Re: notation apps

[Hans Forbrich]

noname wrote:

> I have recently come across Lilypond, but since I am not a programmer I am a
> little overwhelmed.  Is there a notation application similar to Finale or
> Sibelius for the Linux platform?  Any assistance would be greatly
> appreciated.

NoteEdit seems to do a fairly decent job of capturing notes graphically, and is
only one of the many fine programs in that genre, but the whole genre is simply
designed to handle 'notes'.  It depends on what you want - graphics-oriented
programs make the music entry easier but simply do not handle the "niceties"
required to transform the 'block of notes' into sheet music.

I have also tried scanning using MusiTex' SmartScore and ended up taking twice
as long as manual input searching and fixing mistakes.

With Lilypond's ascii input, after setting up my music skeleton (paper, score
block) I input the notes very, very quickly (letter=note followed by an optional
number=duration).  Which is roughly what the graphical front-end programs give.
Then I go back and 'beautify' the music for production-ready quality.  It does
take time but the result have gotten a 'wow' every time!