Scoring Notes

Scoring Notes

A podcast about music notation software and related technology.

55 minutes 30 seconds

Video killed (it with) the notation star

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:

Video, tempo, and time (oh my!)

6 April 2024, 11:09 am
1 hour 13 minutes

An interview with Steinberg’s Daniel Spreadbury
We last visited with Steinberg’s product marketing manager Daniel Spreadbury on the podcast upon the release of Dorico 4 in January 2022, and more recently last summer in Berlin at the MOLA conference in a panel discussion with his colleagues and competitors in the music notation software industry.

Although Dorico didn’t have much of a presence at the 2024 NAMM Show, we welcome the opportunity to visit with Daniel here in a similar manner that we did with many of those colleagues and competitors at NAMM.

We start not by focusing on the latest Dorico features, although we do discuss those. Instead, we speak with Daniel about how the Dorico community influences product development, to what extent Steinberg prioritizes customer requests and specific features, and how they balance those with some of the more long-term vision that they may have for the product. He gives us a sense of Dorico’s role within these companies, from a strategic, philosophical, and technical perspective. We explore how much of what they’re doing is done with the other products and services in mind, how those decisions are made, and how Dorico users benefit.

We also talk about industry changes and how those philosophies end up shaping what customers see on their screens and even what kind of music they create.

If you didn’t hear our NAMM wrap-up episode, and interviews with NAMM CEO John Mlynczak, Avid’s Sam Butler, MakeMusic’s Jason Wick, and Muse Group’s Jack Sutton, check those out in the Scoring Notes podcast feed.

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2 March 2024, 11:43 am
37 minutes 48 seconds

NAMM 2024: An interview with Muse Group’s Jack Sutton
At the 2024 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

Today’s podcast episode is a conversation Philip Rothman had with Jack Sutton, Muse Group’s head of communications. Jack’s first visit to NAMM coincided with the company’s first official presence at the show as the parent company of Hal Leonard, which they recently acquired. We spoke about some early fruits of that deal and the longer-term plans that they have for the future of their combined business, which brings together cutting-edge digital products with a vast library of published content.

We also discussed MuseScore and the latest developments with their flagship notation product, and specifically the improvements they’ve made, and plan to make, in the areas of guitar and percussion music, as well as the overall quality of output that they hope to achieve with MuseScore in the future.

If you didn’t hear our NAMM wrap-up episode, and interviews with NAMM CEO John Mlynczak, Avid’s Sam Butler, and MakeMusic’s Jason Wick, check those out in the Scoring Notes podcast feed.

More from Scoring Notes:
24 February 2024, 11:55 am
34 minutes 57 seconds

NAMM 2024: An interview with MakeMusic’s Jason Wick
At the 2024 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

Today’s podcast episode is a conversation Philip Rothman had with Jason Wick, MakeMusic’s director of product development. Jason talked with me about their MakeMusic Cloud product, including their Practice tool, Sight Reading Studio, a free online composing application, and their classroom suite. We also discussed MakeMusic’s tight integration with the Alfred Publishing side of their company, the future of Finale, and more broadly considered the company’s values and strategies in today’s landscape of industry consolidation.

Come back next week for another great conversation from the NAMM Show. And if you didn’t hear our NAMM wrap-up episode, and interviews with NAMM CEO John Mlynczak and Avid’s Sam Butler, check those out in the Scoring Notes podcast feed.

More from Scoring Notes:
17 February 2024, 12:16 pm
34 minutes 18 seconds

NAMM 2024: An interview with Avid’s Sam Butler
At the 2024 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

Today’s podcast episode is a conversation Philip Rothman had with Sam Butler, Avid’s director of product management. Sam talked with us about the new Sibelius features that Avid previewed at NAMM, the new Android application, and Sibelius Cloud publishing improvements.

Come back the next couple of weeks for more conversations from the NAMM Show. And if you didn’t hear our NAMM wrap-up episode, check that out in the podcast feed — David MacDonald and Philip Rothman review all the industry news and analyze what it means for you.

More from Scoring Notes:
10 February 2024, 12:39 pm
51 minutes 15 seconds

NAMM 2024: Wrap-up and interview with CEO John Mlynczak
The 2024 NAMM Show was full of exciting news, products — and, most of all, the interesting people that create the news and products. Especially as it pertains to the Scoring Notes beat of music notation software and related technology, there was a lot to cover, and many miles were logged in service of bringing as much of the experience back to our audience.

David MacDonald and Philip Rothman review each of the major interviews that took place for Scoring Notes during the show with representatives from Avid, MakeMusic, and Muse Group. We also more generally analyze the experience, the information, and what it means for the year ahead in the field.

Concluding this episode is a special interview with John Mlynczak on his first show as president and CEO of NAMM in which we discuss his roots in the music notation field and its importance to the philosophy of the organization.

Stay tuned all this month to the Scoring Notes podcast feed, where each week we will bring special bonus coverage of interviews with Avid’s Sam Butler, MakeMusic’s Jason Wick, and Muse Group’s Jack Sutton, as they each talk about their respective products and companies, and discuss their strategies and approaches to their business.

More on Scoring Notes:
3 February 2024, 12:34 pm
1 hour 1 minute

The staples of printing self-published music
It’s easier than ever to publish your own music — but that doesn’t mean it’s a simple proposition. Even though a lot of music is made available digitally, there is still a significant demand for printed material. The logistics of printing physical copies and shipping them to customers can be tricky to navigate. It’s important to not be “toner-deaf” to the challenges that come along with the opportunities you “drum” up by making your music available.

In this conversation with Garrett Breeze of the Selling Sheet Music podcast, Philip Rothman and Garrett first discuss the ways in which you can work with services that will handle the printing and fulfillment for you. We also talk about what’s needed if you want to actually set up your own operation, and finally review some tools that can help you prepare your music for both specialty print services and conventional copy shops, so that you can find a smooth path towards getting the material out and avoid any paper jams along the way.

More from Scoring Notes:
6 January 2024, 12:32 pm
1 hour 28 minutes

A December to remember
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:
18 December 2023, 12:43 pm
1 hour 11 minutes

Black Friday deals are music to our ears

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.

18 November 2023, 12:24 pm
1 hour 10 minutes

StaffPad updates go beyond just keeping the lights on
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:
11 November 2023, 12:01 pm
40 minutes 35 seconds

Tricks and treats [encore]
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:
28 October 2023, 10:19 am
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