I have just spent some time looking at the current state of play of music notation software to bring myself up to speed after a gap of fifteen years, and I’m sharing the results here in case they are useful to anyone else.
This page was first published (March 29, 2024) with only my search results but I already have added more information from other people and I am gradually adding my own thoughts after downloading and trying some of the new software. (Latest additions: 4 April 2024)
My background
I was an early adopter of music notation software, back in the late 1980s in the days of monochrome monitors and dot-matrix printers. I chose the best software I could find at the time; the company went bust and I lost access to all those files. Again I chose the best software I could find at the time; the company went bust and I lost access to all those files. Again I chose the best software I could find at the time; the company stopped supporting Mac, and I lost easy access to all those files (by then I was smart enough to find workarounds).
Eventually I settled on Sibelius, which I was (then) able to buy outright. I used the current versions until the company stopped offering free updates, and kept using the older version because it still worked. My first version was v.3 (2003) and it was updated to v.6 in 2009, which was after the company was sold to Avid in 2006 but before Avid made radical changes in 2012. Wikipedia has the history at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibelius_(scorewriter)
A few more years later I found I couldn’t install my copy of the program on any other Mac and the longevity of my hardware loomed as a distant threat to my software.
At this point, my old iMac is still working (touch wood!) and running Sibelius. Since they both date back to 2009, I can’t complain. However, I have just bought a laptop which may become my full-time replacement for the iMac, and that makes the issue of a replacement for my old Sibelius more pressing. I don’t have much need for notation software these days but I would hate to lose all of the work I have put into arrangements and compositions over the last 20 or 30 years.
The big four
Four packages stand out from the crowd. Sibelius and (especially) Finale have loyal customer bases but Dorico is providing a good third option. MuseScore is less capable but wins on simplicity and price. Notion is also mentioned but it is clearly another step down.
Two American university sites provide good current information about the top four.
Comparison of Notation Software
Updated on January 11th, 2024 online.berklee.edu/help/notation-software/2078428-comparison-of-notation-softwareThroughout courses at Berklee Online, students may need to use notation software. … This article will aim to explain the differences among seemingly similar applications.
Certain courses will have requirements on which pieces of software you can use, and the four primary pieces of notation software that a student will encounter are:
• MuseScore
• Finale
• Sibelius
• DoricoMuseScore
MuseScore is a very popular notation software, as it offers a very similar range of features and user experience as Finale, but is a completely free option. It offers features such as:
• Ability to transfer to and from other programs via MusicXML, MIDI, and more formats …For the majority of courses, MuseScore will have most of the features that students will need, making it a very solid choice, especially considering its (lack of a) price point. You may find Finale Notepad online, which is a free, feature-reduced version of Finale. It’s worth noting, however, that Finale Notepad has not received any updates for quite some time
Sibelius
Sibelius is one of the most widely-known pieces of notation software, and is generally thought of as a very solid choice of notation software. One important aspect is that as an Avid product, Sibelius follows Avid’s pricing structure of being subscription-based only; there is no option for a one-time purchase up front. [Not quite true – see below.]Dorico
Dorico is made by Steinberg, the developers for the Cubase DAW, and is a relative newcomer on the scoring scene, having been released in 2016. … A lot of legacy Finale users feel that Dorico’s ground-up design is refreshing and addresses some of the pain-points that they may have developed with Finale and/or Sibelius. … even though it may lack the pedigree of Finale and Sibelius, Dorico is already considered one of “the big three” in the notation software world. In terms of pricing, Dorico comes at a more substantial upfront cost at $579.99 for the full version, or $359.99 for educational pricing. However, this is a one-time price and does not require a subscription. Users can also make use of a 30-day trial or the free SE version to see if Dorico’s design language and workflow appeals to them.
libraryguides.mcgill.ca/musicsoftwareresources/musicnotationsoftware is another page like Berklee’s and covers the same four programs. Its overview is shorter but its additional resources are far more extensive, including links to all sorts of useful sites.
There are three versions of Sibelius software, ranging from Sibelius First, a free, limited version of the software, to Sibelius Ultimate, the full, paid version of the software.
reddit.com/r/Composition/comments/16vw7nr/music_notation_software_recommendations/?rdt=58149 has a good quick intro to Finale and Sibelius and a better, longer, intro to Dorico from a user’s viewpoint.
kevinlynchnj.com/blog/best-software-for-music-notation is brief but seems okay. Its top four are identical.
Other software options
Frescobaldi www.frescobaldi.org/ is free open-source notation software. The only person I know who uses it, likes it; but even he admits that only a coder could be really comfortable with it.
Noteworthy noteworthycomposer.com/ has been around for a long time. It’s cheap but not free. It seems to be reasonably powerful but to have very limited options for importing/exporting files and for layout. Notion seems to be comparable and in the same price range.
An update on Sibelius
There are three versions – free, small subscription and big subscription. The differences are tabulated in detail at resources.avid.com/SupportFiles/Sibelius/2023.11/Sibelius_Comparison_Guide.pdf but amount to the fact that the free version is very limited indeed and the even the mid-level version is missing some fairly important options. Having downloaded the free one to play with I can say that Avid gives users plenty of reasons, and constant reminders, to upgrade!
A quick way to add music notation to MS Word document
This is somewhat off-topic but good to know.
https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/130935/quick-way-to-add-music-notation-to-ms-word-document
The Question: I need a quick way to add music notation, 2-4 bars, to tune entries in my MS Word document set list, to spark my memory for starting the tunes. So far, I’m taking photos of the sheet music, cropping, then copy-pasting them into the MS Word document…
The Answers: many and varied, so there’s something there for any similar need – worksheets, textbooks, etc.
Audio to MIDI to … anything, really
Ian said on Facebook:
Malcolm — huge advances have been made in the last 2 years in Artificial extraction of MIDI from Audio. As you know, music notation can be readily be taken from MIDI. I am creating MIDI files of piano music to permit my Disklavier and LX Player grand pianos to re-perform from YouTube Video, DVD, CD, LP, 78 or cylinder formats.
By this means I have created new ‘live played’ performances spanning 120 years of recordings to the present era, from pianists like Pugno in 1903; Rachmaninov in 1933 and Trifonov , this year.
Here is my extraction played ‘live’ from a 1933 disc of Rachmaninoff’s performance of Haendel’s Harmonious Blacksmith
https://soundcloud.com/ian-williamson-42549386/handel-pb-rachmaninoff-1933-via-ai-conversion-to-midiMy point is that some remarkable piano arrangements, such as several bon-bon encore pieces by Horowitz which were only ever performed by him, can now be read by AI and transcribed from MIDI to paper scores for edification of other pianists. … Try AI-MIDI, Apple’s ‘Piano-transcriptionist’ or Audio2MIDI.exe (PC equivalent), or FADR.com.