I was looking at some of the ABC tunes on the tunefinder.
I don’t yet have any software to deal with ABC files.
I looked at the ABC homepage, and found a plethora.
So…Which software is best? (hides from can of worms)
I would like something that can play the tunes i find, maybe print them,
and though I’m not very adept at reading sheet music, the ability
to transpose from ABC to dots seems like a good thing to have.
Any other features you like or dislike about any of these programs?
Also, since my computer is fast becoming a slow relic, I am concerned
about any unwanted adware that might slow down my system further.
so any warnings about such would also be helpful.
Melody Assistant does a fine job of converting ABC to dots, as well as playing ABC files. Actually it does a pretty good job of a lot of things music-related.
ABCmus will play .abc files, but won’t convert them to dots.
Then there are programs (mostly linux-based that I’m aware of) which will convert the .abc files into dots in .pdf format for printing, but won’t play the tunes.
Guess it depends how much you want to spend really (and what OS your PC is running too).
If you are using Windows, ABC2Win is very adequate for editing files and printing in conventional notation. Has its quirks and bugs, but generally works very well. It’s a 16-bit program (designed for Windows 3.x) and shouldn’t prove taxing for your old system.
ABC2Mus, if you register the program, will transpose files for you. There’s a free utility somewhere called ABCTools that will also do the job.