What is the advantage: musescore, Guitar pro or manual Transcription?

• Jul 27, 2019 - 13:23

What is the advantage: musescore, Guitar pro or manual Transcription?


Comments

If you want really fine control of your score layout then I would say MuseScore. If guitar specific features and quality of playback are your priority then I would say Guitar Pro.

For me the best solution is to use both, especially as MS can open GP files.

In reply to by hadronconverter

Don't mix up MuseScore with MuseScore Pro. The MuseScore score writing software is completely free and you do not require a pro membership to use it. Pro membership buys you server space to upload more than 5 scores to the musescore.com website. You can store an unlimited number of scores on your own computer.

In reply to by yonah_ag

Thanks. I have it down pat with manual transcription but it would be neater with musescore and save endlessly printing out stave. It would probably take longer but i enjoy transcribing anyway. musescore is a good start and the bells and whistles with Guitar-prob are probably unnecessary for me.

In reply to by hadronconverter

The thing is, if by "transcribing" you mean listening to a recording figuring out the notes - that's manual no matter what. And in most cases, that's the time-consuiming part. Neither GuitarPro, MuseScore, nor indeed any other program will do that for you (although there are some fairly experimental programs that can make an attempt that can work in very simple cases about as well as early experimental versions of Siri probably did at transcribing speech).

Once you've figured out the notes, it's about equally fast to enter them into any program as it is to write it out by hand, assuming you know how to use the program, and that you write carefully enough for the results to be even remotely legible.

I cut my teeth on manual transcription. (...sitting at the kitchen table of our tiny northern apartment while my wife taught piano on the other side of the room.) As far as learning the craft, nothing beats that, but I probably would have given my right hand to have had all that MuseScore offers back then. I'm also grateful that my wife's piano studio is now on a different floor from my composition room.

In reply to by hadronconverter

Scoring is easier in GP than MS, particularly when using multiple voices, and it supports loads of guitar features. Musescore gives you total control of your score layout and is free so you have nothing to learn by giving it a try.

For me there was quite a steep learning curve with MS and I can highly recommend reading the handbook to get the most from the software. Be prepared to take some time trying it our because it's well worth it.

In reply to by yonah_ag

yonah_ag, you spent a lot of time in these forums when you first started using MuseScore. I'm very glad to hear what you have to say. MuseScore is a complex program and no one uses all of it's features...there are too many. There are plenty of people still here willing to help. I've even seen a few new faces around lately that have done more than stay for a day or two. Hadronconverter, welcome to MuseScore and don't allow yourself to get frustrated without asking for help. As my friend shoichi likes to say buona musica!

In reply to by mike320

Yes, I did. I like to work things out from the manual if I can but the forums have been great for when I get stuck, for useful ideas and for music theory education, so my thanks to all who have helped me with MS. I have often been surprised by the speed of response from the forums and although I'm sure that I must've asked some silly questions, (and probably will ask some more), there was always a polite response.

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