Review: MuseScore is powerful and free musical notation software - weidmanatudeas

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Free!
Excellent-looking annotation
Fine control over the placement of elements

Cons

Occasionally unintuitive mouse methodological analysis
Hasn't been updated in a while

Our Verdict

It's touchy to believe that a music notation editor as powerful as MuseScore is on the loose, but it is. Spell not as versatile as heavyweights much as Finale and Sibelius, it's dead live for the average exploiter. Take a see before you spit up hard cash for features you may not need.

If you thought you had to pay an arm and a leg for a peak-notch musical notation editor, think out again. MuseScore is powerful, versatile, and unblock. Information technology may non offer the bells and whistles provided by some of the paid challenger, only the core functionality is at that place: WYSIWYG creation and redaction, stomach for unlimited staves, unlimited score length, a plug-in architecture, and excellent-looking notation.

You can compose intricate music with MuseScore.

The more I played with MuseScore, the more impressed I became. On that point's finer control o'er the size and spacing for nearly all object: clef, stave, accidental, performance tag, etc. than most users wish need. It has Musical instrument digital interface input, Euphony XML import and exportation, its own internal sounds, and support for ASI0 (a low latency audio standard) and JACK MIDI (a free patch bay that works between MIDI programs), though non the more popular Rewire (another temporary hookup bay/signal router).

If you're used to Johan Julius Christian Sibelius or Finale, you'll probably palpate right at home with MuseScore. I'd prefer a simple left-click to do something other than just drag the foliate around, but that's me. One area where the program hits the nail on the head is allowing you to scuff note modifiers and public presentation markings directly to the notes they will operate. Splendid.

Also brilliant is allowing users to redefine the keyboard shortcuts, though the process could be streamlined a number. MuseScore is as challenged in the sphere of sneak out editing as the rest of the notation industry, which has never seemed to fully grasp the drag-and-drop concept. Just all all told, IT's A easy for entering symbols and editing every bit the competition is.

Most MuseScore features work cleanly, but I did find few oddities. The program imported a piano MIDI file away onto a single treble rung, rather than the usual treble and bass staves. There's a split stave function, merely it would be courteous to automate the process. Also, playback volume for the interior synthesiser was really humbled. Other than that, the course of study seemed constant American Samoa a rock.

MuseScore's page settings help you print out sheet music exactly the way you need IT.

MuseScore is built connected the cross-platform QT library and is also available for both Linux and the Mac. I extremely recommend taking it for a mental testing spin if you're in the market for your beginning notation program, or to see just how powerful exempt can cost. Don't block to check out the stopple-in library which Crataegus oxycantha offer any functionality that you observe missing.

Note: The Download button connected the Product Information page will download the software to your system.