I am looking for a good program for musical notation – one that will also transpose and play back what you have set down. I have downloaded the trial software for three programs. Each had some features I liked and some I didn’t. Two were $79 and one was $599. I would prefer to spend under $100. Is anyone using a program you really like?
Tonya, this topic has come up recently so I have cut and pasted my comments from a previous posting below. You might also click on the Memberlist and check out the postings of LeeMarsh who also uses and likes Melody Assistant. I have used trial versions of some of the expensive music notation programs like Finale, Encore, Allegro, Sibelius, etc. and have found Melody Assistant to be better and easier to use for Whistle music. It is easy to add ornamentation above notes and to include grace notes. I never could figure this out with the “Big” programs. I think it is a program that you will like and there are a number of people on the board who can help you with problems.
Melody Assistant is an inexpensive program that would allow you to copy your sheet music into the program, say in Bb and then with a click of the mouse transpose it to D or any other key and print out the new sheet music. It also does a million other good things with MIDI, abc and other music formats and produces sheet music as well as plays the music for you if you have speakers. Not bad for a program that costs around $15.00. Here is their web site in case you are interested.
http://www.myriad-online.com/enindex.htm
Best wishes, Tom
Many thanks. I will give it a try. And you’re right – you can’t beat that price.
I use Noteworthy Composer - which I find to be pretty good - but I can’t really compare it to anything else because it’s the only one I’ve tried.
I like ABC2Win ($20) and Melody Assistant ($15). However, if you have the money, Harmony Assistant ($65) looks a lot better than Melody Assistant. The full-page edit mode is particularly attractive.
Here a link to a simular set of posts regarding notation.
<a href=http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=1426&forum=1&6>Including my comments on Melody Assistant
Hope this helps and …
I’m fond of MusicEase:
The only real drawback I’ve found with it is that it won’t output in ABC format (although it will read ABC format).
– Scott T.