I don't have alot of money. but I am trying to wrestle my way into songwriting. the best option I've seen so far is finale songwriter. It seems good to me because has everything that notepad has but I also see how I could really use the MIDI and mp3 exporters it has. but I have afew questions that some may be able to answer. does the mp3 exporter give you what you hear from finales software player or the MIDI. because I have used notepad and it's player sounds like the best I can get without spending afew hundred dollars. but the mp3 example that they supply doesn't sound that much above the best I've heard of MIDI. can anyone clarify this? also if someones opinion on this isn't very good is there any other good notation programs that have a good exporter. because the only other ones I've been able to find aren't as good as finale.

I personally do not care for Finale, thus why I use Sibelius. IMO, it has a slightly easier GUI to use, although Finale's engraving is great.

Sean Beeson

well the only option that I see for sibelius is over 500$. though my $300 a week living with parents budget could let me afford that I don't want to spend more then I have to. does sibelius have a $50 alternative? because I have heard good things about them. if it has the features I want and it's demo impresses me then I would consider that.

edit: I also found sibelius's site really hard to navigate. finale's site is really easy to find what I want. if I had chose based on thier web sites I would have already bought finale since they had a good site.

Sibelius is not the cheapest, and I am not sure if they have a cheaper version. I believe they do, but it is not targeted at the same audience.

Either check this place out, might be able to get a decent deal on the same software.

http://www.scitscat.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/2_25

Beeson

Quote:

Original post by escudo825 I don't have alot of money. but I am trying to wrestle my way into songwriting. the best option I've seen so far is finale songwriter. It seems good to me because has everything that notepad has but I also see how I could really use the MIDI and mp3 exporters it has. but I have afew questions that some may be able to answer. does the mp3 exporter give you what you hear from finales software player or the MIDI. because I have used notepad and it's player sounds like the best I can get without spending afew hundred dollars. but the mp3 example that they supply doesn't sound that much above the best I've heard of MIDI. can anyone clarify this? also if someones opinion on this isn't very good is there any other good notation programs that have a good exporter. because the only other ones I've been able to find aren't as good as finale.

With Songwriter, the mp3 export will use the soundfont that comes with the program.

If you're a student, you're probably eligible for the academic price on the full version of Finale. If you shop around (www.lentine.com for example) you can get Finale at the academic price of of $215. Finale comes with 100 sounds from the Garritan Personal Orchestra set, which is a major improvement over the soundfont you hear in Notepad.

with all due respect if you have $300 a week of liquid money maybe getting serious and just going for a high end program would be worth it. I paid only $130 for my sequencer which does a lot more than input midi notation (though spending a lot more on plugins)....however I did just purchase finale printmusic for about $70 because it's easier to use than the sequencer for straight up inputing notes on a staff. If you want to "songwrite" a sequencer may be better because you can record live instruments with them...I think of songwritting envolving a lot of recorded audio and composing involving a lot of midi (or handwritten) notation but your perspective may be different (compositions mostly involve midi due to a lack of an orchestra or other expensive instruments readily available). Anyways my point is to spend a bit more, you don't have to go out and buy the full version of either finale or sibelius (both have lower end versions btw). but dont limit yourself to much pricewise. Figure out your needs and look for something to accomodate them. If you know what you need (be specific) I may eb able to reccomend a program

I thought this post had already died :D .

anyway. mostly I just wanted a program to write music for my games. I figured that the sound I heard out of notepad while not amazing was acceptable, and would probably be fine for the smaller scale games I'll be making.

I've never really looked much into sequencers. pretty much with my near decade of reading sheet music I looked at a few and saw something that didn't use notes and I was confused. while I have found a couple that use notation and I was writing simple tunes instantly.

though I have heard it is possible to export MIDI and import it into a sequencer to get better instruments in place. though as I've said, my knowledge of sequencers is limited.

to sum it up again. I'm just looking for something that lets me write out music in a way thats familiar to me (notation) and exports an acceptable sound. so far it seems like finale songwriter with it's mp3 exporter would be fine, and if I wish for better sound I could just get a sound library and sequencer to use it through. anyway, that's about all I can think of for now. if that helps.

edit: cool, you're in oregon too jim. I don't think I've seen anyone this close to me on gamedev before :).

yeah I think you have a good plan. get a low end program like finale songwriter or finale printmusic to write music with and when you want to get a higher quality sound just pick up a sequencer and start buying high end virtual instruments to play back your midi files (really Im just restating what you just said heh). yeah I am hoping to get involved with a community of sorts for multimedia music composition and this forum is comfortable.

okay then I guess I'll just go with that. I was just curious if there was anything better that's in the $50 range. but it looks like there isn't. well, if notepad had an exporter then I may have even gone with that :P.

anyway, thanks for the help I've been given, Sean, jim, and anonymous poster :).

p.s. I'll be sure to stop by with some of my compositions later (when I get around to ordering the program).