Free notation program

Hi I am looking for a free notation program which is isn't severely cut down.

I know there is Notepad 2008. What is missing from it compared to the full Finale?

What I need is the following:

Playback to GM synth

Lightweight

Available for both PC and Mac

Can export MIDI files

Can add effects easily like tremolo and vibrato

I come from a guitar/rock music background but I have got into film scoring. I have recently worked on a friend's short film and I really enjoyed it.

I am in the process of learning the piano and its the first time Ive bothered about learning music notation. I could do all of this in piano roll in my DAW but I thought it would be good practice to score in music notation.

I am also not bothered about sound quality so General MIDI synth is good enough for me. I will import the MIDI into my DAW anyway with proper sound samples.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks.

Looks like it might be sufficient.

However what exactly does it mean by:

-Number of staves - the limit for a whole song?

-Number of staff lines available

-Compound or additive time signatures - compound only for Notepad.

Oh how do you represent percussion instruments with the staff?

Johnathan,

- There is a limit to how many staves the programs can have.

- Some staves can use more or less than five lines (More usually for percussion though). Don't worry about this if the number is five.

- Compund time signatures are time signatures that show irregular groupings. For instance, 6+5/12 signifies that the beat should be counted with six, then five. They are rare, and I myself may never dream of using them.

Percussion instruments are represented by a text marking (at least for me), and each instrument a different position on the staff. This is assuming you are writing percussion all on one staff. You can also use separate staves for each instrument, using just one line per staff.

Hope I helped.

Alan

Thanks Alan. That has cleared most of it up.

I'm still not sure about the first point of the number staves I can have. Does it translate to how many different instruments I can use simultaneously on one song?

-Number of staves - the limit for a whole song?

Again, this is not the total number of "staff systems" in your piece, it's the total number of staves in a single staff system.

A piece of violin, cello and piano would have 4 staves per system.

A string quintet would have 5 staves per system.

An orchestral work could have anywhere between 15 and 30 staves PER SYSTEM.

What decides the total number of systems in your piece (the actual LENGTH of your music) is the total number of measures/bars allowed in the piece.

Being a free programme, Notepad limits the quantity of instruments you can have at any single time. It also limits how you can affect those instruments during the length of your piece. For example, you cannot change time signatures halfway through a piece using Notepad. It is free after all.

Ok thanks.

So what are my alternatives? $600 is a bit much for me. And even if I did I don't want anything too bloated.

Noteworthy any good?

MakeMusic (makers of Notepad) have considerably less expensive options than "$600".

And if you are a student (not necessarily a music student) you get a student price on buying their products.

So what anyone else would pay $600 for, you'd get for maybe $350... considering it's one of the leading notation programmes, that's a damned good price.

But MakeMusic have a whole bunch of "daughter" programmes - Allegro, Printmusic, etc.. that are less expensive.

Right ive gone from free to cheap since it looks like the only way forward.

Here are the choices.

1) Printmusic

2) Noteworthy

3) Melody Assistant

Can anyone comment on these?

I will get around to demoing them but it will take me some time to pick them up, would be interested in your opinions.