At the moment I am using the trial version of Finale Notepad to write my GCSE compositions. The problem is that it won't play dynamics on the free version and is a bit annoying to use. What other software packages are out there that people could recommend, and could people tell me about them? Thanks.

Sibelius springs to mind immediately.

Capella is also an option.

Capella is cheaper but Sibelius is more common... most people will ask for Sibelius files rather than Capella ones...

Theres always sibelius, but its a lovely price of around £300...
But... the top of the pile, is Qubase. Sibelius is a notation program, but cubase does sooooooooo much more! Say if you had several sections of a piece all saved separately, in sibelius its just tough because unless you copy and paste all the bars from one, you cant get them all into one piece. But with qubase you can import them all as midi files and move them all around and stuff. But I'm not sure of the price... you would have to check on the internet.

i take it sibelius works on laptops coz im getting a laptop for my 18th bday and getting sibelius aswell!

Cubase/Qubase sounds good, and that feature would be important because I hate cutting and pasting all I have. I had to do that on Finale for my GCSE work and it took forever.

I've got the full version of Finale, which is VERY good for playing things back, with "human playback" features as well as dynamics of course! Also, there are many different versions of the program including improved free versions for £30 to £50, "Allegro" and various other options. They call it "the world's bestselling music notation software", and I can see why! I guess the other comparable big player is Sibelius, but in some aspects Sibelius either doesn't seem to compare, or has tried to suit a different market.

For some expert advice on which of the many notation / audio / educational / professional / printers' / performers' programs would suit your needs and your future needs, why not consult www.millennium-music.biz (Millennium Music
0115 955 2200) as they specialize in music software of the various brands.

To check out details of the various versions of Finale from free to full, you could go to www.finalemusic.com

To check out prices in £, you could go to www.etcetera.co.uk

Hope you find what really suits your needs and your finances,

Best wishes
DomRUK

Dom - Thankyou for your post. I am probably looking to spend around £30-£50 as I can't see myself, a 15 year old student spending £300 on Sibelius however good it is. I am definitely going to do some research, before and if I buy

nicki-get someone to buy it as a birthday present or something,thatswhat im doing!

ps- the sound on finale still doesnt work!

For a quick and expert answer, I'd say phone Millenium music on the number in my previous post, as it'll save you a lot of searching and pondering I'd guess. They were very helpful when I wanted to set up my computer for music in the first place.

Worth seeing the prices of just upgrading your free program too, as it looks as if that might suit your budget. Finale are very good at answering emails, so do ask them if the program would actually do precisely what you want, but you can probably see that from their website anyway.

QUOTE

Finale are very good at answering emails, so do ask them if the program would actually do precisely what you want, but you can probably see that from their website anyway.

Oooh, the quote button has a pop up now. Sorry unrelated, but I found I had a query with one of their products and it took about 3 weeks before I got the reply that answered my question. Thanks for you reply

I'd say Sibelius, it's easy to use, and it's very powerful too.
Finale, no offense, I find it very cluttered
I haven't heard of any other products

Finale does annoy me a bit, espeically using all American terms!

You could have a look at this one Music Publisher5

It doesn't do things for you.. you have to know what you are doing.
Easy to use, excellent customer service, competitively priced, free demo available.
Can be set for English or American.

the latest version of cubase will set you back 500 quid, though i believe you can get older versions or smaller packages with less features for around 250. the reason its so expensive is because its not a notation program, its an audio editing and midi sequencing suite.

we use it at college and its good, but the notation feature is just a very small part of it. sibelius might suit you more. *ponders all things software*....

hope that helps you some

I use Music Publisher 5 too, it's brilliant.

But....... I noticed an ad last week at one of the schools I teach at, for a student version of Sibelius at £99. It doesn't have all the features of the full version, but might be good enough for some people.

QUOTE (nicki_flute @ Jan 9 2005, 08:51 AM)

Finale does annoy me a bit, espeically using all American terms!

HAHA this is very funny--I remember finding the british-made theory books very hard to use at first because i had no idea what a breve or a crochet was.I SAID whole note,half note etc.....for xmas i got a british-american dictionary.....perhaps You could get a american-british one!!

There is now Sibelius Student. My teacher told me that it does many of the options of Sibelius and it is something like £99 instead of £300

QUOTE

There is now Sibelius Student. My teacher told me that it does many of the options of Sibelius and it is something like £99 instead of £300

I saw that but £99 is still quite expensive if I have to buy it.

QUOTE

HAHA this is very funny--I remember finding the british-made theory books very hard to use at first because i had no idea what a breve or a crochet was.I SAID whole note,half note etc.....for xmas i got a british-american dictionary.....perhaps You could get a american-british one!!

Thankfully they have a picture of the note so I don't have to spend ages thinking about which note is a quarter note etc!

QUOTE

It doesn't have all the features of the full version, but might be good enough for some people.

What features does it have?

QUOTE (jasbeth @ Jan 9 2005, 04:43 PM)

I remember finding the british-made theory books very hard to use at first because i had no idea what a breve or a crochet was.I SAID whole note,half note etc.....for xmas i got a british-american dictionary.....perhaps You could get a american-british one!!  :P  :)

There is a multi-lingual* note value table on page 528 of my 1988 edition of the Grove Concise Dictionary of music. Pitch names (no Latin and American the same as British) are on page 582.

* Latin British American French German Italian Spanish

At the moment I'm using noteworthy composer. It does most of the things I want it to do and it is eay to use.
You can get a free download Here

what about notation 2 - its cheap and works well - a little bit fiddly but not to hard once u get the jist of it