Re: Music Score programs

[rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

At 5:53 PM 6/16/95, 100576.3265@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>1. Do any of you use progs for this task and if so which and how good
>do you find them.  (Getting a hernia from carrying the books for Finale
>is not considered a plus point for example)

I use Performer and Professional Composer, both from Mark of the Unicorn. I
can't comment on the flexibility of the latter because I don't use it much.
But for the simple scores that I produce, it works fine. I can save a
Performer file in Professional Composer format though.

Performer on the other hand is a very powerful and flexible sequencer. It
has been able to do everything I've ever wanted to do(which is take a
composition that is in my head and, via the sequencer and MIDI keyboard,
get the composition on tape so that I can share my musical ideas with
others). I find the program very intuitive and only occasionaly do I need
to take brief forays to the manual. I also use it to generate progressions
to jam along with. I haven't used any other sequencers so I can't make a
comparison.

I did notice that all the music applications mentioned so far are for the
PC(although Finale was originally developed for the Mac). Relatively
speaking, MIDI is a newcomer to the PC. For many years, the Mac was the
MIDI platform of choice(because of it's GUI) and thus music application
development lagged far behind in the PC world. The PC became more Mac-like
when the 1991 release of Windows 3.0 gave the PC a GUI and a better
platform for MIDI development(I can't imagine attempting to do serious
sequencing with a text editor under DOS - what a pain). But the PC has been
playing catch up ever since(as it has been in the field of DTP). The most
powerful music applications(of all types) still reside on the Mac(although
the gap is narrowing).

(I'm certainly not trying to stir up a PC vs. Mac debate. Having designed a
slew of microprocessor boards(both x86 and 680X0) before I gave it all up
to chase the musical golden ring, I do have an opinion about which system
is better designed from the ground up. But I am platform agnostic and
believe that both machines are very powerful and quite capable. OTOH, I
have very strong opinions about a particular software company that is
trying to take over the world and whose boss thinks he has the best ideas
for all of us - don't get me started.)

And what's with this showing up on all of my messages today?:

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Rkt