Music scoring software help

[TrogL]

I've got something really messy to score.

I've already tried cakewalk.

It's scored for a LOT of voices broken into four choirs. Sometimes there's triple soprano parts and one bass. Two pages later there's four alto parts and nothing else. I need something smart enough not to print the voice lines not needed that particular moment. Otherwise the thing's gonna be a hundred pages long - mostly empty space.

[enigmatic]

1. Adobe Audition

or Sony Soundforge; both are great at this..

[TrogL]

3. are you sure?

Adobe Audition and Sony Soundforge both appear to be for mixing audio tracks.

I'm trying to write sheet music.

[enigmatic]

16. Whoops, sorry about that!

I misread your original post, mea culpa:)

[Lannes]

2. Have you tried Emagic logic Pro7?

http://www.apple.com/logic/ Its considered the best in the business.I have the PC version which they dont make anymore.

Also try Steinberg Cubase VST 5(got that too).Either one should be able to handle whatever you throw at it.I believe its cheaper too.

[TrogL]

5. Not a word about scoring

[Lannes]

8. Check out number 9 on their list of features

You can score with either of the ones Ive mentioned.Will you be playing a keyboard into the sequencer? You can do it that way on either of them and they will score what you have played.Or you can enter the notes manually with their step recorder.

[TrogL]

10. Unfortunately I don't have a PowerMac

It won't run on a 68040.

[Ladyhawk]

4. Ugh...Sibelius is the easiest scoring software I've ever used.

I've tried Finale and a few other things. Sibelius is easy.

LH

[TrogL]

6. I don't care about easy

Will it notate only those parts who happen to be singing at the moment?

[ET Awful]

7. Cubase used to make good stuff

but I haven't looked at it in years

http://www.steinberg.de/Category_sb4bd3-2.html

[TrogL]

9. Maybe I'm not making myself clear

There's gonna be a choir festival.

People are going to stand around holding music and sing.

Somebody wrote some music for it by hand on pieces of paper.

It's illegible.

I want to transcribe it using software so it's nice and legible, so people can stand there and read the music and sing.

Most music software just sets up the score and prints rests when parts aren't singing.

Some parts don't sing for several minutes.

The parts split. There could be anywheres up to 24 parts. If one part only is singing for several pages that means 23 parts worth of rests and people madly flipping pages.

I need something that will ONLY print the line that is singing at that moment and cram several of them onto one page.

Cakewalk comes close but not quite.

There is no sound, only paper. There is nothing to sample. There is nothing to play, no synthesizers - it's a choral piece.

[Jamastiene]

11. I'm not sure about software or regular sheet music, but

when I read guitar transcriptions, often times there will be a measure with a whole rest followed by a measure with a percent sign right in the middle of it and a notation on top of that measure saying repeat 18x or something to that effect. What that tells the guitarist is that they rest for one measure and then repeat that rest for 18 more measures. After that, it just continues with the next guitar part for that guitarist. It cuts down quite a bit of empty measures (other than the rests). Hope you can do that and make it work. I don't know much about straight up sheet music though. Not sure if you can do it with sheet music the same as guitar tabs.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Sadly, you can't do that with multiple parts, like choral scores

Choir members pretty much are always reading scores that show all the choral parts at the same time, unlike instrumental sheet music which is generally only for one specific instrument.

[Jamastiene]

15. Oh, okay.

In that case, I guess it won't work. I do know that Powertab is a guitar and bass sheet music/transcription software that allows for up to 7 different guitar and bass parts simultaneously. You can place the notes for both the treble staff and the bass staff even if you aren't a guitarist. Maybe that would help somewhat. Otherwise, it looks to me like the OP would have to print out tons of sheets of music. I don't completely understand the difference though.

[Lannes]

12. ohhhh... Ok TrogL

Now I get it.Ive worked with sequencers but not strictly notation software but here is a site that gives you alot to choose from.Good luck with your project and your performance.

http://www.skytopia.com/project/articles/notation.html

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. I hope you find one, because I have long wanted one

that also will refrain from printing score lines that aren't singing/playing.

[ChoralScholar]

17. Finale will do it

You put the whole thing in, and then 'Optimize Systems' and it will omit empty staves where they are not needed.

However, usage of this type of thing is very limited in choral music. I will qualify it with this, however, for major works, it is used much more often than in smaller works.

The litmus test will be this: If you do it, are your singers sharp enough to realize that the line they are reading (relative to the staff system) may change as often as every page?

[TrogL]

18. Yep. these are pros