John In Remote Kansas (JIRK) on LIK's cookie

Rick

We have had quite a bit of practice recently with music scoring and the programs thereto.
I have been working up a reprint of a local Irish Session Book – purely out of a masochistic personal proclivity, while Lin has been scoring Digital Tradition tunes that we have in our files to make MIDIs for DT.

There is NO machine or program that any real live person can afford that does a decent job of copying from analog music to a printed score. You can get a sort of a MIDI from some kinds of software, by playing an instrument through a microphone pickup into the computer; but when you try to change the MIDI into written music, you get pretty crude stuff.

If you have an instrument with a MIDI output, almost any program going will let you "play" a tune into the computer's MIDI input, and will produce a semblance of a music score. The problem is that – unless you are a robot – the timing will make a real mess of the score. The approach that works, sort of, is to play the piece R-E-A-L-L-Y- -S-L-O-W-L-Y- -A-N-D- -M-E-C-H-A-N-I-C-A-L-L-Y. You can set most MID program input filters to ignore notes less than a certain length, or to round off note time values, so that you get something readable.

The best way to put things in is using stepwise input. You select a note time value (quarter, eighth, half etc), then you play the note on your MIDI instrument. The note appears on your screen. Then you select the time value for the next note, and play the note, etc. Because most stringed instruments have natural sustain, you might have to be careful using a MID equipped guitar or other similar instrument, to make sure one note dies before you start to enter the next one. The best input device we've found is the simple MIDI keyboard. You select the note time value with one finger (usually one keystroke) and play the note on the keyboard (with one finger of the other hand, if you're sufficiently ambidextrous).

You normally use the same input procedure with a mouse. Set the note time value, then click on the staff where you want the note. Many programs also have an "on screen" picture of a keyboard so that you can click on the key, if you like that style better.

Most SCORING programs will accept MIDI instrument input, will output MIDI files, and will convert a MID file to a written score. Most SEQUENCING programs will do the same things. There are very real differences in the quality of output that you get; but probably, for what I gather is your purpose, almost any or the common programs, commercial or shareware, will do what you want.

My preferred program is one called "Rhapsody" which, unfortunately, is no longer published. It's by the same people (passport) who made the "Music@Passport mentioned by Barbara, and yes, passport went bankrupt in 1978 and was bought by Finale, I think it was. Lin has been using "PrintMusic" (about $69 – made by the same people who make Finale). Both of these are in the category of SCORING programs, that also produce MIDIs.

I also have "CakeWalk Home Studio," (about $49 last time I looked – it came with my keyboard). All programs that have the name "CakeWalk" associated with them are SEQUENCING programs – intended to make MIDIs, but mostly also capable of producing printed scores (sort of).

I have looked at the "big gun" scoring programs – "Finale" and "Sebilius," and frankly I could do it quicker and neater by hand. Either of these programs is $500 or so. My recommendation is "Don't bother," but if you're curious, you can get "trial" versions of either off the web or on a CD (should be free) from most larger music stores. Hit a store that caters to music teachers and/or church organists. They'll stock them because all high school band conductors are writing their major opus ...(?) Printing is disabled in the trial copies, and there are no instructions. If you try to open the Help file, both will tell you that "Help is disabled" in the trial versions; but if you click almost any button on the tool bar and then hit "F1" the help files will pop open – works on either of them. Warning – neither of these programs will give you any idea of how a good program works.

I have had good recommendations for "Noteworthy," but have not looked at it. My last check on the web jabber about it indicated that its largest failing (as of a few months ago) was that you cannot tell it how many measures to put on a line. It breaks wherever it wants to. There was a promise of a fix for this, and lots of people live with it. I don't know whether it does a good job with lyrics and/or chords. Based on popular recommendations, it might be your best bet if you want to do it yourself, although for $20 difference you could get one of the cheaper commercial programs.

One of the biggest problems I have seen with ALL music scoring and sequencing programs is that they do not handle lyrics and other text particularly well. There are some simple reasons why this is true, but they're a little technical. Suffice to say that you can learn to live with it – with most programs.

There are also VERY FEW programs that let you print anything except the full page. Only a few programs let you output a file that you can use in a layout program like Publisher, etc. There are also VERY FEW programs that let you put more than one tune on a page. If this is a problem, ask VERY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS of someone who has used the program before you lock yourself into one.
As a matter of interest, Lin's "PrintMusic" claims to be able to take the output from a microphone (NON MIDI) and produce a score. We've tried, and it works about as well as playing a MIDI instrument into it if you play slowly and one note at a time, but you need a strong mic.

Incidentally – write your tunes in any key you like, with the chords for that key. Any decent program will transpose to whatever you want the final key to be. Most of the good programs will let you put fret diagrams in along with, or in place of, the chords, and will even transpose the diagrams – although you might not necessarily like the fingerings that the program chooses.

Although we can't promise a commitment to a tight schedule, both Lin and I would certainly be willing to give you whatever help we can. You can PM Lin In Kansas if you'd like to contact us.

John (the JIRK until we can get another email address and I can get my own cookie)