It's a good thing this "software" is free
This is the most horrible software I've ever tried to use. It is the opposite of user friendly. It's user vicious. It's the worst experience I've ever had. You need to do some major work on this program. It has numerous bugs, and it is about as intuitive as tax law. I would be embarrassed to release this pathetic piece of crap to the public.
When I load a style scheme I've saved before, none of the preset style specifications work. All the old defaults are in effect and the new styles I saved and want to use again are ignored.
When I enter lyrics, then erase them, then start over and enter them again, this idiotic program thinks I'm entering the second verse and won't let me enter the first verse again.
None of the margins and distance specs make any sense, and they don't do what they should, and what the user would naturally and logically expect them to.
When I change the font or margin or distance or any other attribute of the score, it should immediately visually reflect the change I made. This crap doesn't do that. So I have no idea if what I did had any effect. If I close the score and reload it, sometimes those changes have finally been applied. But until then, I can only guess whether what I did was what I should expect it would do, and whether it actually did it. This is asinine.
I have to fight with this nightmare tooth and nail to get it to do what I want. It makes me want to delete it and use something that was developed by someone with a brain who knows how to write software. How sad that a free open source music notation program has to be a useless piece of crap. It gives free open source software a bad name.
Please learn how to write software, learn how to write software that works and makes sense (as opposed to the incoherent mess this is), and learn what it means to create a user experience that is enjoyable and productive rather than a horrific frustrating waste of time.
Comments
Are you finding it pleasant under that bridge?
Or is it a tad draughty??
In reply to Are you finding it pleasant by ChurchOrganist
I've heard of drum rolls, is this a t roll?
In additon to the Musescore handbook, the search box near the top of this page is a portal to many solutions.
Further support for any questions can be found in these forums, which have a quick turnaround time, compared to many other web sites.
Have a look at this recent post to see what goes on here.
Please... read the whole thing. (shows one of the many Aha! moments):
http://musescore.org/en/node/21472
As with many things musical: 'Practice makes perfect'.
Take a deep breath... ;-)
MuseScore is apparently not the type of software you are looking for. Luckily open source world gives you choice. Give http://lilypond.org a try. It may suit you better. Good luck.
Actually, many of the people who take the time it takes to this or any other similarly complex software find it works marvelously, and at least as user-friendly as the alternatives. If you'd care to calm down and ask specific questions about how to do specific things, and can do so without insulting anyone, you'll find people here are only too happy to answer and help however they can. It's a friendly place here, most of the time.
In reply to what you said means that it… by Javert2123356
Perhaps; but if it's supposed to be extremely simple, then why not write down how simple it could be?
Then again though, MuseScore has only one manual, the online handbook and you can freely jump between chapters as you need them.
In reply to what you said means that it… by Javert2123356
I look forward to your new groundbreaking, revolutionary new powerful music notation program that somehow is so simple it doesn't require documentation - it would be a first in all of recorded human history :-)
Well said Marc. This is a freindly place where people go out of their way to help and support each other. Emotional and insulting outbursts have no place here, and we who come here to help and be helped don't want people like the original poster here with us. He is perfectly at liberty to go and pay £400 for Sibelius and then go away and leave us alone.
If he thinks THIS software is the opposite of user friendly, let this fella go buy Finale! Then he can hate the software AND be out 600 smackers!
In reply to Wheeeeeee Doggies! by newsome
I have been a long time Finale user and this software is so easy that at times I can't figure out what to do! (Like making the playback stop - just press the button again! And I was looking for a Stop button!) I love the way you can use more of the keyboard for note entry, as well as MIDI input.
The piece of crap playback to test your music is worthless. It reads the EXACT SAME RHYTHM DIFFERENTLY IN SOME INSTANCES. I copied the rhythm that I wanted to repeat in the next measure, specifically to make ABSOLUTE SURE it was the same, and it played faster than the original. You can't make the thing play slurs or ties, either. And when the marker reaches the last note you have placed, it stops - but if you move it somewhere, then it continues playing as if it hadn't reached the end. The creation of tuplets is unnecessarily complicated, adding measures is painful, and if you screw up and need to change the time signature... well, good luck. The way notes and rests are changed if you add something in between them makes no sense at all. Half of the things you may want to change - tempo, for example - are hidden under layers of menus in the top. All in all, no, it isn't very user friendly - maybe for simple things, but not anything very big or at all complicated. Look elsewhere unless you are already familiar with MuseScore.
In reply to He's right by SomeoneAngry
Sorry you seem to be having difficulty learning to use the software. If you'd care to politely post *specific* issues - with sample score, showing exactly step by step what you are trying to do, what you expect to see happen, and what you see instead - I'm sure any number of people on this forum would be happy to help clear up the confusion you seem to be having.
To address some of your concerns:
- Adding measures is Ctrl+B (append) or Ins (insert). There are also shortcuts for adding multiple measures at once. Or if you prefer to use menus, you can do that too. Not sure what you are finding painful?
- Ties *do* playback. I'm guessing you are using slurs when you mean ties. They are completely different.
- Tempos are easy to change - just click the location and press Ctrl+Alt+T to enter a tempo text. No menus required.
- You'll definitely need to post the example to show the rhyhtm that isn't playing as you expect. In general, what you describe should work, and in fact does the thousands of times I have done this.
- If you are accustomed to software that works differently, then the way note entry works in terms of what happens if you change something will indeed come as a surprise. But it is completely logical once you understand the basic concept: MuseScore does not change the time position of notes unless absolutely necessary. it assumes that if you enter a note on beat 4 of a measure, then that note should remain on beat 4 regardless of what you change in the first three beats. If you want to move the note, then do it yourself via cut & paste. It's the same model used in very popular program Sibelius.
I can't get how one can get so angry against a piece of FREE software! If one does not like it the solution is SIMPLE -- don't use it, use your wastebasket!
As regards MY OWN experience, I simply LOVE MuseScore. It gives me EXACTLY what I need -- it's easy to use and exports in many different and standard formats. The quality of the scores is not perfect (is anything perfect?) but it's as good as I need.
Ah, I use it for personal use and at work (I'm a music teacher).
Can I say that most of my pupils LOVE MuseScore even more than I do? You should see the sense of WONDER depicted on their face when they discover the many features of the program.
P.S. LilyPond can't be compared with MuseScore due to its textual interface. MuseScore GUI is much more user-friendly, even if it is not as precise as LilyPond.
In reply to ??? by Aldo
though in my own case, I felt frustration when I first download and tried to use Musescore, never having used any other musical notation program before.
It seemed daunting and has been mentioned in the OP, not very user friendly, and so it remained dormant on my computer for almost a year.
Then through a friend who uses it, I returned and this time searched for tutorials and have since found how easy it is to use once the initial feelings vanished.
I think now, that it is not so much how 'hard' musescore is to use, but how determined the person is to Learn how to use it, and from the posts of both posters, their lack of ability to learn is very low.
Musescore is no more difficult to use than any other program, whether it be Office, or the computer OS.
@ philbair:
muhahahaha :D
Laughed my ass split about your comment. If you do not like it drop it and move on! nothing to see here :*
To all you devellopers: thank you i am loving it! keep up the good work :)
In reply to muhahahaha :DLaughed my ass by aeLiXihr
Probably there's something wrong in the "uninstall" feature of his PC--
P.S. Is "to laugh one's ass split about something" an idiomatic expression? I didn't ever read/hear it before. I think I grasped its meaning, but it's totally new to me.