Comments on: LilyPond: Free Music Engraving Software

LilyPond: Free Music Engraving Software

teleskiving — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 06:41:12 -0800

LilyPond is a free, mature, actively developed "automated engraving system" for the production of beautifully formatted musical scores. Essay and examples from the site. All major platforms are supported.

By: Zurishaddai

Zurishaddai — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:04:31 -0800

This looks like TeX for mathematical notation, and with both, I wonder, isn't there some input-assistance program that keeps you from having to use input so foreign in style to the output you have in mind? Oh well, I guess I have no geek cred.

By: mischief

mischief — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:12:02 -0800

Without a user interface, these guys are completely behind the curve.

By: beowulf573

beowulf573 — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:39:39 -0800

MusiXTeX is TeX for music, LilyPond is another beast altogether. It also lacks a really powerful gui.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 07:58:59 -0800

File converters and other input methods are discussed on the FAQ page; there seem to be quite a few choices. The relationship to TeX/MusiXTeX is also discussed in the FAQ. I haven't tried to produce a score with LilyPond yet, but I've never really enjoyed using any GUI for producing notation, mainly because inexpensive music software tends to exude ugliness. Unless someone knows an exception?

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 08:27:45 -0800

It looks OK, I guess. But since the main pitch is the relative beauty of the engraving-style notation, I kept looking for a side-by-side comparison with standard notation programs like Finale Allegro (the affordable version of Finale) which can print right off of a MIDI keyboard input. Didn't find any, so I gotta say, I'm unimpressed. Moreover, I have to question the aesthetic sense of anybody who would use this as an emblem on one of their main pages.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:54:24 -0800

soyjoy, take a look at this comparison with Finale 2003 from the site.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:07:11 -0800

Rosegarden is a GUI music program that outputs to Lilypond format. Don't be so quick to knock the text-input approach, though. Lilypond is not really designed to be a program that you compose directly into -- it's primarily a typesetting program. I've tried Lilypond to typeset some longish extracts, and personally found it faster than Sibelius, at least for entry. However, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to try and create something from scratch straight into Lilypond notation.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:11:17 -0800

(As an aside, I also find entering equations in TeX much easier than clicking around in the Microsoft Equation Editor -- same basic principle, I think.)

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 11:56:45 -0800

teleskiving, thanks, that was what I was looking for - or at least half of what I was looking for. I wasn't at all surprised at the little inaccuracies that can be generated on the default settings of Finale. But it would have been more convincing to see the two final products side-by-side. And in fact, to be fair, there would need to be a comparison of time spent on getting the music notated, starting with the raw data entry. Otherwise it's a little disingenuous to be comparing an amateur user's product on default settings with something whose claim to fame is meaningful only to the most discerning connoisseur - I mean, what amateur user who only uses the default settings is going to care?