Music composition software

[lars_the_bear]

Hi folks

I appreciate that this is only tangentially a Gentoo question.

If I can find a workable substitute for Sibelius (music notation editor), I can be free of Windows for ever. At least, I can when I retire -- my customers won't let me go that easily until then. I've already moved -- with difficulty -- from Lightroom to Darktable, Photoshop to Gimp. Both, frankly, are poor substitutes, but I loathe Windows.

In the past I've tried various music notation applications for Linux -- Rosegarten, MuseScore, etc., -- and not been hugely impressed. I don't know if that situation has improved. Does anybody know if there is an application that will build and run properly on Gentoo, and can edit a full orchestral score and render it to audio? Actually, outputting MIDI would probably be enough, because there are adequate ways to do the sound rendering already.

BR, Lars.

[kurdy]

Hi,

I have previously experimented with Musescore, specifically version 3.x (current version is 4.x), alongside my brother-in-law, a classical guitarist and conductor who typically uses Sibelius. During our trial, I successfully transcribed portions of orchestral and guitar scores into Musescore, receiving positive feedback from him. However, due to his familiarity with Sibelius, he chose not to fully adopt Musescore despite its capabilities. Like any software, there is a learning curve that is crucial to mastering.

Regarding MIDI functionality, I used Musescore to transcribe piano parts for working on my double bass play. While the playback quality on both computer and Yamaha piano was not entirely satisfactory, the functionality proved to be beneficial for my work.

[rab0171610]

Sibelius is the clear winner in this category. The only other near equivalent I have found is Musescore. That being said, Musescore is lacking in some areas in my opinion. Musescore has the advantage in that it is free, but Sibrlius is definitely worth paying for. There is no other software that works as well as Sibelius and has all the features, including sounds and playback that I am aware of. If there is I would love to know about it.
I think on Gentoo, due to compilation times and dependencies I would probably try Musescore as an AppImage which would be point a click and include all the dependencies. I use Sibelius on Wine (Bottles). It seems to work fine except for self-reporting some obscure error about some driver not loaded at the beginning, probably midi related. However, it seems to work without error after that. I am able to write and save .sib project files and scores. I don't know if playback works well, but the sound plays at the beginning when I open Sibelius in Wine. I previously used it in Windows in dual boot situation, but it became the only reason I was keeping a Windows drive and I eventually gave it up.
Update: Opening a previous midi file I created, playback does not produce sound on Sibelius in Wine. All playback devices are shown as inactive. When trying to activate them, Sibelieus reports the specified device is already in use, please wait until it is free and try again (MMSYSTEM/IN). It does work still work to manipulate and create scores.

[ormorph]

I'm no expert on this, but midi audio in Rosegarden depends entirely on what audio sequencer you're using. For example, when using qsynth, the sound will depend on the .sf2 sound bank. The best sound is obtained if you use qsynth with jackd output. I'm using pipewire with the jack-sdk flag enabled, this allows me to work directly with jack clients without running the jackd daemon. You can record sound from rosegarden using ardour, the main thing is to figure out how to connect the channels. To edit .sf2 you can use polyphone. Pipewire can also connect a sound source to a sound receiver; there is a graphical utility for this, qpwgraph. The only difficulty is in learning.
Here is a link to a video with rosegarden and qsynth. You can get much better sound if you choose a good .sf2.

[lars_the_bear]