As a professional software developer and an amateur musician I am interested in software for the notation and scanning of sheet music. To help fellow musicians make a choice from many products, available in a range from simple and cheap tools to advanced professional applications for a "professional" price, I have tested several products and written articles about my findings. These articles have been published in Uijlenspieghel (the magazine of the Dutch Horn Society) and in Huismuziek (the magazine of Huismuziek, an organisation for amateur musicians and builders of musical instruments). Copies of these articles are available in PDF format, on the Dutch part of this web site.
When writing my articles, I used free demo versions of the software, which can be downloaded from the web sites of the manufacturers. The following tables contain an overview of several applications for notation and scanning (in random order!). Detailed information is available on the specified web sites. If you know a program that is not listed here, please send me the URL of the web site.
Finally ... my personal favourite !!!
Long time ago "the PC" was not as popular as it is now. The computer that I used back then was an Atari ST. For that
brilliant machine a music notation application was availble, which still exists: Score Perfect. Currently I am using
the Windows version, simply because the performance of a modern PC is slightly better than the ST, but the program is
actually still the same. Even the original "look and feel" of the Atari program is still present! If you are a Windows
fanatic you may need to get used to it, but for me this makes the program even more attractive. Score Perfect can do
anything I would ever want to do with a notation program and it prints very beautiful sheet music. Together with the
modest price (€ 100 for the professional version) this makes Score Perfect the "best buy", in my humble opinion.
For more information and for downloading a demo version you can go to web site of
Music Solutions, who distribute Score Perfect in The
Netherlands (Benelux) and in the United States.
| program | price (€) | demo | OS | web site | description |
| Capella Professionell / Capella 2004 | 158,00 | yes | Windows | www.capella.de | professional notation software |
| Capella 1200 | 88,00 | yes | Windows | www.capella.de | less advanced than Capella Professionell |
| Finale | 499,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.finalemusic.com |
professional notation software incl. SmartScore Lite music scan software |
| Finale Allegro | 165,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.finalemusic.com |
less advanced than Finale incl. SmartScore Lite music scan software |
| Finale PrintMusic | 58,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.finalemusic.com |
starter level incl. SmartScore Lite music scan software |
| Finale Notepad | free | no | Windows / Mac | www.finalemusic.com | very basic |
| Score Perfect Professional | 100,00 | yes | Windows | www.music-solutions.net | professional notation software |
| Score Perfect Standard | 39,00 | yes | Windows | www.scoretec.de | less advanced than Score Perfect Professional |
| Score Perfect Lite | 29,00 | yes | Windows | www.music-solutions.net | less advanced than Score Perfect Professional |
| Score Perfect Education | 14,90 | yes | Windows | www.scoretec.de | very basic |
| MIDI-Connections Score 5.0 | 248,00 | no | Windows | www.music-solutions.net |
notation software I have not tried this program myself |
| MIDI-Connections Light 5.0 | 84,00 | no | Windows | www.music-solutions.net |
less advanced than MIDI-Connections Score 5.0 I have not tried this program myself |
| Igor Engraver | 300,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.noteheads.com | professional notation software |
| Encore | 328,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.gvox.com | professional notation software |
| MusicTime Deluxe | 98,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.gvox.com | less advanced than Encore |
| Vivaldi Gold | 99,00 | yes | Windows | www.vivaldistudio.com | professional notation software |
| Vivaldi Plus | 39,00 | yes | Windows | www.vivaldistudio.com | less advanced than Vivaldi Gold |
| Sibelius 4 | 799,00 | yes | Windows / Mac |
www.music-solutions.net www.sibelius.com |
professional notation software I have not tried this program myself |
| Sibelius 4 Educational | 479,00 | yes | Windows / Mac |
www.music-solutions.net www.sibelius.com |
less advanced than Sibelius 4 I have not tried this program myself |
| Music Publisher 5 | 122,00 | yes | Windows | www.braeburn.co.uk |
professional notation software I have not tried this program myself |
| MAGIX Notation 2 | 49,99 | yes | Windows | www.magix.com |
notation software This is the first "notation software" with which I could not get started! Without first reading the manual this program is too complex for me. According to the information on the web site this program provides many possibilities for MIDI, but I think you can find better applications for music notation. |
| MusiCAD | 45,00 | yes | Windows | www.musicad.nl |
notation software Looks quite nice and the web site is very promising, but with this program I couldn't get started either. |
| Overture 3 / Overture 4 | 286,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.geniesoft.com |
professional notation software with advanced MIDI features I have not tried this program myself |
| Score Writer 2 / Score Writer 4 | 40,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.geniesoft.com |
less advanced than Overture, starter level I have not tried this program myself |
| Notenclub | 45,00 | yes | Windows | notenclub.be-sure-soft.com |
simple notation software I have not tried this program myself |
| LilyPond | free | yes | GNU / Linux / Mac / Windows | lilypond.org |
This is a "compiler" that converts a text file in which the sheet music is defined into beautifully printed
sheet music. The developers have paid much attention to a beautiful representation of the notes, to make it
look like authentic engraved sheet music. This program should appeal to every musician who also likes
computer programming! unfortunately I did not yet have the time to try this program myself |
| program | price (€) | demo | OS | web site | description |
| Capella Scan | 158,00 | yes | Windows | www.capella.de | music scan software |
| SmartScore 5 Pro | 332,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.musitek.com | music scan software and also notation software |
| SmartScore 5 MIDI | 82,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.musitek.com | less advanced than SmartScore Pro |
| MIDI-Connections Scan | 98,00 | no | Windows | www.music-solutions.net |
music scan software I have not tried this program myself |
| Vivaldi Scan | 119,00 | yes | Windows | www.vivaldistudio.com |
music scan software incl. Vivaldi PlayAlong notation software |
| PhotoScore Professional 4 | 319,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.neuratron.com | music scan software and also notation software |
| PhotoScore MIDI Lite 4 | 39,00 | yes | Windows / Mac | www.neuratron.com | music scan software, very basic, only MIDI output |
| MP Scan 2 | 108,00 | no | Windows | www.braeburn.co.uk |
music scan software, extension to Music Publisher 5 I have not tried this program myself |
| SharpEye v2 | 139,00 | yes | Windows | http://www.visiv.co.uk |
music scan software I have not tried this program myself |
| SharpEye v1 | 41,00 | yes | Windows | http://www.visiv.co.uk |
less advanced than SharpEye v2 I have not tried this program myself |
The information that I provide here is taken from the specified web sites of the manufacturers of the software that is described. The indicated prices in Euro have been converted from the dollar price if necessary and are including taxes (as far as I know). Although I do my best to keep this overview up to date, I can not accept liability for any consequence of erratic information provided here. More information is available on the indicated web sites.
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