EASY TO USE SOFTWARE

I would like to hear from other baby boomer pianists to find out if Notation Software is truly easy to use. I do use a computer for word processing and e-mail, but somewhat lack the technological gene, and didn't grow up with computers. I want to be able to create, and not be stalled and frustrated by having to learn a difficult software program. Thanks for your help.

Mark,

Of course it depends on the first place what you want to achieve using a software program.
But is can confirm you as a 65 years old user that Notation Composer and Musician is one of the easiest to use software there is in the market.

For me it was and is important that I can produce arrangements
for keyboard and harmonica players based on existing midi files or paper music. I have tried and really strugled many different programs from fairly limited to extensive functionality eg Finale and Sebilius. Then I found Notation Composer (few years back, at that time still in beta). To my experience it did most of the things I wanted very intuitive and with minimum of effort. Since then Composer has been developped in a great program. One of the main reasons of its succes for me is that the programmer Mark Walsen highly invested in listening an working intensively with its users (via the forum) to enhance the product for the most wanted functionality as well as usability.

But the best way to decide what the product can do for you is to download the trial version and start with it.
Of course you need some feeling to work with computers but still then.
My 78 years neighbour a pro musician, not experienced at all with computers, learned working with the program and transfers his musical idea's via Composer into sheet music

Cheers Jaap

Hi Mark,
Let me just second Jaap's post. I am 69 and have been using Composer since 2005. If you are able to go back and read some of my posts from then, you will see I had zero computer skills. You will also see the progress of my compositions and arrangements. Not only will the software do what you want with little computer skills, but you will actually eventually amaze yourself with what you have done with it. Go for it!!
Cheers,
Fred

Hi, Mark:

Dive in, the water's fine.

As Jaap suggested, the free trial version will let you find out if Composer is for you without risk.

I use Composer every single on projects ranging from fully-orchestrated musicals to one-off songs and there has not been a project yet where it let me down.

The learning curve is not steep. Once you have a keyboard connected, recording and editing is very intuitive.

And it still has, to my mind, the best midi-to-notation interpretation engine around, bar none.

David

I, too, am a pensioner, 'backing into' electronic music as I feel the need for each new function (and I do find it a kind of escalator - more of that below). I have tried most of the available midi/notation software, and find Notation gives me far the best combination of quality staff notation and audible playback, with ease of learning and editing, and value for money.

I came to the Forum today with a question in mind. I'm not sure where to post it, to be honest. Nowhere immediately stands out as the right place, and as this section is in a sense the converse of what I want to know, I may as well start here. Please redirect me if appropriate.

My question is:
I came to Notation Composer for software that would read and play midi files, and help me to create them. I shall shortly be bringing a second keyboard into my set-up, mainly because it is physically (i.e. to play) the best one I have. I shall continue to want to use another one (as at present) as a sort of slave synth i.e. the actual source of my voices.
Can I use NC as an interface between them e.g. the place where I select my voicings - when playing LIVE i.e. with no recording going on ?

Happy Twelfth Night to all

Ian DG

Sherry
I think I've digested what you said, but I'm also beginning to think that actually the answer to my question is 'no'.
You said:
"The short answer to your question is that yes, you should be able to set up your MIDI device configuration so that you are using one keyboard as the MIDI Input device, and the second keyboard as your MIDI output device.
"
and I'm sure that's right. But I had added the factor "without recording going on", and I'm not clear that NC will allow this ? I think in Midi terms I'm talking about a thru channel, and the NC search doesn't seem to know the term.

Howdy Ian,

You should be able to set up your devices for play-along as well as recording. Please do be aware that setting up multiple MIDI devices for specific input and output can be a bit, um, picky, so you'll have to pay close attention to details for initially setting things up. Did you work through the section in the Users Guide for setting up input and output devices? Is there a particular step(s) that is unclear? If so, do let us know what steps you've tried, and what is (or is not) happening.

ttfn,
Sherry

p.s. By "NS search", I'm presuming you mean using the Index in the Users Guide. You're right - "through channel" doesn't appear in the index, as we've tried to keep the terms we use in the documentation rather "musician/notation" friendly, rather than using sequencer terminology. You will find "MIDI device", though, and a whole slew of subtopics.