Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Scoring Notes
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| Finale’s coda | 31 Aug 2024 | 01:10:31 | |
Finale, the legendary music notation software program, has been discontinued 36 years after its groundbreaking release in 1988 from Coda Music Technologies. MakeMusic, the company that now owns Finale, has partnered with Steinberg to sell its Dorico application at a specially discounted price directly to Finale users. Jason Loffredo joins Philip Rothman and David MacDonald in a comprehensive discussion about the facts, the business analysis, and the way forward for customers. More on Scoring Notes:
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| MOLA 2024 conference and tech fair wrap-up | 01 Jun 2024 | 00:53:13 | |
The 2024 conference of MOLA: An Association of Performance Librarians recently concluded in Cleveland, Ohio, and by all accounts it was a rocking success. The conference began with the second annual Tech Fair, a gathering of librarians, product specialists, and vendors, with demonstrations and exhibits bookended by panel discussions about technology as it relates to the performance librarian. The remainder of the four-day long conference featured plenary sessions, breakout groups, and lots of excellent spontaneous sharing of knowledge and experience about a crucial role in the music-making process. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald recap the conference with a podcast episode recorded in person from Cleveland, with a summary of the tech fair and the rest of the event: from the intricacies of percussion setup to licensing, copyright, and commissioning agreements, and much more. And, if you like your podcasts in video format, we have a special treat for you: A video of this podcast episode, recorded live. More from Scoring Notes: Videos from the MOLA 2024 Conference:
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| A December to remember | 18 Dec 2023 | 01:28:04 | |
With the Muse Group acquisition of Hal Leonard, and Dorico, MuseScore, Sibelius, and Finale all freshly updated, 2023 is going out with a bang. We gather round the fire and discuss all the news, as we get ready for the year ahead in music notation software and related technology. More on Scoring Notes: | |||
| Black Friday deals are music to our ears | 18 Nov 2023 | 01:11:21 | |
Black Friday is one of the best times of the year to get new stuff at low prices. But in the world of music notation software and related technology, it can also be a chance to reflect on the way you work and create, and to acquire the tools that will complement your skills. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald summarize the best deals we’ve found to that end, review some of the newest features that make spending holiday cash a worthwhile investment — and offer up a few of our favorite low- and hi-tech stocking stuffers. Also: Check out Scoring Notes on Monday, November 20 for a comprehensive post with details on all the deals mentioned in this episode, and much more. | |||
| Graphical notation | 14 Nov 2020 | 00:41:31 | |
Whether it’s a squiggly line, a complex curve, or something that totally defies description, sometimes your music requires notation that’s more creative than the ordinary music symbols we’re accustomed to seeing. That’s when it comes time to dive into the use of graphics in music notation, and how to work with graphical files in the software. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk about how to create those graphical symbols and bring them into your notation software without sacrificing quality, as well as how to create complex graphics by just using the notation tools. We also cover exporting graphics out of notation software and into other programs, and discuss the “slices” feature in Dorico, which allows you to retain persistent score excerpts that you can export as graphics over and over again, changing them along the way. More from Scoring Notes:
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| Tricks and treats | 31 Oct 2020 | 00:39:52 | |
To celebrate Halloween, we’re looking at scary things we see in the music notation software and score preparation process, and see if we can sweeten the experience with some tricks and treats. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss the spookiness of using the mouse and how you can better become a jack-o-lantern of all trades by focusing more on keyboard commands and other shortcuts in Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico. We also look at a frightening situation that happens when laying out your music and investigate how to fix it. So don’t be afraid — we won’t ghost you as we lead you unscathed out of the haunted house of software skeletons and onto the pumpkin patch to score some tricks and treats. More on Scoring Notes: Finale:
Sibelius:
Dorico: Notation Express:
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| File renaming and PDF batch utilities | 24 Oct 2020 | 00:31:09 | |
Learn about several simple but incredibly useful applications that will help you be more productive with tasks related to managing music files on the computer. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss file renaming apps such as Renamer and Name Mangler, which perform the important function of quickly changing the filenames of many documents at once using various settings, saving you the tedium of manually renaming them and helping keep you organized. Then, we explore the suite of PDF batch processing apps available from Notation Central, including PDF Batch Scale, Batch Stitch, Batch Booklet, and Music Binder. These tools do just as their names would suggest, making quick work of manipulating PDF files so that you can make sure that your music is distributed and printed exactly as you expect. More on Scoring Notes:
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| The elements of (house) style | 17 Oct 2020 | 00:39:46 | |
In music scores, a house style is the collection of dozens or hundreds of rules and preferences governing the look of the music — everything from note spacing algorithms, to font choices, to the thickness of lines, and lots more. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss why these elements matter in the course of preparing a piece of music and talk about which types of text fonts pair well with music notation. We also explore the “tyranny of the default” settings in scoring software programs and get specific about how to manage house styles in Sibelius, Dorico, and Finale. More on Scoring Notes: | |||
| John Hinchey lets the music flow | 10 Oct 2020 | 00:45:47 | |
John Hinchey is one of the most experienced arrangers, orchestrators and professional music preparers working today. He’s created thousands of charts and shows for musicians, touring companies, theme parks and everything in between. On this episode, John relays his experience producing shows for cruise ships to Scoring Notes hosts Philip Rothman and David MacDonald. We’re expecting you to learn from John how to prepare your charts so that what you put on the page ensures smooth sailing for the musicians. John also lets it flow with a boatload of tech tips and product recommendations, so you’ll want to come aboard – there’s something for everyone on this friendly shore. More links:
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| From score to screen: preparing your music for digital surfaces | 03 Oct 2020 | 00:43:36 | |
Many of us study and perform scores from our iPads on a regular basis and have prepared scores to be read from screens. Scoring Notes readers and listeners often ask us to provide recommendations for best practices when preparing a score with the expectation that it will be read from a screen and not paper. This is an excellent question, and one whose answer today may likely change in the coming years. David MacDonald and Philip Rothman discuss the pros, cons, challenges, and opportunities in reading and preparing music on a screen, and delve into the benefits, pitfalls, and technical considerations you should know about if you want to make your music pixel-perfect. More on Scoring Notes: Preparing music scores for screens — the challenges and opportunities | |||
| Music preparation tech, travails, tools, and tips | 26 Sep 2020 | 00:53:39 | |
We have a special treat for podcast listeners. If you’ve listened to our podcast before, you’ll remember our interview with music education technology expert Katie Wardrobe. Well, Katie also interviewed Philip Rothman for her show called the Music Tech Teacher Podcast, and we’re including a version of that interview in the Scoring Notes feed. In our discussion, Philip talks with Katie about his work as a music preparer and opines on the state of the industry, including everything from desktop applications to tablet apps, the improvements in playback tools such as NotePerformer, and what it all means for teachers, students, and anyone using this technology. Thanks to Katie and Midnight Music for permission to include this special conversation here. More on Scoring Notes: Katie Wardrobe on music tech in education Music Tech Teacher podcast episode 115: Music Preparation with Philip Rothman More show links:
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| StaffPad updates go beyond just keeping the lights on | 11 Nov 2023 | 01:10:54 | |
David MacDonald and Philip Rothman talk with David William Hearn, the co-founder and lead designer of StaffPad, about everything from product updates to what it was like making a live demo for Apple in 40 minutes, along with the implications of AI, industry changes, the Muse Group acquisition, and much more. More on Scoring Notes:
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| Sibelius 2020.9 update focuses on staves | 19 Sep 2020 | 00:27:55 | |
Hosts Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss the Sibelius 2020.9 update — specifically the improvements to the Focus on Staves feature, which has the potential to unlock new workflow and layout capabilities for many users. We trace the history of the feature and cover the different ways of formatting your score to include or exclude staves. We also compare the similarities and differences of Sibelius’s approach to the way Dorico deals with this important element of score preparation, so join us as we bring this topic into “focus”. More on Scoring Notes: The focus is on staves with the Sibelius 2020.9 update | |||
| Samara Ginsberg, cellist and arranger | 12 Sep 2020 | 00:37:32 | |
Cellist and arranger Samara Ginsberg visits the Scoring Notes podcast to talk about her multi-part cello arrangements of TV and movie themes that have taken over social media in the past few months, and how her experience as a working instrumentalist informs her approach to arranging. To that end, she divulges the secrets of how to succeed when writing for cello and the practical nature of getting music ready for a session. More broadly, we discuss Samara’s perspective on using music notation software and other tools to create her arrangements and videos and even listen in a bit on the music that’s caused such an internet sensation. More from Scoring Notes: The multi-cello universe of Samara Ginsberg | |||
| High fidelity audio comes to Zoom | 03 Sep 2020 | 00:30:39 | |
David MacDonald and Philip Rothman talk about Zoom, and how this popular videoconferencing software that was originally intended for spoken word meetings has received some major updates that improves its audio quality in ways that make the platform work much better for musicians and for music educators — just in time for the start of the school year. David explains how data and audio compression work and what you need to do to get the most out of the new updates, whether you’re using Zoom to teach lessons, learn music, or share audio demos of scores that you create using music notation and scoring software. More on Scoring Notes: Better music experiences come to Zoom with high fidelity audio | |||
| Christopher Willis, part 2: Music preparation — past, present, and future | 29 Aug 2020 | 00:27:32 | |
Christopher Willis joins us for the second of two episodes. Chris is the composer of the score to the film “The Personal History of David Copperfield.” If you haven’t yet heard the first part of our conversation, check it out as we talk about the score and its fresh take on familiar musical ideas to match the aesthetics of the picture, and hear excerpts of the music. On this episode, we break down Chris’s music preparation process on a film, from orchestration to copying. Chris even turns the tables, interviewing host Philip Rothman about the history of music engraving and asks his thoughts on the latest developments in the world of music notation software. We cover established products like Sibelius, iPad readers like forScore and Newzik, and newer entries on the scene like Dorico and StaffPad, and discuss how we can expect to use them on the scoring stage in the future. More on Scoring Notes: Christopher Willis on scoring “The Personal History of David Copperfield” | |||
| Christopher Willis, part 1: Scoring “The Personal History of David Copperfield” | 22 Aug 2020 | 00:35:37 | |
Christopher Willis joins us for the first of two episodes. Chris is the composer of the score to the film ”The Personal History of David Copperfield.” On this episode, we talk with Chris about that score and its fresh take on familiar musical ideas to match the aesthetics of the picture. We learn about juxtaposing traditionally notated music with the world of audio samples and the technology that’s used to achieve satisfying results. Chris traces his career with us from his days a pianist, doctoral student, and arrival in Los Angeles to his latest work scoring top movies and television shows. We’ll hear excerpts of the David Copperfield score and go behind the scenes to find out more. Join us on our next episode for the second part of our discussion as we break down Chris’s music preparation process on a film, from orchestration to copying. Chris even turns the tables, interviewing host Philip Rothman about music engraving and asks him thoughts on the latest developments in the world of music notation software. More on Scoring Notes: Christopher Willis on scoring “The Personal History of David Copperfield” | |||
| Soundslice’s Adrian Holovaty | 15 Aug 2020 | 00:37:17 | |
Adrian Holovaty is the founder of Soundslice, a service that syncs audio, video and music notation into a beautiful browser-based player. Adrian started Soundslice as a way to transcribe guitar excerpts for himself, and in the past decade it’s grown into a robust platform for music professionals, teachers, and students to learn any kind of music in a unique way. Adrian talks to us about their philosophy of music notation and how it intersects with both the challenges and opportunities presented by being a web-based service, including what it takes to make music notation interactive and foster an enthusiastic community of users to share and market their creations. More on Scoring Notes: NAMM 2018: Soundslice adds an editor, channels, and other new features NAMM 2017: Soundslice, a web-based music education tool and player | |||
| Katie Wardrobe on music tech in education | 08 Aug 2020 | 00:34:24 | |
Katie Wardrobe is the founder and director of Midnight Music, a thriving service which helps music educators integrate technology into their teaching. Katie provides workshops, presentations, online training courses and ebooks for her community, and on our show she tells us all about how she uses notation software and many other tools to achieve results. Katie shares with us her surprisingly low-tech but effective tips for staying organized, and we learn how she got started doing this important work, and how her business has changed over the years. | |||
| David William Hearn and StaffPad | 01 Aug 2020 | 00:32:26 | |
David William Hearn is the founder and lead designer of StaffPad, the revolutionary music composition app for pen-and-touch devices like Windows Surface and iPad. StaffPad automatically detects your musical handwriting and instantly converts it into music notation and plays it back using high-quality sound libraries. There’s a lot more to StaffPad, and David tells us all about it, including the StaffPad Reader, which instantly syncs tablets containing the parts to the score, allowing players to view and play changes in real-time. Many more advancements are on the way, and David gives us a few clues about what we can hope to see as StaffPad evolves on the cutting edge of music notation technology. More on Scoring Notes: StaffPad wows with long-awaited iPad release and new free StaffPad Reader StaffPad and Reader for iPad video review An interview with David William Hearn, creator of StaffPad (from 2015) | |||
| Justin Tokke, publishing, and Music Engraving Tips | 25 Jul 2020 | 00:53:26 | |
Justin Tokke joins us on the show. Justin is the technical lead at the music publisher Carl Fischer, and you may also know him as the founder and admin of Music Engraving Tips, a web site and Facebook group with more than 20,000 members. Justin talks to us about his work in publishing, including everything from learning the ropes printing scores to the intricacies of digital distribution. We uncover the publishing mysteries of licenses, rights, and promotion, and what you should consider when publishing your music. We also learn about the origin of the Music Engraving Tips group and get Justin’s thoughts on where music notation software is headed. | |||
| Daniel Ray, Martin Keary, and Musescore | 18 Jul 2020 | 00:52:35 | |
Daniel Ray and Martin Keary from Musescore join the podcast. Martin tells us about making his popular Tantacrul videos and how those critiques of software programs eventually took him from Microsoft to being the head of design at Musescore. Daniel talks to us in his capacity as director of product strategy about the open-source community powering the product and the way Musescore aligns with the goals of Ultimate Guitar, which has acquired the software. Together we all have a collective nerd-out about the user experience, and find out the plan for what’s to come in Musescore 4. Whether or not you’re a Musescore user, you’ll find this episode to be chock-full of discussion and opinions about how music notation software is designed, the quality of its output, and the trends in the industry. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald host. More on Scoring Notes: NAMM 2020: An interview with Musescore’s Daniel Ray | |||
| Tricks and treats [encore] | 28 Oct 2023 | 00:40:35 | |
To celebrate Halloween, we’re looking at scary things we see in the music notation software and score preparation process, and see if we can sweeten the experience with some tricks and treats. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss the spookiness of using the mouse and how you can better become a jack-o-lantern of all trades by focusing more on keyboard commands and other shortcuts in Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico. We also look at a frightening situation that happens when laying out your music and investigate how to fix it. So don’t be afraid — we won’t ghost you as we lead you unscathed out of the haunted house of software skeletons and onto the pumpkin patch to score some tricks and treats. More on Scoring Notes: (Re)learning how to use music notation software Finale:
Sibelius:
Dorico: Notation Express:
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| Sam Butler and Sibelius | 11 Jul 2020 | 00:38:39 | |
Sam Butler is the senior principal product manager for Sibelius. We talk with Sam about the challenges and opportunities of keeping Sibelius running through the pandemic and what it means for both professional and educational users. Sam tells us about the strategy of releasing more frequent Sibelius updates, what some of his favorite features are, and what they’ve got cooking up for the future. We discuss the new MIDI and MusicXML importing features and the ongoing partnership with Berklee College of Music to make Sibelius more accessible to sight-impaired users, and how this initiative benefits everyone using the software. Plus: Sam does Dad duty live on the show. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald host. More on Scoring Notes: Sibelius development and accessibility, from the 2020 NAMM Show | |||
| Nicholas Buc and film score preparation | 26 Jun 2020 | 01:23:29 | |
Nicholas Buc is a composer, conductor, and arranger whose recent conducting engagements have taken him around the globe conducting live-to-picture concerts featuring the most beloved movie scores of our time. We discuss his career and the many ways that music preparation and technology can provide the score with the Midas touch in those high-stakes performances. Nick helps us avoid the phantom menace of notation pitfalls, giving us all a new hope in our quest for the holy grail of music engraving perfection. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald join Nick as we learn what it’s like to be part of his world. Read more on Scoring Notes: Preparing David Newman’s Matilda score for live orchestra Nick’s podcast: Art of the Score | |||
| Newzik’s Raphaël Schumann | 20 Jun 2020 | 00:46:06 | |
Newzik started in 2015 as a music reader solution for iPad, and since then it has grown into a complete digital solution that serves musicians, publishers, orchestras and opera companies. CEO Raphaël Schumann discusses its recent developments and its bright future after raising €3 million in private investment. How do you technologically revolutionize the long-established custom and practice of working with printed music that has been evolving for centuries? Cloud sharing, collaboration, and licensing are just some of the areas that Newzik must navigate as it continually innovates, aiming to make a seamless transition for customers to read, share, rent, purchase, and sell sheet music on digital devices. | |||
| Emily Grishman | 13 Jun 2020 | 00:56:56 | |
For decades, Emily Grishman has been one of Broadway’s most sought-after copyists, and her list of credits includes the most acclaimed music and theatrical productions. We talk about her career and how the means and manner of producing music has changed along with advancements in the music notation software she uses every day. Come along with us as we learn what Emily has to say about the world of music copying, the process of getting the music from the composer’s pen to the player’s stands, and the tools she uses to achieve superior results. Plus: the secret to being an expert in your music notation software of choice, everything you ever wanted to know about bar numbering schemes… and what not to do when working on a horror film score. Further reading: Emily Grishman on Maestra Music Photo credit: Jamie Maletz | |||
| Dorico and Sibelius updates | 06 Jun 2020 | 00:35:28 | |
We explore the latest updates to Dorico and Sibelius. Dorico 3.5 introduces pitch-before-duration input, figured bass, a line style editor, graphic slices, and much more, while Sibelius 2020.6 brings a more advanced MusicXML import method and a number of accessibility enhancements. Plus, an answer to the age-old question: When should you take the plunge and update your software? Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss. Read more on Scoring Notes: | |||
| Score preparation and production checklist | 30 May 2020 | 00:57:30 | |
Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss the essential elements of score preparation and production that make a difference in not only the perception of your music, but how it gets rehearsed and, ultimately, performed. Everything from rehearsal marks, placing cues, laying out your music, and page layout can be expertly fine-tuned by music notation software — but only if you know what results you’re looking to achieve in the first place. Learn more: Score preparation and production blog post on Scoring Notes, with lots of links to other posts about how to achieve results in notation software. | |||
| Hooked on music notation software | 24 May 2020 | 00:50:42 | |
Philip Rothman and David MacDonald officially inaugurate the Scoring Notes podcast. They reminisce about how they first got hooked on writing music with notation software, how they eventually became fascinated by the ever-changing developments in the programs and in the field, and why so many student compositions have a tempo of quarter note = 100 bpm. Also: The brief history of the Scoring Notes blog. | |||
| Dorico 3.5 interview with Daniel Spreadbury | 21 May 2020 | 00:59:08 | |
Steinberg product marketing manager Daniel Spreadbury talks with Scoring Notes about the Dorico 3.5 release. We learn about pitch-before-duration input (a.k.a “Speedy Entry”), semantic figured bass notation, VST expression maps, and what a “graphic slice” is. Also: Daniel talks about what it’s like creating music notation software in the middle of a pandemic, and we find out his personal favorite feature in this release — even if it’s obscure. Read more: Scoring Notes review of Dorico 3.5 | |||
| Chris Swaffer’s Notion of where music notation software is headed | 07 Oct 2023 | 00:55:59 | |
Notion is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous music notation software products available today. With its roots stretching back to Musicprinter Plus, a program invented in the 1990s, to today, with native apps on virtually all major desktop and mobile operating systems, Notion has always been at the vanguard of music notation software. Notion was one of the first applications to include high-quality orchestral samples with their software, and appeared on the iPad more than a decade before we saw Dorico and Sibelius release iPad versions of their products. Notion’s product manager Chris Swaffer has been there for most of those developments, and he joins Scoring Notes podcast co-hosts Philip Rothman and David MacDonald to tell us more about what Notion is, who it’s for, and where it’s headed — particularly in the aftermath of its acquisition by Fender, Notion’s second such move, after first being acquired by PreSonus. We first learn about Chris’s early days in the field and how he came to work on Notion, and how his experience as a composer and conductor informs his very important role. We also hear how Notion has been steadily upgrading its codebase to align with its Studio One DAW, and why its versatility is important for the product’s strategy in a very crowded marketplace. More from Scoring Notes: | |||
| Asked and answered, part 3: Back to school | 02 Sep 2023 | 00:54:34 | |
Listeners responded to our “call for calls” with some terrific questions about music notation software, related technology, the business of music preparation, and more. On this episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald celebrate the beginning of the academic year by answering questions about the music notation software, tools, and services best suited for education. Whether you’re a student, educator, amateur, or professional musician, you’ll learn something about the wide variety of products we cover in response to the many terrific inquiries submitted by the Scoring Notes audience. The third of a multi-part episode — because we got so many questions that we didn’t have enough time to fit them all into one sitting. More from Scoring Notes:
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| Music notation platforms: an industry perspective | 05 Aug 2023 | 00:58:11 | |
For the first time ever, MOLA, An Association of Performance Librarians, devoted an entire day to technology that featured vendor exhibits, presentations, discussions, and meetings. Bookending the day were two panel discussions; one moderated by David MacDonald on the subject of music reader tablet experiences, and one moderated by Philip Rothman with representatives from the music notation software platforms. The concluding discussion, heard here, is entitled “Music Notation Platforms: An Industry Perspective”. It brought together the representatives of a cross-section of notation software solutions: Adrian Holovaty of Soundslice; Bradley Kunda of MuseScore; Daniel Spreadbury of Steinberg (Dorico); and Chris Swaffer of PreSonus (Notion). These “ABCD”s of the music notation software field engaged in a lively back-and-forth interchange about the philosophy behind their product development, their relationships with their user bases, and how their programs co-exist in a crowded space. More from Scoring Notes: | |||
| Behind “Behind Bars” with Elaine Gould | 01 Jul 2023 | 01:13:11 | |
If there is one book that anyone working with music notation needs to have, either on their desk, or on their device — or at least in a library within walking distance of their home — it’s Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation. Published in 2011 by Faber Music, Elaine Gould’s 700-page volume quickly became the preeminent reference for music engravers, providing an exhaustive collection of rules, traditions, suggestions, and conventions for how to set music in the clearest way possible. It’s those “general” conventions that take up first third of the book — starting from what Elaine calls the “ground rules” such as the appearance of the staff, clefs, noteheads, and more — and continues on for another 200 pages or so, before the book moves onto the areas of instrumentation and layout. Elaine joins Philip Rothman and David MacDonald to tell us about the new publication of that first section, Behind Bars: General Conventions, as a stand-alone edition suitable for slipping into your bookbag, where it won’t break the bank, or your back. In this wide-ranging conversation, Elaine talks with us about her early background and how she came to the profession of music preparation and editing. We uncover the seeds that eventually became Behind Bars, and the decades-long journey from meticulous refinements to its eventual publication and virtually overnight success. Elaine gives us her practical tips for working with composers, performers, and publishers, the realities of time pressures and budget restrictions, and the inevitable revisions that occur with new music, and tells us how she’s navigated the often-conflicting goals of the engraving ideal and the necessity of deadline-driven production. She also has advice for those that are just starting out in the field, and naturally, given our focus on music notation software and technology, she opines on what the computer’s strengths and weaknesses, the crucial differences between looking at music on a screen and on a page, and the progress made since Behind Bars was first published in 2011. | |||
| Half Notes: A comparison of tablet music reader technology experiences | 17 Jun 2023 | 00:40:49 | |
For the first time ever, MOLA, An Association of Performance Librarians, devoted an entire day to technology that featured vendor exhibits, presentations, discussions, and meetings. Bookending the day were two panel discussions; one moderated by David MacDonald on the subject of music reader tablet experiences, and one moderated by Philip Rothman with representatives from the music notation software platforms. We’ll bring Philip’s discussion to you later this summer, but first, we hope you enjoy the discussion that David had to kick off the tech fair, about the real-world challenges and benefits of using tablet readers in orchestral performances. His co-moderator was none other than Mark Fabulich, assistant librarian of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the co-chair of MOLA’s Technology Committee. The distinguished panelists they spoke with were three librarians, each of whom primarily use different reader apps: Julia Pestke of the West German Radio Orchestra, who uses dimusco; Luke Speedy-Hutton of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, who uses Newzik; and Signe Marie Steensland of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, who uses forScore. More from Scoring Notes: | |||
| Asked and answered, part 2: In awe of the DAW | 03 Jun 2023 | 01:02:34 | |
Listeners responded to our “call for calls” with some terrific questions about music notation software, related technology, the business of music preparation, and more. On this episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald take a variety of questions and dispense solicited (and unsolicited) advice. The topic at hand for this part: Using music notation software with — or as — a digital audio workstation (DAW). The second of a multi-part episode — because we got so many questions that we didn’t have enough time to fit them all into one sitting. More from Scoring Notes:
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| Print perfect (encore); MOLA 2024 preview | 04 May 2024 | 00:50:51 | |
Printing music is something that takes skill and attention to detail — both by the music preparer and the printer. When everything’s communicated well, it leads to print shop nirvana and the ideal result for everyone involved. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk through a specific project and illustrate the various steps along the way to set it up for success. No detail is too small, from the page size, to the number of copies, to the shipping methods desired. Philip relays his tips and best practices from the perspective of a professional music printing service. Then, David gives advice for how to ensure good results if you need to take your project to a more general-service copy shop, or even if you are printing yourself, like some inventive ways to format the page size and convey the instructions to minimize the risk of errors that can be introduced and avoid miscommunication in what is one of the last, most critical steps in preparing a piece of music. Also: A preview of the 2024 MOLA Conference and Tech Fair. More on Scoring Notes and elsewhere:
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| Asked and answered, part 1 | 06 May 2023 | 01:02:29 | |
Listeners responded to our “call for calls” with some terrific questions about music notation software, related technology, the business of music preparation, and more. On this episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald take a variety of questions and dispense solicited (and unsolicited) advice. Among the topics: the best way to switch among different platforms, how to set up condensed scores, what makes a good portfolio, what printer to use and where to get paper, and much more. The first of a multi-part episode — because we got so many questions that we didn’t have enough time to fit them all into one sitting. More from Scoring Notes: | |||
| Ask your questions on the Scoring Notes podcast | 15 Apr 2023 | 00:02:59 | |
Have you ever listened to an episode of the Scoring Notes podcast and wished you could ask a question directly on the show? No?! Never had that desire? But now that I’ve mentioned the possibility, it sounds like something you’d want to do, right…? Right? Seriously, we actually do get a lot of questions and suggestions for the podcast, and many of those have made it onto the show in one way or another. But for our next episode, we thought we’d open up the phone lines directly, so to speak. So, now’s your chance to ask a question about anything in the world of music notation software and related technology — or really, any one of the adjacent subjects we’ve covered on the Scoring Notes podcast or web site, and we may feature it on our next episode. Just record your question as a voice memo and drop it directly here, or send it as an email attachment or as a file-sharing link to podcast@scoringnotes.com. We’d love it if you provide your name (first name only is OK), where in the world you’re calling from, and what music notation software you use — or if you don’t use it at all (yes, we have quite a few listeners in that camp). If you’re shy, you can alternatively write your question in an email and send it to us, and we may read it on the show. Send us your question no later than Wednesday, April 19, 2023, so that we have time to consider it and do the many hours of scholarly research that will no doubt be required, and to formulate a worthy reply in time for our next podcast episode. | |||
| (Re)learning how to use music notation software | 01 Apr 2023 | 00:56:25 | |
It’s fair to say that the concept of music notation software is easy to understand. You write music on a computer, it shows up on your display, and you print it out. What could be so difficult about that? Well, as we all know, plenty. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald remember beginning with zero knowledge about programs like Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico, and eventually progressing to the point where we can actually teach those programs to others trying to learn them. Along the way, we’ve discovered and refined approaches to learning that we share with each other, and with you, in the course of our discussion. We revisit our original discussion on the topic, and add a postscript — what we’ve learned about learning in the intervening years. No, we won’t be reciting all 892 pages of the Sibelius reference or 1,605 pages of the Dorico manual, but we will relay some key philosophies so that you have more confidence when you work with the software you use to create music. More on Scoring Notes: | |||
| How we don’t use music notation software (but do use related technology) | 04 Mar 2023 | 00:59:31 | |
Sometimes music notation software is perfect for the job, but other times, it’s the related technology that’s better suited to the task. Fortunately, we cover both sides of the equation on Scoring Notes — and it’s the latter part that Philip Rothman and David MacDonald discuss on this podcast episode. When creating scores and parts, music notation software is clearly the choice. But what about front matter — the pages of text and sometimes other markings and symbols that preface the music? For that, better options may exist. We look at the pros and cons of making that material directly in music notation software, and suggest apps for when it’s helpful to split the job. We talk about some of our favorite apps specifically for working with PDFs and the surprising number of ways that you can edit a file using those apps — and may need to do so — without actually having access to the music notation files or the software. What about when you need to make music notation outside of notation software? For that, there is a whole suite of fonts designed to create music notation within non-music apps. They’re called MusFonts, and Dan Kreider created them to fill this niche. For many users, creating audio is an essential component of music notation software, and we outline ways to complement the built-in process of making MIDI mockups with other software without getting too complicated. Finally, we give a shout-out to our favorite piece of related technology. More from Scoring Notes:
Apps and fonts we talk about: | |||
| Justin Bianco, forScore, and more | 04 Feb 2023 | 00:55:17 | |
forScore, the sheet music reader, is the no. 1-ranked music app on the Apple Store with good reason. Justin Bianco, its creator and developer, relentlessly refines the vision that he had when the iPad was first introduced: to make a simple yet powerful music reader for Apple’s revolutionary platform. Used in all music genres, in live performance, score study, and in countless other ways, forScore is one of the first apps that musicians download after getting an iPad, and is often the reason for purchasing the device in the first place. Philip Rothman and David MacDonald talk with Justin about the tech, his philosophy, his background — and why his mom is his target user. We also learn what the future might hold for forScore in terms of new features, interoperability with other apps, and whether or not it will ever appear on other platforms. More on Scoring Notes: | |||
| Behind the scenes with MuseScore 4’s design and engraving improvements | 07 Jan 2023 | 01:06:22 | |
The release of MuseScore 4 is a major update and quite possibly the most significant one in the open-source application’s history since the release of MuseScore 1.0 in 2011. It includes major improvements to the user interface, layout, engraving, and playback features. Not coincidentally, this is also the first major version of of MuseScore to be released under the product leadership of Martin Keary, Muse Group’s vice president of software. Coming nearly two years after the last MuseScore update (3.6) and nearly four years after the release of MuseScore 3, Martin said, “I’ve worked on a lot of complex creation software and this is the largest release I’ve ever put out,” including the launch of Paint 3D and a variety of PS3 games. Martin returns to the Scoring Notes podcast along with Simon Smith, Muse Group’s head of engraving, to talk with Philip Rothman and David MacDonald for a thorough discussion about MuseScore 4’s design and engraving improvements. We go behind the scenes to hear about the decisions, roadblocks, and good fortune that happened along the road to the release of this version of the software. They discuss their philosophies about creating tools for musicians and how they approached the challenges of modernizing an existing application, all the while keeping both existing and new users in mind. We cover the details of engraving, including ties, beams, note spacing and more. Martin and Simon tell us their favorite “under-the-radar” features in MuseScore 4 and highlight some items that users might not be aware of. Finally, we learn what’s missing in MuseScore and what to expect as they continue to develop the product for MuseScore 5 and beyond. More on Scoring Notes:
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| Reflect and refresh | 17 Dec 2022 | 00:42:53 | |
Philip Rothman and David MacDonald review significant themes and product releases, reflect on our favorite podcast episodes, recall fun times, spread holiday cheer, and refresh ourselves for the year ahead in the world of music notation software and related technology. More from Scoring Notes: Podcast highlights from 2022: | |||
| From “zero to slice”: Soundslice takes on optical music recognition with AI | 03 Dec 2022 | 00:50:41 | |
Soundslice syncs audio, video and music notation into a single web-based interface that can be used on virtually any piece of music. A favorite tool for musicians that want to learn how to play music by interacting with both the sheet music and a recording, it’s at the cutting edge of some developments in the more general field of music applications. As it has rolled out more robust features over time, Soundslice’s goal has been to get from “zero to slice” as quickly as possible. A “slice”, in Soundslice parlance, is any piece of music notation, large or small. One crucial way of getting to that slice is from existing music that may not exist as a recording or a music notation format that can be easily converted to MusicXML. So that’s where music scanning comes into play. Although music scanning, or optical music recognition (OMR) technology has been around for decades, it’s now possible to marry music-notation know-how with advancements in machine learning, or “artificial intelligence”. Soundslice’s latest feature aims to harness that technology to learn as it goes, and get better at interpreting the music with every scan it processes. Soundslice’s founder, Adrian Holovaty, returns to Scoring Notes to talk all about how Soundslice works in this regard and helps us understand its potential to revolutionize this important step in music preparation. More reading and listening: | |||
| Back in the black with holiday deals and discounts | 19 Nov 2022 | 00:57:31 | |
It’s here! Black Friday, the time when retailers and consumers meet in the happy place of sales and specials. This time can be about more just getting a few dollars off, though — it can be an opportunity to acquire new skills using products and services that will benefit you all year round. To that end, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald run through all the deals we know about for music notation software, and recap some of the latest new features that could entice you to open your wallet. We break down the ways to save while spending, including stacking discounts and taking advantage of competitive crossgrade offers, which can yield significant reductions on the overall cost of acquiring many of the products we cover on a regular basis. We also talk about the offers for some related technology, like web apps, sound libraries, graphic design software, and more, making this episode holiday music to anyone’s ears. | |||
| Melissa Smey’s commission mission | 05 Nov 2022 | 00:43:22 | |
On the Scoring Notes podcast, we have spoken before about music preparation and the technology we all use to create musical compositions and get them in front of players and an audience. But how do those compositions begin in the first place? We’re not talking about the magical moment when a composer wakes up and decides that they are going to create their magnum opus. It’s when the phone rings (or maybe these days it’s a text message or an email), and when the composer picks up, on the other end of the line there is someone inviting them — commissioning them — to write a new piece of music. Melissa Smey is the person who has been on the other end of that line many times. She tells us all about what that process is like. Melissa is the Associate Dean and Executive Director at Columbia University School of the Arts, where she leads the Arts Initiative, Miller Theatre, and oversees the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Melissa has commissioned over 40 new works from leading international composers and is the co-creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Mission: Commission, which demystifies the process of how classical music gets made. We talk about the particular role a university arts presenter has in campus life and the larger community, and how Miller Theatre’s Composer Portraits have been particularly successful in building an audience that will come out to hear a wide variety of music. We also discuss the “road trip” of commissioning a new work and the nature of music preparation in bringing a piece to life, with special attention on the performers who will ultimately be tasked with interpreting the music, whether it’s notated on paper spanning three music stands or is beamed from the latest music tablet devices. | |||
| Video killed (it with) the notation star | 06 Apr 2024 | 00:55:30 | |
With music notation work often intersecting in some capacity with music production and scoring to video, it’s important to know when your software of choice is the best option for a particular need within a project, and when it’s not. When it comes to fine-tuned formatting and engraving decisions, we can’t move from one notation software product to another without losing that important detail work. However, with the underlying composition itself, the information can be moved quite effectively with MusicXML or MIDI to and from to other software when a particular tool is needed elsewhere. Steve Morell joins Philip Rothman and David MacDonald to take a look at how video, tempo, and time are handled with the four most popular desktop music notation software options — Dorico, Finale, MuseScore, and Sibelius — and how they compare to the unique notation/DAW hybrid approach from the tablet app StaffPad, as well as other solutions available. More from Scoring Notes: | |||
| Aaron Copland, in his own words | 22 Oct 2022 | 00:32:40 | |
When Aaron Copland thought of the Far West, he probably didn’t have Wisconsin in mind, but Milwaukee was the perfect location to “road test” the new edition of Rodeo. That’s where Philip Rothman went for the first rehearsals of a new edition of Copland’s masterpiece that I prepared. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of music director Ken-David Masur, agreed to play from a brand new set of score and parts to Rodeo. You might wonder, what was wrong with the old edition? Certainly, it’s been played from thousands and thousands of times. When the piece was first published in the 1940s, a number of errors and inconsistencies crept into the parts. Although they’ve been corrected by intrepid orchestra librarians, it was time to get them straightened out once and for all. One reason for the inconsistencies was that the “Four Dance Episodes” from Rodeo, which is the version that most everyone is familiar with, is extracted from the full ballet. That version left a lot to be desired in the engraving department, so, with the support of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and in coordination with Boosey & Hawkes, the team at NYC Music Services put it all into modern software and made brand new materials for both the ballet and the Four Dance Episodes, with the goal of clarifying any discrepancies and making everything nice and easy to read. The Milwaukee players were great, and you can read more about it on the Scoring Notes web site. It must have been fate to go there, because in researching this piece, we stumbled across a fascinating interview that Copland gave in 1970 while visiting the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It’s thanks to the library archives of that university that we’re pleased to bring you that interview here as a Scoring Notes extra. Copland talks with professor John Downey about the iconic ballets like Rodeo, the various people and musical trends which influenced him, and the divergent aspects of his own work throughout his career. You’ll also hear him talk about what was current at the time and discuss the future of music. This episode is co-produced with The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, with material kindly provided from the Archives Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. More from Scoring Notes: Road report: Copland’s Rodeo in Milwaukee | |||