Forwarded Message from the SPEBSQSA Automated Mailing List

Date:    Sat, 14 Oct 1995 17:35:28 -0500¶
From:    Peter Steiger <pbs@METRONET.COM>¶
Subject: Re: music writing software

On Fri, 13 Oct 1995, Anja Johansson wrote:
> Before Finale, I used another program called "Professional Composer",
> which is easier to use, but leaves you less freedom in layout (it is
> difficult to make different rythm patterns in the different parts, for
> example), and the playback features are not so good.
>
> Anyone who wants to discuss this further is welcome to email me
> private (or to the whole list, if you think it will interest more people).
>

What the heck, this is worthy of some wasted bandwidth.  I'd like to hear
from others on specific likes and dislikes about software they've tried.

I came THIS CLOSE >< to buying "Songwright"; from all the ads it sounded
perfect.  Fortunately, a friend who already had it let me try it out
before I threw money after it.  I'm glad I tried it first:  I was very
disappointed.  I'm sure the output quality is fabulous, but apart from
the samples that came with the program, I never got to find out.  I spent
about a half a day trying to enter a simple four-part arrangement, and
never got it to play back correctly.

Then I found a demo if "Winsong", and I was hooked.  It took me 10
minutes to get it installed and start entering music.  I didn't even
need to refer to the extensive online help: It's that intuitive.

I don't go in for all that fancy sequencer stuff; I just want to put notes
on a staff and play them back or print them out.  I like to easily add or
change instrument assignments, volume, etc., and Winsong lets me do that
and more with a quick click and drag.  I can put as many parts as I want
on a single staff, or put every part on a separate staff, and
copy/transpose sections all over the page.  In short, composition
is a dream.

When you're finished, you can save your work as a MIDI file or in the
proprietary format WinSong uses (it also reads in MIDI songs developed
elsewhere, and accepts data entry directly from a MIDI instrument).
What else?  Oh, it handles triplets (up to quintuplets, actually) nicely,
dotted notes, staccato notes, key signature and time signature changes,
ties (on the same note only), and dynamics, all of which affect the sound
through any FM-synthesizer or MIDI device that Windows recognizes.

That's the upside.  Alas, nothing is perfect (especially for $80 in a
market typically dominated by software that costs 10 times that much).
Printouts can be beautiful: The program also allows placement of lyrics,
dynamics, and many other notational devices that do not affect the play
but do enhance the printed page.  However, you have to go through some
painful gymnastics on-screen (moving each staff various distances from
the top of the screen and each other) to get the right inter-staff
spacing on the printed page.  That can be a real chore, and entering
lyrics is rather tricky:  You can only enter enough words to fill a few
beats, and then click to another tool (indicating that "snip" of lyric is
complete) or the program will not align lyrics with measures.  Font and
scaling options are extremely limited.  The result is a serviceable, but
unwieldy, printout system.

When I first got interested in WinSong, the author was an active
participant in Compuserve discussions about MIDI.  Nowadays, he's long
since disappeared and his grandiose plans for improvements never came to
pass.  Worse, when I called the manufacturer (Softronics), they said
there are no further updates planned for the product.

Still, for $80, it's one of the easiest notation programs I've ever
seen.  Even for its flaws and lack of support, it's far better than many
of the $500 programs I've test-driven.  Many times my aggravation with
some of WinSong's weaker points have sent me in search of something
better, and every time I've come back to WinSong after a disappointing
(and fruitless) search.

Still, I'm always interested in hearing about other peoples' favorite
utilities.

pbs¶
bass, "Harmonically Challenged" barbershop quartet

___¶
* UniQWK #5002*