Hi

Way back I used a DOS - based program called Musicator for writing my music as a score or a simple notation. I need something very simple wich can do the same job!

-Easy notation
-Easy tranposion
-Easy printing

I know of Sibelius and others, but they are too heavy in use - too many features! I need something very simple and easy/fast in use.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks in advance!

 

Here's a few suggestions but I chose only from free offerings, I can give paid suggestions if you need. Pick the one that works best for your needs:
Crescendo
Finale NotePad
MC MusicEditor
MuseScore

 

Thanks Catalyst

Appriciated *yes*

 

Anytime, I gave you free options but I can also suggest some paid offerings. Also MuseScore has a few short tutorial videos on their site to make it easy for you to get acquainted with the software.

 

thanks for those Catalyst.. which paid one do you think is optimal for us amateur notation makers?

i.e. best balance of functionality and ease of learning the software...

 

Not a problem. I think if Sibelius is too difficult I would give Finale a shot as it's known for it's ease of use and it has good documentation. Have you tried this product yet? There are also some good tutorials on YouTube to help get you started. Then there are some DAWs like Cubase, Logic and Sonar also come with built-in notation capabilities. Really I think the free offerings like MuseScore might be better if you're new to scoring as it's feature-set won't be as great but then again neither will the learning curve. Once you're more acclimated you can choose something with more features only if you actually need them though.

 

oki doke.. will check into those..

 

Herr Durr
I just wanted to mention that Sibelius is actually a really good application and just because it didn't meet phloopy's needs it doesn't mean it can't meet yours. If you're willing to spend some time learning it I think you would really like what it has to offer and it's intuitive for the most part. There are videos on YouTube that can help in this process and eventually they'll make their way into AudioSex Academy when I have the free time. He asked for something with basic functionality and a quick and easy workflow. It's all about your skill level, what you're looking for and how much time you're willing to devote to the endeavor. Check the ones I gave you and look into their feature-set which is on the front page of each respective site, if that's all you're going to need then that's all you're going to need, why complicate matters.

 

very good.. will do.. *yes*

 

Since there is already a fine list I will simply add my experience with various software. Among the free ones I think the best is Musescore because it's very simple and straightfoward (Lilypond, you know how much I hate you ). On the paid ones I must say that I am stuck with Finale but probably Sibelius is much easier from the videos I saw. Finale has a tougher learning curve but once you overcome it, you'll get the job done easily (quick start video tips help a lot). I chose Finale time ago because it implemented human playback with Garritan insttruments (possibility to read and interpret classical and jazz articulations ) and now it's too late to get back.