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View Full Version : Linux + Music Composition Software ?



n2ize
06-10-2010, 04:02 PM
Okay, I may be a rotten violin player... I can read/write music and play a little but but a virtuoso I am NOT... the bulk of stuff I play are simple tunes that I mostly pick up and learn to play by ear. Recently I decided to write down some music but, hand writing music comes out worst than my handwriting. Enter the need for some piece of software that can format music that can be later saved, printed, and, above all...read !!

last night I tried a Linux program called LilyPond. It works sort of like LaTeX, you create a text file and then compose your music using a kind of markup language and save it to a ".ly" file. Then you run LilyPond on the file and it translates it into formatted sheet music and saves it as a .pdf file. It works pretty good so far, although I only dealt with its most basic functions so far. However, I must admit, the language is kind of confusing and appears to have a rather steep learning curve. Nonetheless, it got what I wanted done...more or less and as time moves on I'll get better and better at using it. Allin all it looks like it might be a powerful program and just what I am looking for, if not more.

However, just curious if there any other music composition programs floating around out there that anyone has used, and/or recommends ? preferably something that runs on Linux, although Windows is okay too. Any recommendations appreciated. Thanks.