Compare Notation Software Products

Whether you're a professional or an everyday musician, we have a solution that adds up to serious fun.

FEATURES and BENEFITS		COMPOSER	MUSICIAN
	Download MIDI files and transcribe them to sheet music as the notes play on the screen

Enjoy and study the music notation of a song as it plays

Practice music as you sing along or play your instrument with accompaniment

Quickly prepare parts from a MIDI file for yourself or musicians in a performing group

	Prepare an "Easy Notes" part for student musicians, showing note letters (for example "C") in the noteheads.
	Prepare a "Sing-Along" vocal part, for easy sight-reading from the screen while the song plays.
	Prepare a fake book lead sheet part, with melody and chords.
	Prepare piano reduction of a score that has multiple instruments or voices.
	Extract individual parts for the players or singers in your music group.
	Transpose an instrument's part to its natural key, such as for a Bb clarinet,
	Split a single piano/keyboard staff into right- and left-hand staves.
	Split a MIDI drum staff into separate one-line drum instrument staves.
	Split a staff into melody and accompaniment parts.

Annotate the sheet music that has been transcribed from a MIDI file

	Add lyrics.
	Edit note beams.
	Transcribe the following types of ornaments: grace notes trills tremolos Temporarily display an ornament as written-out notes, or revert it to a written-out performance.
	Add accent marks and articulations, dynamic marks, hairpin crescendo marks, slurs, pedal marks, and other special music symbols.
	Add staff symbols: brackets and braces, clefs, key signatures, and barline types.
	Add free text anywhere in the score.
	Add rehearsal marks.
	Add 8va octave marks.
	Add repeat barlines and endings, which will be interpreted during playback.
	Add special repeat directives, such as "D.C.", for which you can specify the destination measure.

Format and print the score and parts

	Choose the default font size, face, and style for various categories of music symbols and types of text. The default can be overridden for specific items.
	Specify the default horizontal spacing (degree of stretch or compression) and default vertical spacing between staves.
	Control the layout of each page: page breaks, system (line) breaks number of measures on any given system number of systems on any given page vertical spacing between any pair of staves vertical spacing between adjacent systems relative horizontal spacing of individual measures within a system (line).
	Add and control the placement of page title, footer and header text.
	Optionally hide empty staves.
	Expand or collapse multiple-measure rests.
	Format parts using templates.
	Display one-line drum instrument staves using special percussion noteheads.

Re-arrange the notes of an existing song or create music from scratch

	Create a new song using a pre-defined template for a variety of solo instruments, duet pairs, small ensembles, and large ensembles. Or, use a custom song template that you have previously prepared.
	Add notes by whatever method is most convenient for you: with the mouse and computer keyboard. using the Sequential Note Entry method, whereby where you rarely have to select the note duration, even when the sequence of notes has different note duration. using Step-Time recording, one note or chord at a time, from your MIDI keyboard or input device.
	Change pitches of notes.
	Add staves (instrument parts).
	Add measures.
	Add ornaments: graces notes trills turns mordents arpeggios tremolos
	Change the meter and barline positions.
	Transfer your score to other popular music notation programs, such as Finale® and Sibelius®, using the Music XML file format.

Record music from your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI instrument

Edit the performance (MIDI data) of your music

	Notation Composer offers the features of a typical MIDI sequencer program but in a more musically oriented way. Editing of the music performance is highly integrated with the music notation. Notation Composer offers an intuitive and fun way to refine the details of the performance without requiring that you know details about MIDI nor requiring you to work with tedious numbers.
	Edit the exact as-performed rhythms of notes while viewing Piano Roll Notation that is drawn on top of the notes.
	Edit the loudness of individual notes while viewing "vectors" (lines drawn at an angle from each notehead) that graphically show the loudness of each note.
	Snap ("quantize") the as-performed attack or release of a note to its notated rhythm.
	Lock the as-performed rhythm of a note, as that you can independently change its notated rhythm.
	Edit the underlying performance of ornaments: grace notes, trills, turns, tremolos, and arpeggios.
	Graphically edit the song tempo.
	Graphically edit the volume level, left-to-right pan, pedal, and pitch bend activity in a staff.
	Graphically edit any MIDI controller data.

	Search the Internet for MIDI files, download, and unzip them using a built-in Internet browser.
	Transcribe MIDI file to sheet music with excellent accuracy, including detection of swing rhythms, grace notes, trills and tremolos.
	Correct any errors that might be made in the transcription of the note rhythms.
	Automatically analyze and display chord names.

	Highlight the notes and lyrics as they play.
	Slow down the tempo so that you can hear the rhythms more clearly.
	Temporarily increase the volume of one staff while decreasing the volume of other staves, so that you can focus your listening on a particular instrument or voice. "Solo" a staff while the others are muted.
	Organize songs into playlists and play them back with Notation's built-in jukebox.

	Transpose the pitch of a vocal part to match your voice range.
	Automatically turn pages.
	Set up practice loops, to repeat a section of the song at optionally increasing tempos.
	Remotely execute commands from your keyboard, such as Start Playback, End Playback, and Fast Forward.

	The recording of your performance is transcribed using the same excellent MIDI-to-notation transcription technology that Notation uses to transcribe MIDI files to sheet music.
	Set up the tempo for recording.
	Set up the number of pick-up measures.
	Record (punch in) into a selected region of a staff.
	Add (punch in) a recording of pitch bends or MIDI controllers, on top of notes previously recorded.

Create and edit sheet music fast, using your keyboard, mouse, or MIDI instrument.	$87.99 USD

Convert music (MIDI) files into sheet music you can see, hear, and play along with.	$37.99 USD

Notation Composer