# Out of Curiosity



## robgb (Feb 21, 2021)

Why does anyone spend large amounts of money for notation software when there's amazing free software like this:


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## d.healey (Feb 21, 2021)

robgb said:


> Why does anyone spend large amounts of money for notation software when there's amazing free software like this:


Marketing


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## cuttime (Feb 21, 2021)

I've seen MuseScore trashed mercilessly by some of the Finale/Sibelius crowd, and seen it get badmouthed directly to the developers when they were trying to address issues in good faith. I don't get the hate at all. I will admit that it's not terribly intuitive, but what notation software is? The manual and the other documentation is quite good, IMHO.


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## Joel Wilkinson (Feb 21, 2021)

> Why does anyone spend large amounts of money for notation software when there's amazing free software like this:



I don’t haha 😂 

But I think it has more to do with workflow, I can turn out a professional looking score in Musescore quick because I know how to use it, but for someone who has invested a ton of time into Sibelius or Finale that will come more naturally to them. The other thing is industry standard file formats. It’s the same reason why most working composers have a pro-tools rig. That ease of project transfer matters.

But I reckon in the next year or so Musescore will become a much greater force to be reckoned with. They are developing a whole new GUI which should improve usability immensely. If anyone is familar with Blender, remember what happened when 2.8 released? Suddenly it got way more usable and usage skyrocketed. I’d say education is also going to get onboard Musescore in the next few years.


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## chocobitz825 (Feb 21, 2021)

The last version I used was painful. It lagged, it was not at all intuitive and just made things take much longer than needed.

I will pay more if the more expensive option does the job better and faster.


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## robgb (Feb 22, 2021)

chocobitz825 said:


> The last version I used was painful. It lagged, it was not at all intuitive and just made things take much longer than needed.
> 
> I will pay more if the more expensive option does the job better and faster.


Oddly enough, I've tried several and Musescore doesn't seem any less laggy and unintuitive than the others. But maybe that's just me.


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## Toecutter (Feb 22, 2021)

Musescore improved but it's still another program for hobbyists, more like in Notion's league. It still has a LONG way to go before it can compete with Sibelius, Finale or Dorico, if you do engraving for a living. So yea people spend money on tools to make money, nothing new or surprising.


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## PaulieDC (Feb 22, 2021)

robgb said:


> Why does anyone spend large amounts of money for notation software when there's amazing free software like this:



It's only amazing because it's free. Open source software has its advantages, mostly price. Open source can and will bite you at crunch time, at some point (here comes the "never happened to me" replies, lol!). We fought with OBS for streaming last year and I finally trashed that waste of time software, paid for vMix and it's been stellar for 8 months. Just one example I realize. Commercial software has a much bigger support environment, that right there is worth the price of admission IMO.

You get what you pay for, and at times that can work in your favor. Ultimately, you just told most of your peers on here that we're stupid for buying branded software. I don't believe that was your intention, you were just making a point. But ultimately that's where it ends up. If you want to deal with open source software, fine, have at it.


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## chocobitz825 (Feb 22, 2021)

robgb said:


> Oddly enough, I've tried several and Musescore doesn't seem any less laggy and unintuitive than the others. But maybe that's just me.


looking at musescore 3, it's definitely a bit quicker than ver. 2 that I used before, but it's still not quite that appealing to me, free or not. It still feels laggy and I'm not a fan of the design. Even notion seems to be a somewhat smoother experience but to each their own. If the software does what you need, at any price point, use what gets the job done.


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## Joel Wilkinson (Feb 22, 2021)

> If the software does what you need, at any price point, use what gets the job done.


This ^

I’m becoming less and less of a “Software evangelist” as I get more experience. I could write in any DAW or use any notation program. Now there are some that I’m more familiar with or others that are needed for specific projects but any will do the job. I’ve done work in all the major DAWs and many smaller ones and the final product didn’t suffer from using one or the other. Just use whatever suits your workflow and needs. And don’t feel the need to justify it if the work you are producing is good.


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## dcoscina (Feb 22, 2021)

Wanna piece performed by an orchestra? Then Finale, Sibelius or Dorico are necessary for making full score and parts. If it’s just for composing, other notation programs like MuseScore or Notion are fine for most intents.


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## Tag (Feb 23, 2021)

Well, I did notate all my concerts and some arrangements in MuseScore so far. The instrumentalists were totally fine with it. But I do not mainly notate things. I produce and compose (in the DAW) way more than I notate. So I can imagine that it might be something different when it comes to making money from this way more frequent (e.g. being an arranger in full time or so).

Still my personal experience is: to me MuseScore is really great and fun to use. I did test some of the other softwares and funny thing is that they felt weird to me after all. Maybe it's a matter of taste / workflow or also a matter of experience (working longer than just a short test period with such a paid piece of software).


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## joebaggan (Feb 23, 2021)

If Dorico is good enough for Alan Silvestri, then it's good enough for me. I'll take his opinion over a hobbyist OP on a forum.


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## d.healey (Feb 23, 2021)

joebaggan said:


> If Dorico is good enough for Alan Silvestri, then it's good enough for me. I'll take his opinion over a hobbyist OP on a forum.


Like I said, "Marketing".


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## chocobitz825 (Feb 23, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Like I said, "Marketing".


Yeah, ultimately not the point. I don’t know any of the musicians I respected while coming up, to have used the same software I use now. My team and I have grown into a workflow around the software that works for us. 

I used musescore while studying and it was just a nightmare for me. Even if someone I respected used it, it’s just not for me.

from a tota workflow perspective I would say dorico, and staffpad have interesting features, but since I’m a studio one user, notion just happens to be a quicker solution for my needs. I totally understand why someone else’s workflow might favor musescore instead.


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## Toecutter (Feb 24, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Like I said, "Marketing".


Not in Alan's case. Did you watch the video? He does not need the promotion, nor the money to sell a piece of software. If he says Dorico is good, I trust his word. I've chatted with one of his assistants and they swear by Dorico. I'm a Sibelius guy but I can see the appeal.


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## d.healey (Feb 24, 2021)

Toecutter said:


> Not in Alan's case. Did you watch the video? He does not need the promotion, nor the money to sell a piece of software. If he says Dorico is good, I trust his word. I've chatted with one of his assistants and they swear by Dorico. I'm a Sibelius guy but I can see the appeal.


That video is a piece of marketing. It is an advert produced by Steinberg. It may contain the true opinion of an individual but that's impossible to determine. This is not an independent review by Alan Silvestri but I'm sure Steinberg would like people to think it is.


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## joebaggan (Feb 24, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Like I said, "Marketing".


Like I said, if Alan Silvestri and Hans Zimmer say they actually use certain tools, I'll take their word for it over amateur hobbyists on a forum.


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## chocobitz825 (Feb 24, 2021)

joebaggan said:


> Like I said, if Alan Silvestri and Hans Zimmer say they actually use certain tools, I'll take their word for it over amateur hobbyists on a forum.


I think the overall point is, just because they use it doesn't mean it's right for everyone else. Just because they use Dorico, doesn't mean it will make our work any closer to theirs. It doesn't mean it is the best notation software for our needs. Their endorsement may imply that it's a quality product, but if you're buying it because that's what they use, then you've been influenced by the marketing incentive behind the video.


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## robgb (Feb 24, 2021)

joebaggan said:


> If Dorico is good enough for Alan Silvestri, then it's good enough for me. I'll take his opinion over a hobbyist OP on a forum.



Oh, man, I feel so insulted. 🙄 By the way, I wasn't stating an opinion. Just asking a question.


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## dcoscina (Feb 24, 2021)

Tag said:


> Well, I did notate all my concerts and some arrangements in MuseScore so far. The instrumentalists were totally fine with it. But I do not mainly notate things. I produce and compose (in the DAW) way more than I notate. So I can imagine that it might be something different when it comes to making money from this way more frequent (e.g. being an arranger in full time or so).
> 
> Still my personal experience is: to me MuseScore is really great and fun to use. I did test some of the other softwares and funny thing is that they felt weird to me after all. Maybe it's a matter of taste / workflow or also a matter of experience (working longer than just a short test period with such a paid piece of software).


You used Musescore to prepare and print off parts for a full orchestra? Like 80 musicians? In my younger days I used Encore for a film score session and yeah it was fine. But that was a small group. For professional orchestras, you are required to conform to a certain format.


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## Tag (Feb 25, 2021)

dcoscina said:


> You used Musescore to prepare and print off parts for a full orchestra? Like 80 musicians? In my younger days I used Encore for a film score session and yeah it was fine. But that was a small group. For professional orchestras, you are required to conform to a certain format.


The count of musicians isn't that important here, more the count of individual voices. But I guess you basically meant that. It were orchestra pieces with 16 individual voices and also I wrote some childs concerts with around 5 individual voices (so latter one not really "orchestra", tbh, yeah).

Still: the orchestra pieces did work after all. I also was at the rehearsals and nobody complained at least, haha. :D


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## JPQ (Mar 1, 2021)

joebaggan said:


> If Dorico is good enough for Alan Silvestri, then it's good enough for me. I'll take his opinion over a hobbyist OP on a forum.



I respect all opinions we have different brains. some use still pencil and paper even.


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## Joel Wilkinson (Mar 1, 2021)

I started a notation course at Uni this semester. Focusing on high quality music notation for publishing. The Uni recommends Sibelius however I’ve set the challenge to myself to see if I can complete the course with Musescore. As I’ve said previously I’m a software agnostic, I’ll use whatever get me results so this will be an interesting test to see if I’m able to keep up with the other students. This will be a real world test of musescore, if anyone is interested I’d be happy to keep you updated on how it goes!


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## G.Poncelet (Mar 1, 2021)

I love Musescore and I use it in every project (symphonic, pop, jazz, movie scores etc)
It's so easy to use for me. I tried Dorico and I wanted to love it but it didn't happen. And the Steinberg support never answered my questions btw when I wanted to buy Dorico, crossgrade offer, where I find every answer in the Musescore forums extremely quickly. This is what I expect from a tool in professional situations: ease of use and quick answers when I'm in doubt.
Sure, the playback doesn't sound good, but it's a notation software, I need playback only to check for potential notation mistakes, that's it. If I need a mockup, then I use Logic.
That said, Musescore 4 will be able to integrate 3rd party plugins, like Kontakt or NotePerformer.
I use Musescore on my MacBook pro, I designed a Touchbar preset with BetterTouchTool, with all important shortcuts, life is so easy now lol
If anyone is interested just let me know, I'd be happy to share.
Have a nice day, fellow hobbyists


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