Does anyone have any recommendations? I know the big "bells & whistles" package is Sibelius, but I don't think I need anything that sophisticated, and certainly don't want to spend £600+! What I'm looking for is a package that will allow me to fairly easily create multi-voice scores where I can mute or reduce volume of selected parts, as an aid to learning choir songs as quickly as possible. I've been looking at the Finale range, does anyone use any of their packages, and are they any good?

Lots of people on here use Finale and quite like it.

You could get Sibelius 5 which should be a lot cheaper now, although 6 really is much nicer. Not sure about their price point either, they really should have a non-commercial version

One other package I like is PhotoScore - you can scan in scores, even handwritten ones or import PDFs and send them to Sibelius or Finale. Very handy!

I'd recommend Finale Printmusic.

It'll do the things you mention in your post, and costs less than £80.

I use Finale Allegro,

Seems to do everything I need and once you get used to it it's fine

Music Publisher from Braeburn software is good and easy to learn with great customer support. It's around £100.

Thanks for the ideas - I'll look into Music Publisher, not come across that one.

The scanning facility is most certainly something I'd use - I know some of the Finale packages include it. How well does it work - do you find the score needs a lot of correcting once scanned in, or is it pretty accurate? (and do you have to erase all the pencil marks first!?)

Accuracy of the scanning depends on the state of the score.
A very clear score scans pretty well and needs fewer corrections.
You can improve the quality of the scan by choosing to omit some things like words and add then in after.

I used to use this for quite a long time. It is a good piece of software, easily worth the money. I found I needed to upgrade to Sibelius when was getting more serious about composition (in about my A2 year) as it is more flexible with scoring and notation. But PrintMusic is a real bargin for what you get.

You can get Printmusic 2007 for £15 on Amazon (new). I have to say I much preferred the older (2004) Printmusic but I think that's because I was used to it. I use Musescore now which is free and does much the same as Printmusic but works slightly differently, as they all do, so you have to get used to it. But if you've not used one before you'll have to get used to whichever one you choose.

Really?!? So I could get 2007 for ?15, then (according at the Finale website) get an upgrade to the latest version for $29...sounds like a bargain

Though not as much of a bargain as free! Does Musescore still have the scan facility? Not really too worried about the technicalities of it, I have used scoring software in the (distant ) past, and am pretty much at home with computers, so I'm sure I'd get used to whichever I get.

This is all really helpful, thanks all

There are many features in Finale that are not available in Finale PrintMusic.

Are you a teacher, student, or church musician? If so, you can get Finale (or Sibelius) at the academic pricing, which is much lower than the regular pricing.

Sadly not (unless being an EX-church musician counts!).

What would you say are the important features I'd be missing out on? I've gone through the features comparison on their website, a lot of what's missing I think I could manage without, but it's hard to tell without actually seeing it in action. I think what I basically need for the choir music is to be able to score in up to 8 (or maybe more) voices, which Printmusic seems fine for. I guess could need fairly complicated rhythms at times I suppose, as I believe the repertoire for the choir can get quite challenging. Then having scored, to be able to control the levels for each voice independently. I'm not worried about fancy printouts or lots of different voice sounds, just being able to easily create an MP3 to sing along to between rehearsals.

I doubt (certainly in the foreseeable future) if I'd need it for anything other than choir music, though who knows in the future...

Printmusic will do all that - up to 40 voices. And I found the scanning software to be pretty good too.

You haven't been rehearsing Spem in Alium again have you katyjay?

Funny that - got it on my music stand not three feet away from where I'm sitting.....

Right - made a decision - Printmusic it is - it certainly seems to do everything I'd want at a really good price (though sadly the £15 2007 version is no longer available on Amazon, & is being sold at full price everywhere else - grrr!). But still even the 2010 version is only £65 so not bad at all

Thanks for all the replies

Rehearsing it is cheating - you're just meant to go for it and fill in whichever voice part seems a bit weak when yours isn't doing anything.

I've seen stuff produced in LilyPond http://lilypond.org/

So it was intended for forte voices then?


(I have heard this piece performed, during the St. Alban's International Organ Week; no speakers can do justice to being surrounded by three cathedral choirs giving their all. I don't know whether there was rivalry/competition amongst them during the performance - I wouldn't be surprised though.)

Have used LilyPond in the past - very good!

Rosegarden is another good program (if you have Linux)

There's also Magix Notation 2. Very cheap, but quite complicated to use.

I've just looked at Amazon and they have one copy of Printmusic 2007 for £15.19 with free delivery, and more on the way.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finale-PrintMusic-...6720&sr=8-3

I don't think you can scan in with Musescore but as it's open source someone may have writen that facility.

We couldn't make Lilypond work.

:SQUEAK: Banjogirl - thank you so much! (Why it didn't come up on my search I don't know, but who cares )

Order has gone in - even better I still had a couple of quid left from a Christmas Amazon voucher, so it's cost me the grand total of ... £12.93

I hope you like it! I suppose you've not blown too much money if you don't.

Oh - I'm sure I will But so long as it does what I need, that's all that matters tbh.

Looking forward to having a good play when it arrives

My money would be on Sibelius, you can get a watered down student version for not much money or an educational full version for about half price. However, I too have a pupil using Musescore (www.musescore.org) which does seem to do most basic tasks quite well especially as it's free!

There are quite a few cheap and free programs around and I have Finale Notepad (free) and Noteworthy Composer, but then I decided to buy Finale Printmusic.

The scanning software has saved so much time. Yes, I have to go through it carefully afterwards and often change loads of mistakes, but it's far better than entering the notes yourself and ending up with tendonitis, Repetitive strain syndrome or similar. I find that I can't take more than ten minutes using the mouse with these programs!

Steve

Great to hear that, Steve - I think that's what I'm going to find most useful too., which is why I've discounted Musescore and Sibelius Student. I've used Noteworthy in the past, and while it did the job I wanted quite well, it was long-winded. I'm looking forward to being able to get my scores on the system in super quick time. My order has been dispatched, I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival