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Music Software for Mac OS X?
tengwar writes "I'm an organist, and I sometimes have to prepare sheet music. I'd also like to do a bit of composition. I'm looking for music software for the Mac centered around standard notation. Playback would be nice, but it's not as important as a user interface that doesn't get in the way of plonking down notes on a stave fast enough for me to remember what I was trying to do. If possible I'd like something that will allow me to add the words for voice parts for hymns. Any advice?"
Finale by Coda Software.
www.finalemusic.com
I live and die by it. Albeit on a PC but I they offer a Mac version.
~foooo
You should definitely check out Harmony Assistant. It's made by Myriad Software (http://www.myriad-online.com/enindex.htm). It's a little rough around the edges, but it does everything.
I switched to it from Sibelius/Finale when they took too long to come out with a mac os x version (and charged too much when they did). Harmony Assistant is only $65, and they provide a reasonably crippled demo.
They also make a plugin (that comes as a free trial with the software) called Virtual Singer that uses Text-to-Speech to give you an approximation of how a vocal piece will sound (kinda scary, but good for hearing what you're doing before you put it in front of a chorus)...
There's also support for a million different kinds of tablature, all the usual staves and so forth. Like I said, it's a little rough around the edges, but a $65 price tag (compared to $600 for sibelius or finale) makes it all worth it.
have you been seen on slash?
- Better input using the standard keyboard (not MIDI) than Finale. Finale's input is slow unless you have MIDI. Sibelius has a much more useful system to get around this handicap.
- More intuitive responses to changes in the score. Finale is not nearly as intelligent.
- MacOS X native. To the best of my knowledge, Finale is still an OS9 app. Points to Sibelius for making the switch.
There are some bugs, but overall Sibelius is a much better piece of software. Sadly, the price will prevent me from owning my own copy, but as long as I continue to work with my collaborator, I will have access to his. Sweet deal...You can't get a blue screen on a black and white monitor.
Check out
http://www.osxaudio.com and
http://www.macmusic.org
two sites/communities for everything you could possibly want to know about Mac OS X audio software.
Alex.
I'm a composer, and have to say that Sibelius (www.sibelius.com) is my top choice overall. I used Finale (www.finalemusic.com) for years, and only switched because I had to learn Sibelius in order to teach it and absolutely fell in love with it. It's powerful, graceful, not too difficult to use (although, like Finale, more advanced features are a bit more complicated), and VERY importantly, Mac OS X native (I don't use non-native software. Those who haven't been able to update their software within the past 2.5 years don't deserve my business).
.EPS files), with minimal cleanup to do.
What's more, Sibelius is fast becoming a co-industry-standard format along with Finale, so publishers, competitions, other composers, etc. etc., will more than likely be able to access any files you need to send them. It also converts Finale files rather well (when saved as
It's all about the best tool for the job, and as far as the professional music community is concerned, it's either Finale or Sibelius. Both are good, Finale is not OS X native (though they promise to be in version 2004), and Sibelius is excellent, so I chose Sibelius.
A word of warning, however: Sibelius is have some kind of MIDI playback problem with Quicktime MIDI in 10.2.4+ which has not been remedied. Using an external MIDI device clears it up completely, but if you're relying on Quicktime built-in MIDI, stay at 10.2.3 or below (including 10.1.x)...
*plink,plink*
To reign is to serve.