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Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 1:04 pm
by msmeritt
I use Digital Performer 5, which does plenty of good stuff for music but has minimal functionality in terms of generating sheet music. More recent versions have some more features, but I'm not in a position to upgrade to them esp. given the need to upgrade OS along with it.

Also, right now, and foreseeably, I only need something to produce lead sheets -- melody, lyrics, chord symbols. Nothing fancy.

Know of any cheap/free but decent software out there for creating decent lead sheets simply? Would I be able to export MIDI from DP and import in to make it even easier by giving me a head start somehow?

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:37 pm
by FMiguelez
.

At least one of the following seems to fit what you need (but NOT for free):

http://makemusic.com/notation_software.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think their SongWriter package might interest you, and it's only 50 bucks.

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:49 pm
by msmeritt
I've been looking at Songwriter today and find it pretty compelling. Now I'm just weighing whether it's worth the extra for PrintMusic or whether I wouldn't really use those extra features. Ah, slippery slope to more expenditures!

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 3:52 pm
by FMiguelez
msmeritt wrote:Ah, slippery slope to more expenditures!
Then it would probably be a good idea to really consider upgrading your OS and DP instead...
With 7.21 you can do the things you want. And you KNOW you want to upgrade to 7.2 anyway... at least you will HAVE to at one point.

It can be a PITA, but it wouldn't take you longer that a weekend.

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:53 pm
by jlaudon
I use Sibelius First which is the lite version, and costs around 99 bucks. It's great for doing lead sheets, lyrics, and I think the limitation is there are only 8 staffs (which is 7 more than I use :-).

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:06 pm
by Phil O
FMiguelez wrote:.

At least one of the following seems to fit what you need (but NOT for free):

http://makemusic.com/notation_software.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think their SongWriter package might interest you, and it's only 50 bucks.
I think Notepad is 10 or 12 bucks. Don't know if it does lyrics.

Phil

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:04 pm
by msmeritt
Part of me ponders putting money toward DP 7.2, but so far it's looking like Songwriter is the best option for me right now, so for that small amount of money, it's probably worth going for that and saving the DP upgrade for later. The only real advantages I see to PrintMusic over Songwriter for me personally are 24 staves instead of 8, and the ability to extract parts, neither of which I'm likely to need anytime foreseeably anyway. So if and when the time came that I needed those, I could decide then whether to pay to upgrade to PrintMusic or put that money toward the necessary things to upgrade to DP 7.

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:44 pm
by mikehalloran
>I think Notepad is 10 or 12 bucks. Don't know if it does lyrics.<

Notepad does 1 verse only. Songwriter meets your minimum requirements

You can compare features here:
http://www.finalemusic.com/CompareFeatu ... songwriter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

$30.00

Re: Lead sheet software

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2010 5:49 am
by msmeritt
It would definitely be Songwriter over Notepad.

I also discovered that I had a wire crossed in my head about DP. It's not true that I'd have to upgrade my OS in order to run more recent versions of DP. It's that if I had upgraded my OS too far I would have had to upgrade DP since my lower version DP wouldn't have been compatible. So a DP upgrade, including its own lead sheet functionality, is a viable possibility after all, even without an OS upgrade.

At this point, with the project I had in mind turning out to be not so urgent, I'm going to hold off on a decision and may end up just upgrading DP when the time comes, otherwise I'd definitely go with Songwriter. Thanks to all for the input.