allyn@blake.acs.washington.edu (Allyn Weaks) (09/22/89)
I just got a catalog from Passport today, and there's a 2 page blurb for
Encore, a scoring program for the Mac. (One of the pages is a sample
printout of something simple enough that Concertware or DMCS could do a
decent job of it.) Does anyone know anything about it? Is it shipping?
Has anyone seen it? From the specs listed it looks like it's aimed
somewhere between Professional Composer and Finale. List price is $600, so
it will probably be available for about $400 if MacZone decides to carry
it. (They carry other Passport programs, and Finale for $475).
And speaking of score programs for the Mac, is there anything at the high
end other than Finale, Pro Composer, HB Music Engraver, NoteWriter II, and
now Encore? I'm researching them for a composer friend, and I've looked
extensively at all of them except Encore, and they aren't a pretty sight.
Finale is the only one with any power, and even it leaves out some real
essentials, such as staggered barlines when using different meters in
different staves. Or even being able to leave out bar lines on just one of
the staves. Aside from the sheer ugliness of the interface, I really
object to Finale's assumption that a measure is the basic data structure of
music, thereby making the most trivial operations painful, and some
impossible.
So, are there any programs out, or due to be out, or vaguely rumored to be
hatching in someone's imagination, that can handle a full modern orchestral
score? Not avant-guard, even, though some sort of graphics tools to let
you put in wierd symbols, curves, and such would be nice. We'd settle for
something that could at least handle something other than common-practice,
say from renaissance through Stravinsky, including some jazz. And handle
it with a reasonable approximation to a Mac interface. Proper part
extraction (compression of multiple measure of rests) and reasonable lyrics
handling are a must, as is good control over page layout, spacing, which
measures (or partial measures) go on which line. Step-time entry from MIDI
would suffice if it can transcribe from standard MIDI files--full built-in
sequencers are kind of a waste since I believe in mix-and-match, but real
time entry of one voice at a time could be nice.
The state of the art looks bad enough at this point that I'm getting
tempted to design one myself. Not write it, mind you; I don't have 4 years
of living expenses saved up :-) Any suggestions? Other than 'Just think
of what word processors were like 15 years ago - music processing will grow
up eventually'. I'm much too bloody impatient for that! :-) I'd rather
have your features wanted lists, references to musical typography, etc...
-----
Allyn Weaks
Internet: allyn@blake.acs.washington.edu |
sweaks@phast.phys.washington.edu
bitnet: sweaks@uwaphast
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USnail: Department of Physics FM-15
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
The professor was silly enough to think that if doctors had to pass
examinations before they could cut out his appendix, then members of
parliament ought to pass examinations before they could rule his life.
-- T.H. White, Mistress Masham's Reposea86@mindlink.UUCP (Alan Rinehart) (09/25/89)
I may not be able to help you in your search for Mac scoring software but I can give you an opinion on SCORE for the IBM. I have run a Desktop Music Publishing company (NovaScribe Editions) for nearly two years now and have done a wide variety of jobs from children's snogs with oversized note heads to a brand new 75 minute work for string orchestra and boy soprano. SCORE is certainly not an easy program to learn but once the 'system' is mastered, there is virtually nothing it can't do, I think that right now it is the only program commercially avaliable that can really do the trick. Looking for ward to hearing from you, Alan Rinehart, Mindlink, Vancouver, BC