[sib-access] To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade? A Notation Software Update | NewMusicBox

  • From: Kevin Gibbs <kevjazz@xxxxxx>
  • To: sib-access@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 11:46:55 -0500

The future of notation looks bleak for all of us, not just us.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/to-upgrade-or-not-to-upgrade-a-notation-software-update/
TO UPGRADE OR NOT TO UPGRADE? A NOTATION SOFTWARE UPDATE

There have been big changes in the notation software market in recent years,
and a lot of people are confused about what is going on and what the future
might hold. Sibelius is dead, and Finale has been sold off? No more updates?
Where did I put my old electric eraser and Pelican pens? As a professional
engraver, I use this software 12 hours a day and am deeply invested in the
state of things.

In April, Avid released a new version of Sibelius, loosely called Sibelius 8
although they are shying away from version numbers now. This is the first major
upgrade of Sibelius with no new engraving features.

Yes, that is correct. No new engraving features. But if you use a computer that
has a touch screen, you can now use a digital pen to annotate and mark up a
score, in the same way you’d use a pen/pencil to mark up a printed copy.



Some of the common tablet/smartphone gestures will work on touch screens, you
can navigate with the pen, and do rudimentary editing.

Despite this dearth of overall improvements, Avid has decided to maximize their
income stream, so this new version starts a draconian licensing program where
you pay a lot more for constant upgrades that may be of little use to those of
us who focus on notation. Or you can purchase a perpetual license, but you must
still pay a fee every year to continue receiving updates.

Just want to know if you should upgrade? Feel free to skip ahead.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?

Notation software has changed our industry in countless ways. It eliminated
some methods of music typography (e.g. the Music Typewriter and the Korean
“Stamping” method). It has lowered the cost of music preparation and eased
the ability to make changes to existing materials, provided professional tools
to novices, and lowered the total fees paid for commissions which also
typically included additional remuneration for copying costs since composers
took over some of the tasks of materials preparation. This last item has often
resulted in composers doing more of the work while being paid less.

However, I think we have grown a bit complacent and forgotten how fragile the
software industry is. Professional music notation with computers came to
prominence in the late ‘80s when SCORE was released and publishers found that
it was well suited to many different types of music, plus it had a good system
to create scores and extract parts. It also had excellent guitar tablature
notation, which made it ideal for companies such as Hal Leonard. SCORE’s
strength was that it found a way to divide all of the myriad notational
elements and organize them into categories of items, which allowed for easy
manipulation. It’s a primitive program with musical intelligence, and it’s
primarily graphic based. If you have a 900-page score and insert a few bars at
the beginning, there is no automatic update; you have to manually adjust things
throughout, including page numbers, bar numbers, and layout. It was not
particularly composer friendly, so it was mainly adopted by professional
engravers and copyists. Some publishers used it in house—a few still do.

Score (version 3)



Shortly after that, Finale came along. It was slow and cumbersome, but it had a
Mac and Windows version (SCORE only runs under DOS) and seemed more user
friendly because it had a graphic interface with menus and tools to perform
common tasks.

Finale 2014



For many years, those two programs formed the basis for converting the industry
to computerized typography. However, in 1998, twin brothers Ben and Jonathan
Finn released a Windows version of their unique program called Sibelius. It was
designed with the idea that we should have a “word processor” for music
notation, which would also serve as a professional tool. They studied what
SCORE and Finale did, improved on it, and talked to many professionals to gain
a deeper understanding of the needs of the industry. The paradigm they
developed—a program that is easy enough that a novice can use it, yet
structured in a way that a professional can come along later and improve the
quality of the notation, the look, and the layout—is still its most
compelling, powerful feature. Try doing the same operations in Finale or SCORE
and the work hours double or triple.

Sibelius 7



Sales of Sibelius and Finale are strong, particularly in the education market,
and generate enough revenue that the companies that own these products (Avid
for Sibelius, and MakeMusic for Finale) can afford to continue development and
add features, support existing users, and maintain the software. Yet there have
been big changes in these two companies.

MakeMusic has been sold to Peaksware/LaunchEquity Partners, and they have moved
from their longtime Minnesota location to Colorado. Many people who were
intimately familiar with the software left the company because of the move.

Avid decided to close the primary London office where the Sibelius development
team worked, and all of the long-time programmers who knew the code intimately
were let go.

Sounds grim, doesn’t it? Add to that the fact that there have been two
releases of Sibelius with only minor or non-existent feature changes (7.5 and
“8”), and it surely makes you wonder about the future.

MakeMusic has finally ended its once-a-year Finale upgrade cycle (which was
designed to generate revenue, not to benefit users). The latest version
released is 2014, and while they have announced a free 2014.5 update, it only
offers some bug fixes and minor improvements. It still suffers from an
old-fashioned ’80s-era interface that is dependent on dozens of palettes,
requires the continual clicking on tools to accomplish basic tasks, and lags
far behind Sibelius in important features like collision avoidance.

ARE THERE OTHER OPTIONS?

There are new notation products on the market, but most of them focus on tablet
computing (like StaffPad). There are free programs like MuseScore and a few
others that might attract users with very limited budgets.

PreSonus’s NOTION considers itself music notation software, but I haven’t
seen anything done in the program that I would consider at a professional
level. These programs can be fun and have potential, but I can’t imagine they
will be adequate for professional engraving/copying work.

One company that hopes to upset the marketplace is Steinberg, the German firm
that manufactures Cubase and Nuendo. They took the bold step of hiring the
Sibelius team in London, and set them to work creating a new notation program.
There is a lot of potential here. They are led by a very knowledgeable
musician, Daniel Spreadbury, who was the brilliant manager for Sibelius. And
the team he’s working with has created a notation program before, so they
know the pitfalls. Since they have to compete with two very entrenched programs
with lots of momentum, they need to build something better. They have studied
some of the subtle aspects of music engraving, talked to many professionals,
and have tried to learn what most notation programs still get wrong. I could
write a very long article about this last item; it’s an area of deep concern.
For example, horizontal spacing is poorly understood and no program has ever
done it as well as plate engravers did 100 years ago. Every music notation
program handles lyrics incorrectly (in terms of spacing), and vertical
spacing/justification is equally problematic. Steinberg is aware of these
things, and you can read about the work they are doing on Daniel’s blog.

They have also created a new music font structure (SMuFL) and created a free
font called Bravura, loosely based on the old Not-a-Set dry-transfer symbols,
which were in turn based on Breitkopf and Hertel’s engraving tools.
Dry-transfer symbols are mass produced on transparent plastic sheets so they
can be applied to a music page by rubbing the back with a burnisher. It was a
common technique for autography that was used before computer notation software
became prevalent.


Engraving sample created with Not-a-Set


Engraving sample created with Bravura


WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NEXT?

If you use Sibelius 7, I think that’s a good version to stick with for now.
(That’s the version I use for most of my work.)

If you use Sibelius 7.5, that’s fine too. (This version added some small new
features, but it also changed the file format, so it’s annoying to share
files with people working in earlier versions.)

If you use Sibelius 6, that’s a little tougher call. It’s acceptable to
work in, but there are some limitations and it’s now several versions back. I
would recommend moving on from that version before long.

If you use any version prior to 6, I would recommend you upgrade to 7 or 7.5
before you get trapped in the version 8 licensing scheme. But act quickly,
you’ll need to buy 7/7.5 from a retailer who has existing stock since
Sibelius is no longer selling those versions.

FINALE

Finale 2014d is pretty stable and it’s the version I tend to use for most
projects. But opening old files in new versions of Finale can cause problems,
or in some cases it won’t even work. Finale’s free NotePad is surprisingly
the best choice for opening old Finale files and allows for simple editing.

If you use a version of Finale prior to ver. 2012, it’s time to upgrade.

Notation software is absolutely essential for virtually anyone who needs to
write down a musical idea. I have about 70,000 music files on my computer, and
I’d estimate 2/3 of them are in Sibelius format, the rest in Finale and SCORE
format. I don’t foresee abandoning Sibelius or Finale any time in the future,
and I am reasonably confident the programs will remain functional and useful,
even if they don’t add any significant new features or fix the glaring
problems that remain. Perhaps Steinberg’s entry into this market will shake
things up and force some serious competition among all of the programs. Despite
all of the grim news here, I remain optimistic and hopeful.

***
Bill Holab is the owner of Bill Holab Music, a company that publishes a select
group of composers and provides high-end engraving/typography/design to the
industry. www.billholabmusic.com



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