Which Program For Digital Music?

The choice depends on exactly what you need to do with it and how much you are willing to spend, in terms of money and learning.

To answer the question satisfactorily, you would need to specify whether you are interested in MIDI management/editing or just notation.

Let me explain.

If you are interested in managing MIDI files (and, if desired, mixing with audio files), there are programs called sequencers, which print the content of the MIDI file in musical notation, obviously simplified; this is because the MIDI file does not contain all the information required to do a high-quality "engraving" (that's what it's called) (for example, a sequencer will hardly represent a trill or an acciaccatura as such or include fingering!). In fact, in the MIDI format, there is the concept of instrument (simulated timbre) and, for notes (synthetically), start time, velocity (intensity), and duration.

If you are interested in notation, then you need a notational editor, i.e., a program that handles the objects that can appear on a score, objects which, as mentioned, require a certain amount of information different from what is present in MIDI.

In any case, there are several compromise solutions; for example, if you have Linux/Ubuntu, I would recommend Rosegarden, which is Open Source, therefore free, and is a good compromise between a sequencer and an editor. There are also other programs of this kind that, besides printing a MIDI file in a fairly decent form, can also produce output for an editor, even a sophisticated one, such as LilyPond, which is a standard musical notation editor for computers.

Below is an almost complete list of software, omitting those that are highly specialized (for example, intended for a single instrument or tablature software):

Open source or Freeware

Denemo

Frescobaldi

Impro-Visor

LilyPond

MuseScore

MusiXTeX

NoteEdit

Power Tab Editor

Rosegarden

Proprietary

Capella

Cakewalk

Cubase (by Steinberg)

Encore

Finale

Igor Engraver

Mozart

Mus2

MusEdit

MusiCAD

Music Write

NOTION

NoteWorthy Composer

Overture

SCORE

Sibelius

Sonar (evolution of the Cakewalk family)

SmartScore

I have put those I have experience with or have tested in bold, even though I eventually set aside this type of activity to dedicate myself to other more pleasant ones. Some of these, like Cubase, are actual "Music Production Systems" and, I imagine, go beyond what you desire, but I included them anyway.

Bye

The response from the legendary Gennarino is excellent, even if he forgot to mention exactly what we do video courses on, damn it. I am talking about Apple Logic. Unfortunately, it only works on MAC OSx systems. So unless you create a DIY Hackintosh, you need to have a real Mac. I have also dealt with MPS on Windows platforms (Cubase, Sonar, Pro Tools, etc.), but nothing is as stable as on Mac, never a hitch!

Clearly, MPS (Music Production Systems) do not stop at MIDI manipulation, but also include audio track manipulation, synchronization, and track region filtering. The beauty of an MPS is the ability to use certain software that perfectly emulates some of the most expensive hardware equipment, such as Compressors, Pitch Shifters, Reverb processors, dB limiters, and more. Another fabulous function is the possibility of using instrument libraries to play on a MIDI track, which is what I do when I post some piano pieces here on the forum. The sound quality is very high (samples of a Steinway mod. D at 8 levels, but there are practically almost all pianos: Fazioli, Bösendorfer and more, generally of all instruments, from woodwinds to string instruments to percussion). In this way, it becomes difficult for someone without a highly expert ear to understand if the recording was made with professional studio equipment on an acoustic piano or if it is these libraries. In an MPS, you can also sample an instrument and create your own library. You finish with the mastering phase where stereo imaging is set, volumes are adjusted ad hoc, various filters are adjusted using Buses, and the signal is compressed and equalized; this is possible for each track (in the case of multitrack productions) or for the output signal (as a sum of all tracks). Obviously, it is also possible to print scores for the pieces we have played track by track, provided we have worked on Virtual Instrument tracks (VSTs that use MIDI).

It must therefore be decided whether your need is to record and thus produce music using a Music Production System as our friend Gennaro well said, or if you only need to write music and print it. In this second case, I recommend Sibelius. They showed it to us in an extra-university course on musical informatics. Very intuitive, professional, and well-made, but there is quite a lot of studying to do to know how to use it properly. Never like what needs to be studied for Logic, which is in English on top of that!

Regards

I am talking about Apple Logic. Unfortunately, it only works on MAC OSx systems. So unless you create a DIY Hackintosh, you need to have a real Mac. I have also dealt with VSTs on Windows platforms (Cubase, Sonar, Pro Tools, etc.), but nothing is as stable as on Mac, never a hitch!

Eh, I know well! Exactly like that: never a hitch, if you know how to use it well!!

Aside from this... ok, I think I will start looking at Sibelius, since what I need most is the musical notation itself.

@Gennarino

Ok... A varied list, I see... Have you also tried Finale... how did you find it? Bye!

Look, as far as I remember, I used Finale quite a few years ago (was it Version 5 or maybe 3 ???) along with Smartscore Lite from Musitek.

I don't know if you are familiar with the product, but it allows you to scan a musical score (typically represented in a PDF file) and input the result into Finale. In practice, Smartscore is like an OCR reader, except that instead of characters, it recognizes notational objects (Notes, ornaments, clefs, etc...).

The goal I set for myself back then was to produce, in my spare time, modern digital scores that were not copyrighted but were "Open Source".

A project of this kind is MUTOPIA, which is now restarting after a year of inactivity and releases musical scores (also in digital form if you want to make your own editions, for example with Lylipond), generally under a Creative CommonsLicense.

Unfortunately, Mutopia's production pace is very low because photocopying is much faster than digitizing, as even a good analog-to-digital conversion program still requires a verification phase (and eventual correction) by a human, which is much slower. For this reason as well, IMSLP (the Petrucci Library) constantly increases its advantage over the previous project.

Returning to Finale, what I can tell you is that input and/or corrections were extremely fast once you learned the tricks of the trade and the shortcuts; the print quality and notation possibilities were equally remarkable.

A bit less successful was the suite of programs used for the other acquisition task I performed, consisting of MIDI acquisition aimed at score production.

Two difficulties: the first was that audio-to-MIDI converters, as is also the case today, are practically terrible as soon as you play something complex for them; the second was that even with an original MIDI file, as soon as it was authentically "expressive," the programs would crash.

This is because they lacked (as they still do today) criteria to transform musical event information into musical notation (Example: if three notes in the bass channel, separated by thirds, start in rapid succession within the span of an octave, represent the whole as a chord preceded by a notation sign; or: if for two measures the velocity increases progressively and for two it decreases progressively, add dynamic indications; etc. etc.). Keep in mind also that these criteria are not even absolute, but must be customized by whoever produces the score.

A good candidate, from this point of view, was Cakewalk, which had a programming language (the infamous CAL Cakewalk Algorithmic Language!) that, by allowing the manipulation of MIDI musical events, could recognize these things! It's a pity the language was not very powerful and did not allow for the generation of notational information, but only for modifying MIDI musical events!

I hope that, in the meantime, things have progressed, but I have the feeling that more investment has been made in production systems than in notational ones (business needs and publisher strategies agreeing!).

Bye and good luck with your work

Thank you Gennarino... your advice is always useful to me... That's all for now. Thanks again.

Hi!!