MIDI Keyboard w/ Notation Softwre

[sloom]

Hi everybody, been a while...

My wife is a church organist/choir director and we're trying to get her hooked up with an M-Audio Oxygen-8 keyboard and Musescore, so she can arrange and print out music here at home for her performances. I have a lot of green-horn questions about this, since I've never really had anything to do with MIDI before.

Can someone point me to a good source of info, a forum, that kind of thing for pulling our act together?

Many thanks!

 

[PTravel]

What, exactly, do you need to know? The Oxygen-8 appears to be USB-powered/USB interface. Just install the drivers and plug it in to a USB port. For what it costs, i.e. nothing, Musescore is fine, though it wouldn't be my amanuensis of choice. One thing, though: the Oxygen-8 is a 25-key controller. Any time your wife wants to enter a note outside the 25-key range, she will have to change the range on the controller. I couldn't imagine trying to write and arrange music that way. I'd suggest she consider the m-Audio Keystation 88, which is another inexpensive (around $200) USB-powered/USB-interface MIDI controller. As its name implies, it has 88 keys, which will make scoring a lot easier. I have one that I use when I have to go on location. Though its not my primary keyboard, I have used it with Finale, which is a professional-level amanuensis program, and it works just fine.

And a final note: your wife understands that she's not going to be able to simply play something at tempo and have the software produce an accurate score, right? Though these programs claim to have that capability, all of them have trouble distinguishing tempo and note value. The best and fastest way to get an accurate score (and even then you'll have to manually add features) is step entry of notes and chords.

 

[CAlbertson]

What is the problem, post it here.

The better notation software is either Finale or Sibelius.
People will argue which is "best" but it's like aruing over Ford vs. Chevy. The argument will never end. You will have to look at each and decide.

Can your wife actually play the music in a little 25 key device? What I'd do is jst transpose everything into the 25 keys by moving an octave or two and then later edit the notes. This is faster than stopping every few seconfs to "move" the keyboard. Also, obviously, play one hand at a time.

It helps to listen to a "click track" (a.k.a "Metronome) in headphones while you play. and keep the tempo dead slow. You can set the software for the shortest note. So if you know there are no 1/16 or 1/32 notes it will do much better. If you play "sloppy" it will record EXACTLY what you play. Odd-ball things like dotted 1/16th notes ail be on the score when you want a 1/8th note. Expect a lot of manual clean-up work