BATTLE of music notation software - which one is BEST?

Is Finale v27, Sibelius Ultimate, Dorico 5, or MuseScore 4 the best music notation software for you? In this video, we will compare pricing, notation, user interface, and so much more to determine which notation program is the best for you! At the very end, we will answer which program will be the best for the average user, and which notation software is the best for professionals!
Chapters:
0:00 - introduction
0:37 - Price
2:05 - User Interface
5:23 - Notation Features
8:27 - What's the best software?
8:58 - Conclusion
Remember, the best program is the one that works best for you, so make sure to try each program for yourself!
Visit www.stephanie-plautz.com to check out any original works or arrangements!
Have a wonderful, musical day!

[@avalotikeshwara6136]

Thanks for speaking fast and coming to the point, I mean it.

[@IscariotHeartwork]

Hi I mean no ill-will, but the sound effects are a bit louder than your voice and adjusting the volume to hear you better just makes the sound effects too loud.

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

You're all good! I appreciate the feedback, as I'm always working to make the videos better. Have a wonderful, musical day!

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

Hello Musical Friends! Which program do you use? Why do you use it? I personally use Dorico. I love how strong it is for what I compose. Plus, there are some features (like the Jump bar) that help with my work flow. However, I recommend any program that works best for you. For most musicians, that will be MuseScore. However, double check whether each program is used in the way you want to use it. (For example, if you want to be published by a publishing company, you may not want to utilize MuseScore quite yet, as most publishing companies would want a Finale, Sibelius, or Dorico file at the moment. I am hoping that all changes soon!!!) Have a wonderful, musical day!

[@timleiser9899]

Dorico!

[@Wesrets]

Musescore!

[@abagatelle]

Dorico by a country mile. Flexible, comprehensive and built on a solid foundation. It's easy to use, sounds great (especially with NotePerformer) and produces top notch scores.

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

I personally use Dorico and I use it for many reasons you stated! It's a great program.

[@Wesrets]

Interesting choice.

[@tshepomaredi3077]

Which one can you use for books or booklet instructions, where you explain music theory and also include the snippet of the stave notation

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

I've used Dorico for some book/booklet instructions. Dorico has great text frames in the engraving settings that will allow users to format music and pages on the same page. I think Dorico makes this process quite easy. I haven't used the other programs to make a book/booklet. However, each of them will allow you to put text on a page. Each program's respective online forums may help you create booklets if you use any program, especially those outside of Dorico. Regardless of the program, you'll be able to export each file, take screenshots of the music, and compile it into a different document, where you'll be able to format the music and text as you see fit.

[@dbeatsproductions3818]

Is there any program that will import sheet music from a pdf file or at least be able to play it or transcribe it? I have this book in pdf and I want to be able to play the notes... Thank you!

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

A program like ScanScore (scan-score.com/en/) might be able to allow you to scan a pdf of music. After that, it looks like you can export the score for further notation and processing in musescore, dorico, sibelius, finale, and more. There may be more programs, but I am not as familiar with them. Hopefully this helps somewhat!

[@olegrumbler3055]

@@TheMusicalNotesOfficial Musescore has a pdf to Musescore tool and a Musescore importer.

[@stubbsmusic543]

Can Dorico handle symphonic scores, simultaneous odd tuplets, Time signature changes, tablature, Freely spaced chord changes and nonstandard chord spellings?

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

I've used Dorico for symphonic scores, time signature changes, and nonstandard chord spellings. I have also seen others use dorico for odd tuplets, tablature, and freely spaced chord changes!

[@DissonantSynth]

I don't understand why screenshots of older versions of Muse Score were used, as opposed to only screenshots of MuseScore 4.

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

apologies for the older photos! While the information should still be accurate to MuseScore 4, things were overhauledd to ensure that future videos will have less image errors. Technology can always be an interesting time. Hopefully that clarified things, and have a wonderful, musical day!

[@miguelsenoranis]

I think the best of all is Notion 6, because in more lightly y easy to learn fast.

[@PadeMoro]

Notion 6 is great, but it's pretty buggy at times and lacks some features that it's competitors have. Unfortunately PreSonus seem to have abandoned Notion 6 altogether. They seem to be focusing on their DAW and only update the mobile version of Notion. I want to keep using Notion 6, but it's been a long time since the last update and there is no sign of Notion 7 being in development. It's such a shame, but I feel like I'm forced to switch to another software. That's why I'm here.

[@MikhailRimskyKorsakov]

I know this video post is older, but my comment is for those curious of NotePerformer who is not yet convinced. Follow the link here and discover the magic of NotePerformer. I cannot recall any VST sounding like a recording like this. The music in the linked video was produced by Dorico 5.1 Pro driving NotePerformer 4.5.0. (NO affiliation) The music performance can still be tweaked using Dorico's MIDI lanes, but the listener will definitely hear how NotePerformer is not this 'in-between', medium quality VST as some claims. NotePerformer has a lot of power, if one knows how to use its magic! 🙂 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5ergmiQgpl1l6c

[@manuelvicente9614]

I use Musescore, but in it doesn’t works on ipad, so i’m starting to learn dorico too

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

I currently love using Dorico, so I hope it works out for you on iPad!

[@manuelvicente9614]

@@TheMusicalNotesOfficial yes, but it takes me a lot of time guessing how to do everithing, and o ly for 2 instruments the free version, so I think I will use it for little projects or taking notes on the fly, and big works at home with musescore

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

that sounds like a great plan!

[@Wesrets]

You forgot to mention that Musescore supports microtonal music, harp notations, exotic notations(such as different types of accidentals from different regions of the world), can load VST3s, and much more to discover.

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

MuseScore does have a LOT to offer!

[@Wesrets]

@@TheMusicalNotesOfficial Yup, and recently muse hub has been updated to V2, thus musescore can now use paid libraries such as berlin orchestra, or orchestral tools, or spitfire orchestra, specially adapted for musescore's playback engine.

[@thesoundsmith]

Any notation program that does not include swing playback is less than useless fpr big band arrangers.

[@themike97_58]

"Sibelius is known for its intuitive and user-friendly interface" LOL what a joke. Is this video AI or something? Sibelius sucks and is notoriously poorly laid out. Those screenshots are of musescore 3 which is a wildly different application than musescore 4. and at 2:56 and 4:41 why are we showing a picture of musescore 4 when talking about sibelius? did you do any research at all or just put some vague prompt into chat gpt?

[@TheMusicalNotesOfficial]

Hello! Throughout my video editing process, I have gotten better. When making this video, some photo files were unfortunately labeled incorrectly, which lead to the MuseScore 3/4 debacle. While Sibelius is not great, it is one of the better programs. Apologies for disappointing! Have a wonderful, musical day!