LilyPond - Youtube introduction

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OCTO
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LilyPond - Youtube introduction

Post by OCTO »

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tisimst
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Re: LilyPond - Youtube introduction

Post by tisimst »

Here's another long unofficial series by Ben Lemon for beginners. It's starting to be a little old, but most of the content is still relevent to current versions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... lU1TsNzq2R
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Knut
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Re: LilyPond - Youtube introduction

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I haven't seen the whole thing, but based on some outtakes, this guy seems ill informed. Characterizing Finale and Sibelius' notational output as "horrible" doesn't seem fair at all.

Although I'm (almost) an exclusive Finale user these days, I've used Sibelius extensively in the past. I've also fiddled around a bit with Lilypond rather recently, but I'm so used to working within a GUI that I don't know if I will ever be comfortable with a text based application. (The same thing goes for LaTex vs. InDesign, btw.)

Regardless of input method, I recognize Lilypond's output as being superior to Finale and Sibelius in certain ways. There is, however, nothing about the working process or the various scores I've seen produced with Lilypond that makes me think the knowledge of the user is of any less importance to the end result than for a score produced in Finale or Sibelius, at least as long as where're talking about professional grade work.

Time will tell if I will ever master it, but so far I'd say that Lilypond, like Finale and Sibelius, has it's strong points. It isn't unanimously better, really, just different.
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tisimst
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Re: LilyPond - Youtube introduction

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Knut wrote:I haven't seen the whole thing, but based on some outtakes, this guy seems ill informed. Characterizing Finale and Sibelius' notational output as "horrible" doesn't seem fair at all.
I agree with you, Knut. Under the hands of an experienced engraver/copyist, there's no reason that a score done in Finale and Sibelius (or any other notation program for that matter) can't look excellent.
Knut wrote:Although I'm (almost) an exclusive Finale user these days, I've used Sibelius extensively in the past. I've also fiddled around a bit with Lilypond rather recently, but I'm so used to working within a GUI that I don't know if I will ever be comfortable with a text based application. (The same thing goes for LaTex vs. InDesign, btw.)
As with anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. The challenge is finding/making the time to practice using it. I, for one, have never regretted spending the time on it.
Knut wrote:Regardless of input method, I recognize Lilypond's output as being superior to Finale and Sibelius in certain ways. There is, however, nothing about the working process or the various scores I've seen produced with Lilypond that makes me think the knowledge of the user is of any less importance to the end result than for a score produced in Finale or Sibelius, at least as long as where're talking about professional grade work.
Well said. As the presenter of this video said, there is A LOT to learn in the LilyPond documentation. Thankfully, there is an index that helps you find information about anything and everything you want to know about using LilyPond. One thing that I really didn't like about the documentation is that it is organized in a very different way than most, if not all, other notation programs out there. It isn't immediately obvious where some things are. For example, if you want to know about the types of bar lines you can specify, you have to look the Notation Reference under the "Rhythms" > "Bars" > "Barlines" section. Oh, and by the way, you can't see the "Bars" and "Barlines" page links without clicking on "Rhythms". Definitely not as helpful as it could be, IMO. There are lots of other examples like this, which has caused me to consider making an unofficial docs site that is more obvious for new users.
Knut wrote:Time will tell if I will ever master it, but so far I'd say that Lilypond, like Finale and Sibelius, has it's strong points. It isn't unanimously better, really, just different.
Also true. It does a lot of things really well, but it still makes mistakes that aren't always obvious to correct without some experience.
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