Most popular engraving programs?

Recommendations concerning notation and publishing software in a non-partisan environment.
jrethorst
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Joined: 09 Apr 2016, 18:48

Most popular engraving programs?

Post by jrethorst »

Does anyone have a sense of which notation program is used most? Finale and Sibelius both claim to be the best-seller; Musescore is probably gaining users fast since the price is right, etc. I wonder whether F and S are about equal in sales, or possibly pretty unequal.
John Rethorst
PGLaouto
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by PGLaouto »

And whether there are strong regional variations in regards to this question? My feeling is that Australia has many more people using Sibelius than Finale, particularly in the Education sector where nearly every school I have ever worked in has Sibelius. Finale feels more of a niche program here, but I come from a background of SCORE (which I still use), so I know all about niche programs.
jrethorst
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by jrethorst »

I think you're right -- I've gotten the idea that Encore is popular in South America, especially Brazil. My interest is more in total numbers. I don't know where we could get those.
John Rethorst
Schonbergian
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Location: Toronto

Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by Schonbergian »

Sibelius seems to be the most popular among modern European publishers, unfortunately.

Finale seems more popular in North America and among engravers that love customization (such as us).

If you count the drivel that passes as "music notation" nowadays by laypeople, MuseScore is probably the most popular, but in terms of professional-quality engraving I'd say it's used far less often than the above two.
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OCTO
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by OCTO »

In Scandinavia I think it is pretty equal between Sibelius and Finale.
One bad thing happened to Finale when the Royal College of Music in Stockholm abandoned Finale in 2007, removing new versions from all computers and giving "amen" to Sibelius and Avid. Of course, all was in had of one person, professional in his job but amateur in music.
But I was keeping recommend Finale for all composition students.
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
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odod
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by odod »

my generalization is Sibelius mostly used by UK and FINALE by US .. that is why my concern is to bring back "stylized" music font to disguise the "brand problem" .. like the old times "Plate Engraving" still exist .. and that is why i love SCHOTT and HENLE better for their dedication on their original "styles"
Schott.PNG
Schott.PNG (71.09 KiB) Viewed 11332 times
Henle.PNG
Henle.PNG (108.69 KiB) Viewed 11332 times
Nuendo 12, FL Studio 20, Reaper 6, Dorico, Sibelius, HOOPUS, Pianoteq 6, Ivory II, Slate, Plugin Alliance, Soundtoys, and yeah i am a gear slut

Serenade Music Engraving Service
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OCTO
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by OCTO »

BTW, the examples above are done:
1. Schott in SCORE
2. Henle in Finale
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
Schonbergian
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Location: Toronto

Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by Schonbergian »

@odod: Agreed on Schott, especially. Their font is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen on computer, even if I don't agree with all of its stylistic elements.
RMK
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by RMK »

I was under the impression that SCORE does not use fonts for any musical symbols (perhaps excepting dynamics?), but is entirely vector based.

I suppose you can alter settings that affect the shape of the notes and other symbols.

It's really amazing (to me, anyway) that the the application that almost always produces the best output was developed about 50 years ago.
Schonbergian
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Re: Most popular engraving programs?

Post by Schonbergian »

RMK wrote: 03 Jan 2018, 00:11 I was under the impression that SCORE does not use fonts for any musical symbols (perhaps excepting dynamics?), but is entirely vector based.

I suppose you can alter settings that affect the shape of the notes and other symbols.

It's really amazing (to me, anyway) that the the application that almost always produces the best output was developed about 50 years ago.
Correct, and I've even seen it do proper optical scaling as well. Of course, it doesn't mean that every engraver that picks it up will get great results with it, as many publishers nowadays are all too keen to demonstrate.
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