, having never used it. But that Macdoodle program Finale, despite having all the drawbacks that SCORE apparently has, (expensive, complex, etc.) produces commercial quality results. In fact, I just used it to produce a score for a division of Lawson-Gould. -sdo (sdo@sun.COM)
mohr-eric@CS.YALE.EDU (Rick Mohr) (10/10/89)
I'm considering setting up a system for computerized publishing of traditional
dance tunes (reels, jigs, waltzes, polkas, ... ). I wonder if people
familiar with the various score formatting systems and keyboards could comment
on how well they meet my rather specific needs. I'm interested in programs
for any type of computer.
The tunes themselves don't require a lot advanced features; they're just
single-line melodies on single staffs. On the other hand, getting a
professional-quality product requires fine control over size, spacing,
placement, etc. -- the ability to override the black-box style they
probably give you.
Some form of real-time input is a must. If the program can quantize a
simple MIDI input, great. Otherwise, I'm happy to write my own program to
quantize my simple tunes if they'll just tell me how to format the result into
a file which the program will recognize as valid input.
Here are the features of my ideal system:
- input
- low-quality piano-keyboard input (just pitch and duration)
- or well-documented input-file format
- score editing and formatting
- don't need
- multiple staffs
- multiple notes per stem
- lyrics
- dynamics (volume levels, crescendoes, etc)
- meter changes
- do need
- transposition
- grace notes
- ties
- ability to specify default spacing of notes, measures, and staffs
- output
- high-quality graphical output (somebody's laser printer format)
- low-quality monophonic audio output
What's the cheapest piano-keyboard I can get with MIDI output? It doesn't
even need audio output.
Are there any score formatting systems available which either provide source
code or give a well-defined input file format so I can build my own
pre-processor?
Thanks,
Rick Mohr INTERNET: mohr@cs.yale.edu
Eric Mohr INTERNET: mohr@cs.yale.edu
Computer Science Dept, Yale University BITNET: mohr@yalevm.bitnet
Box 2158, Yale Station
New Haven, CT 06520 (203) 432-4712mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham) (10/13/89)
In article <290@gotham.COM> sdo@piccolo.Sun.COM (Scott Oaks - Sun Consulting NYC) writes: > > >The best software package I've experienced is SCORE (Passport, > >Half Moon Bay, CA). > >Well, I can't comment on SCORE, having never used it. But that Macdoodle >program Finale, despite having all the drawbacks that SCORE apparently has, >(expensive, complex, etc.) produces commercial quality results. In fact, >I just used it to produce a score for a division of Lawson-Gould. Yes, Lawson-Gould does seem to be on the lookout for new contract typesetters, as I have recently sent them samples at their request. Perhaps it depends upon the skills of the typesetter, but the two instances which I've seen were not what I would call commercial quality. One was far less so than the other. I would be happy to be proven wrong by being shown commercial quality results from Finale. All persons using either SCORE or Finale for commercial typesetting: I would be interested in seeing your samples (1200+dpi preferred, but will settle for 300dpi) and pricing schedules. Send them to: Mark Gresham c/o Symmes Systems P.O. Box 8101 Atlanta, GA 30306 Cheers, --Mark ======================================== Mark Gresham ARTSNET Norcross, GA, USA E-mail: ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham or: artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu ========================================
rahardj@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Budi Rahardjo) (10/22/89)
I'm using Personal Composer/2 with my IBM XT, Roland MPU401 midi interface. The Personal Composer is a very good sequencer and music typesetting. Features : - Input from Keyboard (I'm using YAMAHA DX100) then plays it back, and converts the input into muscial notation. - Enter the score on the IBM screen with a mouse or the IBM keyboard - Enter the score from event editor which looks like a text editor except you draw lines to represent notes. - 32 tracks, 16 MIDI channels - Print the score on dot matrix printer, postscript printers ------------------ ------------------- - Add text It is a wondeful software. Budi Rahardjo I'm just a satisfied user - rahardj@ccu.UManitoba.CA
cam@swbatl.UUCP (5415) (10/24/89)
In article <1989Oct22.165016.23978@ccu.umanitoba.ca> rahardj@ccu.UManitoba.CA (Budi Rahardjo) writes: >I'm using Personal Composer/2 with my IBM XT, Roland MPU401 midi interface. >The Personal Composer is a very good sequencer and music typesetting. > [...] >I'm just a satisfied user - rahardj@ccu.UManitoba.CA Me, too, for what it's worth. I have been using Personal Composer for the last four years, and it has served me very well. At times, I have gazed upon my friends with Macintosh software with envy at the "prettiness" and "user- friendliness" of their systems, only to come back to Personal Composer and find more things it can do that theirs *can't*. And it's extensible, if you want to dabble in LISP. Yes, satisfied. But if anyone is contemplating setting themselves up with such a system, buy all the CPU speed you can afford... enhancements to the software have made using an old stock XT a little slow at times. Aaah, for a 386! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | J. Camron "Cam" Spillman - Southwestern Bell Telephone | cam@swbatl.sbc.com | | GHQ Finance Mechanization, St. Louis, Missouri | uunet!swbatl!cam | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bonzo@xochitl.UUCP (Matt L. Armstrong) (10/25/89)
In article <1989Oct22.165016.23978@ccu.umanitoba.ca> rahardj@ccu.UManitoba.CA (Budi Rahardjo) writes: >I'm using Personal Composer/2 with my IBM XT, Roland MPU401 midi interface. >The Personal Composer is a very good sequencer and music typesetting. > >It is a wondeful software. > >Budi Rahardjo Unless this is a new version of PC/2, I'd almost be willing to say that you haven't used if very long. Based on my experience with it (my dad was running it with his MT-32 and K-1) it looks good on paper and looks pretty good for a short while of running it, but I had about 5 different times when the workspace got corrupted and things went quite awry. Things like the note off that corresponded to a given note on event was put ahead of the note on and other such nastiness. I was never able to get a call through on the support line to report the bugs I found. Always busy. If you're just going to use it for writing up scores, it might do an ok job of it. If you're planning on using it for sequencing, forget it. Dad eventually got an ST and Notator. I don't know what kind of job this does for printing but he likes the feel of it for composition so far. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matt Armstrong - Guru-In-Training - Part-Time Hacker - Starving Bassist `"initial.c", line 302: warning: '9' is not a standard octal digit' - cc ...ucbvax!unmvax!ariel!xochitl!bonzo bonzo@edsr.eds.com
emus-0@garnet.berkeley.edu (10/25/89)
You should be interested in the Directory of Computer Assisted Research in Musicology, edited by Hewlett and Selfridge-Field published by the Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities in Menlo Park ( XB.L36@stanford.edu) or 415-322 7050, which reports on a very large number of computer typesetting packages from around the world. I expect this year's directory would be even more complete. Last year's had lots of examples and I found it to be the most complete I've seen.
pete@wlbr.IMSD.CONTEL.COM (Pete Lyall) (10/26/89)
This bears out the CompuServe MIDI Forum membership's collective
sentiment: Personal Composer is an expensive and unreliable headache.
If there is any interest, I can post copies of woeful testamonials
from users who had just gotten track 'perfect' and were ready to save
it when PC gobbled it into the bit bucket. Worse yet are the tales of
attempted contact with the author, and zero support. Couple this with
horribly overdue bug fix/update cycles, and this product gets a
collective thumbs down. I ended up buying Voyetra's Sequencer Plus
MKIII last year because it received the exact opposite review...
stable, good support, and a responsive company. Note that there's no
scoring facility built into SEQ+.
Pete
--
Pete Lyall Contel Corporation
Compuserve: 76703,4230 OS9_Net: (805) 375-1401 (24hr 300/1200/2400)
Internet: pete@wlbr.imsd.contel.com UUCP: {hacgate,jplgodo,voder}!wlbr!pete rahardj@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Budi Rahardjo) (10/26/89)
Matt Armstrong wrote: >Unless this is a new version of PC/2, I'd almost be willing to say that >you haven't used if very long. Based on my experience with it (my dad >was running it with his MT-32 and K-1) it looks good on paper and looks >pretty good for a short while of running it, but I had about 5 different >times when the workspace got corrupted and things went quite awry. Things >like the note off that corresponded to a given note on event was put ahead >of the note on and other such nastiness. Well I've been using Personal Composer for more than 1 year (version 1 and 2). It did hang up several times, but most of the time it was my mistake (like moving the IBM too close to the wall so the MIDI connection was not good, or turning my amp. -> spike). The other times it hang up on me were due to hardware[?] limitation. I'm using IBM XT (4.77 MHz), HERCULES (note : PS does not work with CGA), 640 K, and 30 MB HD. I suspect it hang up because of memory limitation (I was trying to sequence 6-full MIDI channels, 169 measures - the manual says the limit is 200 measures). Other than that... no big problem. >If you're just going to use it for writing up scores, it might do an ok >job of it. If you're planning on using it for sequencing, forget it. I thought the printout is great, especially the postscript printout.... it looks pro. Have you tried to print it on a postscript printer ? The dot matrix printout is also excellent, I can print selected staffs, or selected MIDI channels. As for sequencing, I heard Cakewalk is pretty good. But can it produce the notation ?. I know there are better sequencer programs, but they are too simple. I still like PC/2 event editor, score editor, and record editor. (I have not tried the DX7 editor and the LISP) Well I'm still looking for better sequencer for IBM, but for now I think I can live with PC/2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Budi Rahardjo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sequencers I've tried : Performer (Macintosh), Personal Composer (IBM), Roland MRE (IBM), Roland MPU401[?] (IBM), MPS (IBM), generic [unknown] (IBM).........I wish I have all sequencers in the world -- ----------------------------------------- Budi Rahardjo -- rahardj@ccu.UManitoba.CA rahardj@ccm.UManitoba.CA rahard@ee.UManitoba.CA