Alternate Notation Programs with Giga?

[stevefu]

Maybe the more experienced composers out there can help me with this one:

Has anyone used Musitek\'s SmartScore 2.0 Pro Edition with Giga? I\'ve been tinkering with the demo (www.musitek.com) and it seems to offer a lot of MIDI adjustment versatility for a notation program.

[astrt4]

I think I would steer clear of SmartScore, at least until its future is more apparent. SmartScore is primarily a music scanning program. For a long time there were only 2 real options, SmartScore for Finale and PhotoScore for Sibelius. Now there is a much less expensive and better performing program than either of these two (SharpEye), and its files can be brought into Finale. This makes the future of SmartScore seem dimmer. And there are other scanning programs being developed. If companies like Sibelius are struggling to survive with 20%-30% of the market share, you can bet Musitek won\'t be having an easy time.

[stevefu]

Thanks astrt4. After using the demo for a while, I came to a similar conclusion. Anyway, as far as notation goes, I think both Sibelius 2.0 and Finale 2002 are the only serious choices - I could jump into both programs\' demos and start writing the music easily without studying the documentation. For note-entry speed and ease of basic use, I was able to do things *very* quickly in Sibelius. Unfortunately, I ran into some problems with Finale, specifically using Cut/Copy/Paste on notes/bars isn\'t explained in the short Demo instructions and doesn\'t work the way it does in Sibelius.

[LifeForceExplorer]

Just for the research-obsessed (like me) there\'s a terrific notation/sequencer program out of Sweden called \"Igor\" (www.noteheads.com). But it does NOT, alas, work well with GS at this time. It changes channels for an instrument as it plays your synth! Alas - looks like a fascinating program. They\'re getting enough hits from GS users now that I think theyve noticed. One of those programs to check again in a year or so.

[PatS]

In addition to Finale, Sibelius, and Igor, consider GenieSoft\'s Overture 2 (Overture 3 for Windows and MacOS should be released sometime this month). Opcode used to own and distribute Overture. But they sold it to Cakewalk, which eventually sold it back to the developer, Don Williams. The Instrument Definitions and MIDI playback control in Overture are similar to those in Cakewalk\'s Pro Audio 9 and Sonar (sans the MFX plug-ins and a few other features). BTW, Don is very much aware of GigaStudio and may have some surprises for us. I\'ll let you know after I receive the beta.

For more information, go to http://www.geniesoft.biz/ (\"http://www.geniesoft.biz/\").

Pat

[Bill]

One of the problems with Overture in the past was that it only supported 1 MIDI port. Any word on version 3 in that regard?

[astrt4]

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Unfortunately, I ran into some problems with Finale, specifically using Cut/Copy/Paste on notes/bars isn\'t explained in the short Demo instructions and doesn\'t work the way it does in Sibelius.
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To access the help documentation in the demo of Finale 2002, press F1. You\'ll find copying measures in there.

To copy measures, highlight the region with the MassMover Tool, and either drag the selected region to the target, or ctrl+shift+click the target region. You can turn on filters for copying only certain items (for example just the articulations).

[PatS]

Originally posted by Bill:
One of the problems with Overture in the past was that it only supported 1 MIDI port. Any word on version 3 in that regard?<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">I\'ve never tried accessing more than one port in Overture, since I use it mainly for notation, not playback. But as in Pro Audio and Sonar, all four Nemesys ports, as well as the four Marblesound ports for GOS/Maestro Tools, do appear in Overture 2\'s Instrument Definitions window and thus in the Track window. I\'ll check it out tonight. BTW, I have the Windows version; I have no idea what the limitations of OMS are for Mac users.

Pat