Hi Gang,
I have a daughter who is something of a musical genius (honestly) and is doing a lot of composing.
Currently she is “drawing” all her musical scores using Adobe illustrator 
Anyway, there must surely be a better way. Does anyone know of a computer program that makes it easy to “write” musical notation?
Better yet, is there a program that can transcribe a midi file into written music?
Thanks much,
Doc
Hi Doc
www.codamusic.com has Finale Notepad. It’s very easy to work with and there’s a free version. You do have to register before downloading. Also when you use it you have to put up with “UPGRADE NOW” messages but otherwise it’s very nice.
Some others are Cakewalk. I don’t particularly like it’s staff editing features. I still haven’t found out how to make it do repeats, slurs or ties.
There are others. Try searching for music notation software on the web.
Doc,
Codamusic also offers Finale, which seems to be a standard. It is not cheap and might be a bit of an overkill for your daughter’s needs, but who knows what a musical genius may need next week?
Here is a link: http://www.codamusic.com/finale/
Good Luck!
Patrick
Has a FREE Midi program that lets a user work with MIDIs. The price is right for getting a feel for it.
The “Print sheet” option costs $29.
I use both of the programs mentioned above and I think they are great, the best you can get without paying too much. But if I had any musical genius I would probably go ahead and buy something like Sibelius.
Sibelius and Fianle are both exceptional programs…
I don’t have either, but a couple I know who are professional musicians, composers, and teachers use Finale, and I have used Notepad. I have also used Sibelius, and I really like it.
Pros of Sibelius and Finale:
You can play music into it (single tones in a microphone or keyboard hooked direct to computer)
Time Sig’s and Key Sig’s can change in middle of song
Both can do 10s of parts at once (I think around 100)
Cons:
Notepad doesn’t allow different time or key in one song
Both can be hard to enter notes, until you get the hang of it. Point and click isn’t all that easy. Especially of you aren’t too steady. (ie unlike playing, drinking does not improve the composition)
But I believe both full versions allow for keyboard entry…
I still think that if neatness isn’t important writing by hand is easiest, but you can’t beat the programs for neatness and FAST EASY transposition. (and if you play french horn this is nice… It is good too, if you have music in Bb and want it in D… like for a whistle)
If your daughter is just doing simple music (like no more than 8 parts, no key and time changes, and no perc… long story) than Notepad is the best, with a price that can’t be beat ($0)
Nico Moreno
PS I just finished my last year of high school last year, in which I used Notepad for a transcription of a SATB choir piece called In Remembrance.
I had something like 12 parts. I used Notepad for a lot of it, but I had to write out everything to hand it in…
FWIW, Anvil allow you to change the key and time. Not sure if it allow you to change keys in mid-tune.
Perhaps Dale, in his Solomonic wisdom, will download each and and pass judgement, or something? 
My favorite Music Notation Program: Mozart Music Notation Processor
Just to add that Sibelius may offer an substantial educational discount. It’s worth giving them a ring to see what they can do for you.
I teach at a Sixth Form College in the UK and we have a 30 site licence, soon to be extended to 42. It is a pretty simple program to use. You can also import MIDI files with a fair degree of success.
Barry
Has a FREE Midi program that lets a user work with MIDIs. The price is right for getting a feel for it.
The “Print sheet” option costs $29.
So you can’t print it without Print Sheet?
Correct. I dont have a need to print so it is a non-issue for me.
There are a number of $$ add-ons that Anvil offers. I am happy with the free stuff.
What I do with Anvil is to press the “Print Scrn” button, then paste that in Paint, cut out what I want, and put that together as a BMP file. It’s a little time consuming, but if you don’t want to have to pay anything, it works
Noteworthy Composer is pretty decent, as shareware music composition software goes. It also will save as MIDI files, and allow you to edit MIDI.
How compatible are any of the above mentioned programs with ABC format? I find that most programs that offer ABC support have really awful (or just absent) user interfaces: abc2win, abc2ps, yaps. They’re great and all, but my ABC skills aren’t quite perfected yet and I need to see the output every couple of bars to make sure I’m doing it right. I’d be interested in a program that could support ABC and be easy to use.
Have you tried Cakewalk?
Works a treat with ABC and allows multitrack composing. Accepts all midi formats and midi input devices.
But the only problem with Cakewalk is I’ve never been able to add slurs or repeat signs. If there’s a way to do it I’d love to know. It would make life grand again.
I have always used (the Norwegian made!) Musicator. It’s a bit expensive, but I think it’s the BEST when it comes to intuitive notation. Besides standard features you have:
time/key sig. changes wherever you like.
easy grouping of voices in multipart scores on the same staff (like choral passages, where you have two voices in the same staff and want one to have stems up, the other stems down etc.)
control of accidentals (enharmonic #'s or b’s) - useful for extended tonalities beyond classical function harmonics.
notes can be input by mouse, or by keyboard in real time or step time. The latter lets you quickly change note lengths (1/4, 1/8, N-tuplets, whatever)with numkeys as you input note values from a MIDI source (keyboard) - great way to input.
great control of notepage layout
MIDI export/import
bla, bla, bla…
Check it out - they have a (crippled) demo version:
I have never been able to figure out Sibelius, that everybody says is SO easy - perhaps it just does not fit my lilmited intuition
Anybody know a good tutorial or other resource for SIbelius?
Best regards,
Eivind
Ooops, forgot to mention - regarding repeat signs etc.
The latest version are supposed to handle repeat signs, coda’s, segno’s and all that “flow control” of a score AUTOMATICALLY when playing back through MIDI- have not had the chance to try that yet, though. But it sounds awesome, right?
E.
Hmmm. I may look into the crippleware version.
Finale also has (or used to have, but why should they take such a useful feature out…) a combined input method with any MIDI-capable piano-like instrument and the computer keyboard. The left hand presses the note wanted on the instrument, the right hand enters a number on the number pad of the computer keyboard to indicate the length of the note. A period makes the previous not dotted, and a number without a note on the instrument enters the corresponding break, if I remember correctly. Special things still have to be added the point and click way, as well as the setup of the staves and keys and signatures and whatever else.
I worked as data entry (“music entry”) person at a small studio that did printed music for bands, publishing houses, religious communities and composers, and used this method exlusively. I know that Finale also can do live input, you just play the melody and it writes it down. This is far more error-prone, though. The combined method
Now, if you don’t print music for a living, this might not be that important, but it is a real advantage of Finale.
Sonja