Finale Notepad

[bluesparky]

Hi y'all.
I use Finale notepad as a tool for scribbling down any transcriptions i've done.
It's a manual input program and sometimes laborious but after using it for years i'm up to speed and don't need to think too much whilst using it.
It is free though, and therefore limited in how powerful it is, i.e. you can't change time signature mid-song, 1st and 2nd time bars don't really exist and other things like that which i'm sure you don't need to know right now.

Are there any other programs that are suitable for this task?
I prefer to do it manually - and not via a midi keyboard etc and input standard notation, not tab, so Guitarpro, tabledit etc are quite what i'm after.
After i've done each piece i then print it to pdf and use that to read later.
What do y'all use?
I don't mind splashing a limited amount of cash, it's not that i'm tight or broke, just that notepad is free and i don't want to spend a grand on an all singing and dancing piece of software for which i only use a little part of.

Thanks

[Kirky]

Sibelius is the de facto standard, but is very expensive (although there is a student licence available).

I've used one called Mozart in the past (http://www.mozart.co.uk/) which has plenty of features but is still a little clunky to use. I think its great value for money though compared to Sibelius.

Martin

Edited December 15, 2008 by Kirky

[Stylon Pilson]

You could try [url="http://lilypond.org/"]Lilypond[/url] or [url="http://www.musescore.org/"]MuseScore[/url]

S.P.

[bluesparky]

Smashing, thanks guys, that's the type of thing i'm looking for.
Cheers,
Merry Christmas!

[bluesparky]

Ah yes, forgot to say, i'm a Mac user, if that makes a difference.
Cheers guys!

[lowdown]

This is a great one...around 50 bucks...
And has many of the features of the top 2, Finale and Sibelius.
I think you can download a demo version.
Well Worth checking out. [ Mac & PC ]

[url="http://www.geniesoft.com/"]http://www.geniesoft.com/[/url]

Garry

[Bilbo]

Sibelius for me. So versatile. I had one called Music Publisher when I was just getting into IT but that is notation only and cannot play stuff back to you.

[Paul Cooke]

there's the completely free cross-platform Tuxguitar...

[url="http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/"]http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/[/url]

[bluesparky]

Tux is looking good, a bit fiddley, but it's FREE! thanks guys!