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Help! (choosing notation program), Recital this Saturday.

L

Louie

The Listener
I have a chamber music recital coming up on Saturday, and trying to get an advanced copy of my piece to the other player as it looks like there will be minimal to zero rehearsal time. The composition is written on pencil and paper at the moment. It has been a while since I wrote music for live performance, and the last time I believe I used Finale, but was so long ago I'm not even sure I still have the original copy of Finale or that it will run on my OS! It is also a good time for a second computer trade-in as well, as I had to have my laptop serviced recently and the apple service people ended up re-installing a fresh OS and wiped everything clean, and still have almost a year left on the protection plan. I plan on using the Ipad for music reading and writing (non-DAW), plus being able to control Logic DAW which is on an iMac from another room. Trying to kill two birds with one stone.

I see that Dorico is popular around here and looks like there is a version for Ipad, and perhaps enter in notes with an Apple Pencil, but it seems that function inoperable at the moment (I also considered Sibelius but seems old U.I. and maybe too complicated for most of what I'm writing in notation).

The piece I've written is for 2 cellos. There are a few ghost percussive notes (hits on the upbeats while performing pizzicato, and string labeling (I, II, III, or IV) in conjunction with harmonics. Question is: Are these kind of notations "no problem" for the Ipad version of Dorico? From some of the reading I've done the Ipad version is quite similar to the standard version, which I'm assuming will have these notations?

Appreciate any help, thanks!
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Can't answer the question about the iPad version of Dorico. I think it can be done in Dorico by Saturday, even with the learning curve, but it would be very stressful. I tried out Dorico last year and ended up committing to it, but Sibelius definitely seemed easier to jump into.
 
musicalweather said:
Can't answer the question about the iPad version of Dorico. I think it can be done in Dorico by Saturday, even with the learning curve, but it would be very stressful. I tried out Dorico last year and ended up committing to it, but Sibelius definitely seemed easier to jump into.
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NOTION FOR IPAD by Presonus is very easy to get a handle on quickly. It may be faster than Sibelius. Works with Apple pencil.
 
Notion is certainly easy to use, but may not have the flexibility you need. There's very minimal formatting it allows.

Since you need this done in short order, it might be worth it to hire someone to engrave it for you, instead of trying to figure out the ins and outs of a particular program in that much of a hurry.
 
If it's two parts, I'd probably copy it by hand. Much faster than starting from scratch on a notation program, if you have zero experience.
 
Louie said:
I have a chamber music recital coming up on Saturday, and trying to get an advanced copy of my piece to the other player as it looks like there will be minimal to zero rehearsal time. The composition is written on pencil and paper at the moment. It has been a while since I wrote music for live performance, and the last time I believe I used Finale, but was so long ago I'm not even sure I still have the original copy of Finale or that it will run on my OS! It is also a good time for a second computer trade-in as well, as I had to have my laptop serviced recently and the apple service people ended up re-installing a fresh OS and wiped everything clean, and still have almost a year left on the protection plan. I plan on using the Ipad for music reading and writing (non-DAW), plus being able to control Logic DAW which is on an iMac from another room. Trying to kill two birds with one stone.

I see that Dorico is popular around here and looks like there is a version for Ipad, and perhaps enter in notes with an Apple Pencil, but it seems that function inoperable at the moment (I also considered Sibelius but seems old U.I. and maybe too complicated for most of what I'm writing in notation).

The piece I've written is for 2 cellos. There are a few ghost percussive notes (hits on the upbeats while performing pizzicato, and string labeling (I, II, III, or IV) in conjunction with harmonics. Question is: Are these kind of notations "no problem" for the Ipad version of Dorico? From some of the reading I've done the Ipad version is quite similar to the standard version, which I'm assuming will have these notations?

Appreciate any help, thanks!
Click to expand...
Is copying the piece on a printer an option? I've never used Dorico for iPad so I don't know how easy advanced technique labeling is.
 
To my knowledge, Dorico for iPad has the full feature set of the desktop program, if you pay to unlock it (there is a monthly cost, or you can buy a lifetime unlock).

The problem likely isn't what it can do, it is learning new notation software in such short order can be stressful.
 
Thanks everyone.

From what I'm reading here it sounds like it is going to be a crunch to try to get a nice looking computer copy in short order. I don't remember Finale being particularly difficult to learn on the fly, But then again, that was ages ago, and probably much less sophisticated software at that time.

Since it is only going to be two players, I'm going to hand copy for now as a couple posters have suggested. This way too, I'll be able to get an advanced copy out today. 0.9mm Pentel still looks decent--LOL.

I'm going to read over the existing thread on comparing Dorico vs. Sibelius so as not to beat a dead horse here. But appreciate any additional thoughts on which one is better as far as getting going virtually from scratch in a software. Like I said, I've only used Finale ages ago, so no muscle or UI memory habits built up that would bias one way or the other. Plus seems like iPad is the way to go for something like this.
 
How often do you plan to use the notation software going forward? If it's very infrequently, then for the sake of saving money you might want to look at Musescore. It doesn't support iPad and I don't use it myself, but it's free, and it probably has all the features you need.
 
I'm a big fan and heavy user of Dorico, but I wouldn't recommend (at least the desktop version) to be attempted to learn on such a time frame. It requires a lot of re-learning and re-thinking of methodologies, which takes time. It took me nearly 6 months of daily use to get super comfortable with it (though I would say it's been worth it).

That said, the iPad app is a tad easier to learn. I agree with above that MuseScore might be your best option – it's totally free, pretty powerful, and the newest version is easy to use and I think possible to pick up quickly – you could at least download it and poke around for an hour to see if it will work out for you. I used it back in my college days and I remember it was pretty immediately intuitive. Plus it has MuseSounds for playback which are rather impressive.
 
LeifEricson said:
How often do you plan to use the notation software going forward? If it's very infrequently, then for the sake of saving money you might want to look at Musescore. It doesn't support iPad and I don't use it myself, but it's free, and it probably has all the features you need.
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I'm a recent early retiree and music is a full time occupation now, so looking for a long-term software solution (nothing like a live performance to spur one into action). Mostly for arrangements, transcriptions, as well as new chamber music and jazz for rehearsal at my home studio, and hopefully more live performances. Also resurrecting and or revising older hand written pieces. Eventually, gradually taking some orchestra pieces in the DAW and scoring them for real--starting modestly.

Thanks! I'll also look into Musescore.
 
Louie said:
a recent early retiree
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IN that case, you have time to learn a 'real' notation program (though not by Saturday). All the cool kids seem to lean toward Dorico and, if you are your own arranger / orchestrator / copyist, it's no doubt ace.

One pro tip -- consider, if you elect either Dorico or Sibelius, getting a Stream Deck (with 24 buttons) and invest in Notation Express XL (from notationcentral.com). I don't want to spend any more time than necessary reading manuals, and this helps quite a lot.* I am not alone in finding the majority of notation programs frustrating.

I am a Finale refugee, having used it for over 20 years and still finding it annoying. The others are pretty annoying too; but the copyists where I've been working prefer Sibelius.

*I have no affiliation with any of these companies and don't get anything for recommending them.
 
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