To compliment the poll on use of scorewriting software here is a useful site listing a good number of the programs available.
Most should have a MIDI import facility which will generate the sheet music of you favourite tunes although import settings for note lengths will need setting to cope with gracings .
I’d go for Muse anytime.. 
Has anyone tried any of the software made specifically for writing bagpipe music? It all seems to be designed for GHBs, but I’m wondering how flexible it is for writing for UPs. The ones that crop up most often in my searches are Bagpipe Music Works Gold and Piob Mor. Any comments/experiences?
Also, for those who are looking for software for scanning written music into your PC, I would warn you that none that I have tried so far can handle grace notes. This is particularly useless if you want to listen to a tune transcribed for ITM, which is full of gracings. If you have found a package that recognizes these, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Thx,
djm
Hi djm … hi all!
What exactly do you mean? What is special with the notation for UPs? Have I missed something? :roll:
I used CapellaScan long time ago (when I was still running M$ Windows) and that worked rather well. You had to do some re-editing of the document before final conversion but that was not that much work. But I used it for scanning mainly BalFolk notes (i.e. French bagpipe and dance music … so not that many grace notes etc.!
Maybe there’s someone here who uses Capella and CapellaScan in their latest version? 
Happy computing and piping!
Thies
I have no experience with the software mentioned, but the web sites seem to indicate they are hardwired for doing midi files only tuned for GHBs.
djm
BMW Gold, the free clone of it, and piob whatever it’s called are no use for Uilleann music. They only do the good old-fashioned nine notes. Most of them don’t use a drawing system, most just use font cleverness. Easy for GHBs, but not so ideal for Uilleann pipes.
For WYSIWYG goodness, try http://www.braeburn.co.uk/mp.htm
I think the latest version of this does scanning, and given it’s focus on flexibility, it should be pretty handy.
I don’t think there’s any software that describes itself as to do with bagpipes that isn’t actually GHB only.
For Uilleann music, I would reckon ABC is the best thing going. Yes, it’s a PITA, but you get used to it, and masochists can enjoy it in the meantime (and if you’re not a masochist, what are you doing here anyway?).
Cheers,
Calum
Calum, thanks for the input. I checked Music Publisher’s web site and they tell me they get their scan engine from Visiv, who make SharpEye. SharpEye is one of the products I have already tested. It does not recognize grace notes of any kind, nor any symbols like turn-arounds. You cannot program it to recognize the roll-character as used in ITM, either.
Thx,
djm