When you work with music notation software, sometimes the greatest challenge is knowing what a task is actually called and where to find it. We uncover those hidden and not-so-hidden treasures. Plus, an update.
Podcast
A regular discussion with the interesting individuals who create music with notation software, as well as the talented people who create the tools themselves.
Recapping the latest Dorico and Finale updates
Software updates are often blockbuster events, but sometimes they are smaller affairs that just make working in the programs appreciably better, like with the latest updates to Finale and Dorico.
Darcy James Argue jazzes up Finale with “style”
Darcy James Argue returns to talk about his role in creating the fully revamped SMuFL-compliant jazz default file and document style in the Finale v27.2 update, and offers some tips for how users can make the most of it.
Cleo Huggins, the designer of the first music font
There was a time when there were no music fonts — and then there was one. Cleo Huggins, the designer of Sonata, the very first music font, tells us all about setting the standard for a new era in music notation.
The rights stuff
You may know all about writing music. But what about your rights and music? Attorney and music publisher Jim Kendrick expertly steers us through the intersection of creativity, copyright, and technology.
Michael Good, the inventor of MusicXML [encore]
If you’ve ever needed to open a music notation file in a different program, you’ve relied on MusicXML to do it. Michael Good invented this now-ubiquitous format two decades ago, and we find out how it happened. Plus, an update.
Pressing all the right buttons
We go behind the curtain and talk about the development of the new version of Notation Express for Dorico, the custom Stream Deck profile that allows you to operate notation software with the push of a button.
Print perfect
Printing scores and parts is a staple of the music preparation process. Here’s how to do it by the book so that everyone’s on the same page.
Back to the future of music notation on computers
Ben Byram-Wigfield pilots our time travel through the history of music notation on computers from when it first ran on mainframes all the way through to today’s powerful apps and devices.
Dorico 4: Supercharged
Daniel Spreadbury returns to Scoring Notes to talk about Dorico 4, the huge update to Steinberg’s scoring software. We discuss the new Write mode features, the Library Manager, and the overall development approach to the product.