Sibelius? What's the point?

[sgcim]

i just took a look at Musescore on their website. It has a lot more features for free than Forte.
I want to use it for my big band charts, and it has a template for a full big band score.
Forte can only provide a four part score.

That is enough to make me want to download it, but I have a few questions for those that have used it.

1) Can you extract the parts from the score, so that you don't have to go through the time consuming nightmare of writing out each individual part?

2) Can you listen to the entire score in midi?

3) Is 2.0 the most recent version available for free?

4) Do you eventually have to buy some version of Musescore?
TIA

[Stuart Elliott]

sgim,

Have you looked at the Musescore Handbook and forums? Those are good sources of information. Also look at the getting started videos.

1. Yes, you can extract parts.

2. Yes, you can listen to the entire score (if I understand correctly). How it sounds depends on the sound fonts you install, etc.

3. Version 2 is the latest complete version, though there has been a sub-build update (2.0.3). Version 3.0 is underway and will probably be a major upgrade.

4. There is no bait and switch for a commercial product. In contrast, Forte, for example, has a free version and a commercial version.

Add If you are using the MuseScore site for sharing scores, etc. There is a free version and a pro upgrade, which gives some additional playback and print options. Upgrade is $ 6.99/month or $49 per year. You can try the pro upgrade free for a month.

There is a book Mastering MuseScore. It is not required, but might be helpful. It's around $40.

I'm by no means an expert, but I think my answers are correct.

[emanresu]

I recently used Musescore for some ensemble sheet. I ran into trouble when trying to erase empty staves, merging them and splitting them at will in the middle of the score. Only had 30 min to do it, couldn't solve the issues and found another way that didn't require it. I bet it was all doable but check it out in advance to be sure. In Sibelius with similar thing, it was easy to do all that with some googling.

[sgcim]

sgim,

Have you looked at the Musescore Handbook and forums? Those are good sources of information. Also look at the getting started videos.

1. Yes, you can extract parts.

2. Yes, you can listen to the entire score (if I understand correctly). How it sounds depends on the sound fonts you install, etc.

3. Version 2 is the latest complete version, though there has been a sub-build update (2.0.3). Version 3.0 is underway and will probably be a major upgrade.

4. There is no bait and switch for a commercial product. In contrast, Forte, for example, has a free version and a commercial version.

Add If you are using the MuseScore site for sharing scores, etc. There is a free version and a pro upgrade, which gives some additional playback and print options. Upgrade is $ 6.99/month or $49 per year. You can try the pro upgrade free for a month.

There is a book Mastering MuseScore. It is not required, but might be helpful. It's around $40.

I'm by no means an expert, but I think my answers are correct.

Thanks, Stuart, I'll definitely download it. I'm just finishing a big band arr. now, and it was done in pencil, so pretty soon I'll be copying parts for the last time with Forte.
Maybe I'll wait for MuseScore 3.0, depending on when it will be ready. I think George Hess is a composer/jazz guitarist who studied with Johnny Smith. His tutorials were easy to follow, unlike Forte's.

[matt.guitarteacher]

I recently used Musescore for some ensemble sheet. I ran into trouble when trying to erase empty staves, merging them and splitting them at will in the middle of the score. Only had 30 min to do it, couldn't solve the issues and found another way that didn't require it. I bet it was all doable but check it out in advance to be sure. In Sibelius with similar thing, it was easy to do all that with some googling.

Muse score is open source, and most of the answers to these questions are online in the muse score forum, if it's not basic stuff which is in the manual. Of course, I don't have the book mentioned above. That's the thing with open source : the community is actually a lot of people who are developing the software, tweaking it, adding plug-ins etc. That's why it has that forum vibe going. The open-source thing may not be for everyone, but the end result is a very robust free product. the old shareware products always felt very "free" . Very different from the level group collaboration in open source products like Musescore or GIMP.

Like you, I also found it difficult to find answers, in text form, by googling things for Muse score. The simplest answers I've found are some user-made videos on YouTube. Actually much faster than text anyway, but I can't really deal with scrolling through the muse score forum discussions to find an answer I'm looking for.

There is one simple video I've seen which specifically answers the question you're talking about btw, for removing empty staves.

[asafasadi]

Sibelius for my experience is way faster than musescore, and faster then finale, when you get used to it