[LAU] GPL Scoring/Engraving Programs

David Baron d_baron at 012.net.il
Tue Jun 26 13:04:11 EDT 2007


There was a thread on this a while back, the need for opensource or 
free/minimal cost alternatives to Sibelius and such on Linux.

One can run Finale Notepad or various lower cost upgrades using Wine and this 
may be the best alternative if one can get the MIDI and printing working this 
way.

For lack of a handy staffbook--and it is easier to simply grab a staffbook, a 
extra fine pen and a typex stick--I tried what I have on my Debian Sid box:

Scoring:

Notedit--KDE's scoring program will get the job done. Most functionality is 
there. Chord entry is very awkward and the ui needs more toolbar items. But 
it works and will export to most everything needed including abc which opens 
the door to many Windows and Linux programs that can print score, Lilypond, 
MusicTex and MusicML.

Canorus--successor to Notedit. Too early for this one.

Denemo--GUI for Lilypond. Too early for this one as well. Nice start but had 
to go back to Notedit to continue.

Musescore/mscore--new boy on the block. Coming along nicely and will soon be 
the best around. Still work to be done, text field editing is nigh-impossible 
but this is the alternative to Finale and Sibelius to watch. Imported MusicML 
from Noteedit.

MIDI keyboard to any of these is precarious at best.

For printing (engraving when doing music):

Lilypond--works well with its peculiarities. Not enough control of formatting 
when exporting from noteedit, et al. Denemo not ready so need to know its 
markup language to really use it well. It is supposed to be the standard.

MusixTex--works nearly as well as Lilypond but does not handle UTF8, foreign 
characters out of the box.

Musescore--one when sets the formatting parameters (not defaulted properly) 
produces very nice results. Its scoring is WYSIWYG once the formatting params 
are set up. Again, the one to watch.



More information about the Linux-audio-user mailing list