What's wrong with our score editor?

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EtherealEntity
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2012/05/24 21:18:28 (permalink)

What's wrong with our score editor?

I've seen lots of comments about the web putting it down. I haven't used it yet, haven't had time. What are your gripes with it compared to something like Sibelius? Bare in mind I'm not talking about preparing printable scores. Moreso using it as a compositional tool. Why would I be better off composing in Sibelius and importing the MIDI? Shoot :)
#1

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    Beepster
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/24 21:42:04 (permalink)
    Are you talking about that printable staff view thingy? I poked around at it and IMO it ain't great but I think it's gonna be more useful to me than Guitar Pro and it's free (because it came with X1). Pretty simple to use. Gives you a nice printable version of the staff or tabs. Seems to have all the traditional staffs covered and all the pertinent notation symbols. It seems it's easily transposable. IDK... I like it. It seems to have a lot of options one would need for composing to proper sheet music. It'll easily translate itself into MIDI sounds which is great (and I think the real point of the staff view). It's a bit of a pain to make it work properly at first (and isn't exactly the way I'd set things up but whatever) but it's all explained thoroughly in the help topic tutorials. The guitar chord charts are weird and annoying but I think I just need to learn how to use them properly. I think it's usable and I'll probably end up using it A LOT for teaching purposes. However I'd likely be putting it into printable versions and using an image editor such as Paint or GIMP (or if I ever have the money PhotoShop) and then cut elements out to slap into files for stuff I'm trying to convey to a student. So there's a little ramble for ya. Just pop it open (View > Staff View... I think) and follow the help topic tuts on Staff View and you can see for yourself what it does. Cheers.
    #2
    vintagevibe
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/24 21:53:24 (permalink)
    IMO it would be much better to compose in Sonar but i find the staff view unusable. There are many threads you can search but some of my main gripes are:

    It doesn't handle tuplets correctly.
    It doesn't handle enharmonics correctly.
    The VIEW itself is a horrible eye strain.
    You can't get enough staves on screen with a readable font size.
    It does a really bad job of handling interpretation of rhythm and note values.  No matter what display resolution you set it makes bizarre groupings that hang over barlines in strange ways.

    There are many more but I just get disgusted talking about it.  I use Sibelius but it is no substitute for composing inside a DAW.  Cakewalk hasn't updated it in any meaningful way since the 90's and likely never will.  They added XML export which would be nice if it were usable to begin with.  Currently I can't use it to compose so I have nothing to export.  Digital Performer for Windows is coming out soon and I'll be giving it a good look.
    #3
    Beepster
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/24 22:03:58 (permalink)
    Well I just poked at it and my uses for it would be pretty much as I described. Limited to teaching. When I record I just let 'er rip and I wouldn't worry too much about having a proper score. I'm also a very flesh and nail type of musician so any MIDI crap would be limited to drums (which I would use the step sequencer or piano roll for) and maybe some keys for ambiance or a little extra ornamentation. My needs may change though. If I ever have that need I know I could find the right tool for me as I know there are many. For now I'm just happy to have something simple to mess around with that I don't have to pay for.
    #4
    keith
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/25 00:02:37 (permalink)
    Hate to be a stickinthemud on this but... irony of ironies... for "free notation" you're probably better off with Finale Notepad than struggling with SV... http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/default.aspx

    At least you won't have to deal with the niggles, since it's Finale at the core...
    #5
    Beepster
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/25 00:50:47 (permalink)
    I'll check that out later, keith. Always looking for new tools and options. Especially cost effective ones.
    #6
    keith
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/25 00:58:48 (permalink)
    Well, free is certainly cost effective. :)
    #7
    Beepster
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    Re:What's wrong with our score editor? 2012/05/25 01:04:30 (permalink)
    Not always true (especially with cars or girlfriends... lol) but in this case I'd imagine it would qualify.
    #8
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