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Software: Overture

Posted: 27 Dec 2016, 18:08
by benwiggy
Has anyone tried Overture 5? It claims to be by the team that wrote Encore, but in a brand new version this year. The crossgrade price is quite reasonable.

https://sonicscores.com/overture/

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 27 Dec 2016, 21:59
by benwiggy
I tried it, briefly. The slurs were like rainbows, and clashed with hairpins. It crashed when I tried to play back.

The font, Aloisen, seems nice, and the program has an option to use Bravura, so it might be SMuFL. No .json file, though.

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 28 Dec 2016, 15:36
by OCTO
I have seen that webpage earlier but I had lost interest since I couldn't find any example that would convice me to buy it. Apppreciated if anyone who uses it could post an example (advanced, edited) of Overture.

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 30 Dec 2016, 07:00
by jrethorst
It's by Don Williams, who wrote Encore. I started with Deluxe Music Construction Set, moved to Professional Composer, actually learned Finale v. 1, upgraded to 2 and 3, looked for something easier, found Overture 2 much easier, upgraded to 3 and 4. I'm not planning to upgrade to 5, since notation is all I need and 5 is closer to a DAW. With 4, the interface is so easy it's fun and output is good. There are bugs, but I've been looking at Sibelius 7.5 and have noticed bugs there too. 5 is new and I think has more bugs. 5 is SMuFL. I agree that the Aloisen font is nice: look at Jan's comparison at http://elbsound.studio/music_font_comparison.php and compare Aloisen to Sonata -- very little difference. There's a demo of 5 at sonicscores.com.

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 30 Dec 2016, 12:02
by benwiggy
I've just noticed the older thread "Ten Music Notation Programs", in which you give it a fairly poor review.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=217
Very reminiscent of the early days of Music Notation Software where I suppose programmers thought people would be so delighted to have such programs that it didn't matter if the music didn't look "traditional" and they figured people would accept the "new look". That never happened :-). All the 8th rests are wrong. The ties all have a horizontal grey line with them, that may be an artifact from the conversion to PDF. Would be unacceptable in direct conversion and especially printing. The ties also are a bit too arced and far from the notes - tends to make them look a but more like slurs in this context (becuase ties and slurs are essentially the same type of symbol).

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 31 Dec 2016, 17:49
by jrethorst
This wasn't my review, but a quote of someone's on another forum. I found it interesting but didn't see, for example, how the Finale sample represents modern engraving while LilyPond looks like an older style of e.g. Schirmer. The 8th rest positions in Overture was an oversight, since fixed, but interesting that they should have needed to be fixed. Ditto the arc of the ties.

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 25 Jan 2017, 09:41
by benwiggy
I've managed to create JSON files for several SMuFL fonts now, including AloisenU from Overture. It looks nice in Dorico!

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 01:27
by odod
benwiggy wrote: 25 Jan 2017, 09:41 I've managed to create JSON files for several SMuFL fonts now, including AloisenU from Overture. It looks nice in Dorico!
WOWW .. tell me how its done sir ? i would love to convert my fonts also

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 26 Jan 2017, 06:57
by benwiggy
I'm not converting old fonts into SMuFL layout: I'm just creating a JSON file (Dorico's equivalent of Finale's FAN file) for fonts that are already in the SMuFL layout.
There's a discussion here about making SMuFL fonts, and at the end I show how you make the file. You need FontForge, and Robert Piechaud's python script from the SMuFL github site.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=162

Re: Software: Overture

Posted: 22 Jan 2020, 15:13
by akarst
Can you share the json-file for AloisenU? I have tried using the script, but it has a python syntax error that I can't resolve...