I think Notation Composer is underpriced undersold

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I've been using Notation Composer for almost 4 years now.

I still consider myself a Novice Musician.

But I'm not a novice when it comes to computers. I've been a developer since 1980 and started developing software on Windows since Windows 3.0. I know good software when I see it.

I have tried Sibelius and Finale a couple times thinking I'd get more for more money. But I just don't.

The Notation support is crazy good.
The documentation is so well done, and I know what it takes to write good documentation for software because I've done it. It's a huge task.

$57.00 you're nuts. Don't undersell your selves.

I'd pay what I would pay for Sibelius and Finale with out hesitation.

But I probably would not have when I started because I wouldn't know the trade offs to look for.

The only thing missing to me is more (and better) file format support so I could import from or export to Sibelius and Finale easily. I know there are some work arounds for that.

The next most important would probably be smooth scrolling, I know it's on your todo list. I go to great lengths to prune my tunes down so they fit on screen (with repeats and multiple endings) and I spend a fair amount of change on hardware to get what I want on the screen. Smooth scrolling would allow me to zoom in further so I can see it easier. The sudden jump to another page is not good, so I generally try to avoid it. I believe Sibelius and Finale do support smooth scrolling and good support for multiple file formats. P.S. Smooth scrooling should support smoothly looping the whole song too.

For example I'd love to run Notation on a Windows 8 tablet, but the screens are too small to fit the whole tune on a the screen at once with a zoom level I can see. If it smooth scrolled nicely that would solve that. I can't deal with it jumping.

One other annoyance is when I export to MIDI. I often have several versions of tune on one .NOT file. And I may have several flavors of backup instruments. Each Part "View" Mutes and Views what I want by customizing the Part and which staffs I want muted. This works awesome by the way I could not find a way to do anything close to this in other products.

But if I export to MID it does not obey mutes and it's one big mess. I have to delete all the staffs I don't want to export. This seems like an easy fix. Ignore the staff if it's muted. Perhaps there is a way because I never asked :). If I recall correctly it does not obey repeats and alternate endings either. It just sends all the flat notes out ignoring the repeats and alternate endings (i.e. you'll get all endings back to back) from all staffs. It also ignores the "Edit Repeat instructions".

It needs to Export exactly how it would play within Notation.

Sibelius and Finale waste way to much screen realestate to make it look pretty. You can't click the mouse to have it jump to play back to where you clicked.

[Sherry C]

Hi,

Thanks for the very thoughtful and detailed feedback here - we love it when folks take the time to do this as it helps us better understand what you like or want :)

File format support for other filetypes is on the "to do" list (specifically MusicXML, as it's the defacto "all speak" format). Smooth scrolling is also on the "to do" list. You're right that it would make playback on smaller screens much better.

Exporting MIDI - For the muted staves, we have toyed around with an "Options" dialog that would allow exporting only staves that aren't muted. This would require some careful consideration, though, as a "muted" staff is still part of the file. We'll add your vote to the cause :)

Re. the exported repeat issue, I think all you need to do to make life grand is to be sure to check the "Write out repeats..." box at the bottom of the Export As MIDI File dialog box. Checking that option should export a .mid file that plays back just like the .not file plays in Composer, unless I'm not understanding the problem properly.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Notation Composer, and thanks again for the encouragement and suggestions!

ttfn,
Sherry

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Re. the exported repeat issue, I think all you need to do to make life grand is to be sure to check the "Write out repeats..." box at the bottom of the Export As MIDI File dialog box. Checking that option should export a .mid file that plays back just like the .not file plays in Composer, unless I'm not understanding the problem properly.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Notation Composer, and thanks again for the encouragement and suggestions!

ttfn,
Sherry

Ok, I don't think I saw that repeats option, I'll try it.

As far Muted staffs just make it an option next to "Write out repeats..."

"Write out muted staffs..." and default it on.

[Sherry C]

Hi George,


As far Muted staffs just make it an option next to "Write out repeats..."

"Write out muted staffs..." and default it on.

Excellent suggestion! Might I poke you (or anyone else) for a thought on the following?

Background info: A user can have different staves muted for different parts, so what they hear can potentially vary depending on what Part they are viewing.

For example, if the user creates a Piano Reduction from an orchestral file (ie., lots o' instruments) using Part/Prepare Piano Reduction, then when they view that Part, all other instruments are muted except the piano. The other instruments are still present in the file, and can all be heard in the Conductor's Score Part.

Currently if you are viewing the Piano Reduction Part, then use File/Export MIDI to export a .mid file, all the staves in the file get exported - not just the Piano staves. This is true when viewing any Part. For example, if you have a big band file and are just viewing the bass Part (that would be me ;) ), and use File/Export MIDI, all the instruments get exported.

This is where things can get a bit complicated, because different people use the software for different things :)

What does the user expect when they are viewing a Part, and then go to File/Export MIDI? I'm asking this as an honest "what do users do in real life?" question, because we want to make things as intuitive as possible. Here are some possible option scenarios that come to mind for the option.

New option(s) in the export dialog to

"Include all muted staves (exports all staves in this file)"





"Include only staves in this Part"





Select specific staves to include in the exported MIDI file (this would open a dialog with a list of all staves in the file).



Thoughts, comments, suggestions?


Thanks!
Sherry

[mswlogo]

Hi George,



Excellent suggestion! Might I poke you (or anyone else) for a thought on the following?

Background info: A user can have different staves muted for different parts, so what they hear can potentially vary depending on what Part they are viewing.

For example, if the user creates a Piano Reduction from an orchestral file (ie., lots o' instruments) using Part/Prepare Piano Reduction, then when they view that Part, all other instruments are muted except the piano. The other instruments are still present in the file, and can all be heard in the Conductor's Score Part.

Currently if you are viewing the Piano Reduction Part, then use File/Export MIDI to export a .mid file, all the staves in the file get exported - not just the Piano staves. This is true when viewing any Part. For example, if you have a big band file and are just viewing the bass Part (that would be me ;) ), and use File/Export MIDI, all the instruments get exported.

This is where things can get a bit complicated, because different people use the software for different things :)

What does the user expect when they are viewing a Part, and then go to File/Export MIDI? I'm asking this as an honest "what do users do in real life?" question, because we want to make things as intuitive as possible. Here are some possible option scenarios that come to mind for the option.

New option(s) in the export dialog to

"Include all muted staves (exports all staves in this file)"




"Include only staves in this Part"




Select specific staves to include in the exported MIDI file (this would open a dialog with a list of all staves in the file).


Thoughts, comments, suggestions?


Thanks!
Sherry

The case you described is a classic usage.

But another common usage especially for practicing, which is what I suspect most users use Notation for is have having multiple versions of a Instrument.

So I might have a simple Piano Part or a More Complex one.

For a Melody I might have one with Drones and One without.

Or with Grace Notes or Without.

Often the Grace notes don't sound good on MIDI. So I'll clone the one with Grace notes, take the Grace Notes out. The go back and VIEW the version with Grace notes but I'll mute the one in view and unmute the one I cloned and removed grace notes.

I'll do similar things with drones or other complexities that I don't want to hear but I do want to see.

Most of the time the only thing I need to hear is a simple backing instrument (i.e. Chord progression) or a basic version of the Melody.

In fiddle you might apply a pattern, like a shuffle or you might accent the back beat.

So I'll have a Simple Melody version, one with a shuffle and another with the backbeat notes accented.

To make an accented version I raise the volume of the notes that fall on beats 2 and 4.

And in fiddle sometimes there is 3 versions of the Melody using the same chord progression.

I keep this all in one .NOT file.

This is super powerfull.

So however you decide to do it, keep this use case(s) in mind.

I think the simplest is "Export All Staffs" (which is what you do now) vs "Export what you would currently hear if played back within Notation under the current "Part"". Or more simply "Obey current Part rules".