Introduction > Comparison Between Notation Composer and Notation Musician

The following chart compares the purposes and features of Notation Composer and Notation Musician. For ordering and pricing information for these two products, see How to Buy Notation Software products.

Purpose and Features

Notation

Musician

Notation

Composer

Download MIDI files from the Internet and transcribe them to sheet music that you can print or view on the screen as the notes play.

Yes

Search the Internet for MIDI files, download, and use Composer to open them as sheet music.

Yes

Transcribe MIDI file to sheet music with excellent accuracy, including detection of swing rhythms, grace notes, trills and tremelos.

Yes

Correct any errors that might be made in the transcription of the note rhythms.

Yes

Automatically analyze and display chord names.

Yes

Enjoy and study the music notation a song as it plays.

Yes

Highlight the notes and lyrics as they play.

Yes

Slow down the tempo so that you can hear the rhythms more clearly.

Yes

Temporarily increase the volume of one staff while decreasing the volume of other staves, so that you can focus your listening on a particular instrument or voice. "Solo" a staff while the others are muted.

Yes

Organize songs into playlists and play them back with Composer's built-in jukebox.

Yes

Practice music as you sing along or play your instrument with accompaniment

Yes

Transpose the pitch of a vocal part to match your voice range.

Yes

Transpose an instrument part to match your instrument's natural key so you can play along.

Yes

Automatically turn pages.

Yes

Set up practice loops, to repeat a section of the song at optionally increasing tempos.

Yes

Remotely execute commands from your keyboard, such as Start Playback, End Playback, and Fast Forward.

Yes

Practice and perform with your group using BandMates for "live" Parts.

Yes

Cast your band members' Parts to their devices for "live" notation - highlighted notes and the beat cursor keeps everyone on track, and pages get turned automatically. Always have the sheet music for all your band members.

Yes

Also use the advanced Playlist features to organize your practice or concert list. Make changes "on the fly" as needed. You will have everyone's Part available immediately to send to their device.

Yes

Have Composer play the part for any missing band member. Use the advanced RealTime audio for outstanding audio quality.

Yes

Quickly prepare parts from a MIDI file, for use by yourself or musicians in a performing group.

Yes

Prepare an "Easy Notes" part for student musicians, showing note letters (for example "C") in the noteheads.

Yes

Prepare a "Sing-Along" vocal part, for easy sight-reading from the screen while the song plays.

Yes

Prepare a fake book lead sheet part, with melody and chords.

Yes

Prepare piano reduction of a score that has multiple instruments or voices.

Yes

Extract individual parts for the players or singers in your music group.

Yes

Transpose an instrument's part to its natural key, such as for a Bb clarinet,

Yes

Split a single piano/keyboard staff into right- and left-hand staves.

Yes

Split a MIDI drum staff into separate one-line drum instrument staves.

Yes

Split a staff into melody and accompaniment parts.

Yes

Annotate the sheet music that has been transcribed from a MIDI file.

Yes

Add lyrics.

Yes

Edit note beams.

Yes

Transcribe the following types of ornaments:

grace notes

trills

tremelos

Temporarily display an ornament as written-out notes, or revert it to a written-out performance.

Yes

Add accent marks and articulations, dynamic marks, hairpin crescendo marks, slurs, pedal marks, and other special music symbols.

Yes

Add staff symbols: brackets and braces, clefs, key signatures, and barline types.

Yes

Add free text anywhere in the score.

Yes

Add rehearsal marks.

Yes

Add 8va octave marks.

Yes

Add repeat barlines and endings, which will be interpreted during playback.

Yes

Add special repeat directives, such as "D.C.", for which you can specify the destination measure.

Yes

Format and print the score and parts.

Yes

Choose the default font size, face, and style for various categories of music symbols and types of text. The default can be overridden for specific items.

Yes

Specify the default horizontal spacing (degree of stretch or compression) and default vertical spacing between staves.

Yes

Control the layout of each page:

page breaks, system (line) breaks

number of measures on any given system,

number of systems on any given page

vertical spacing between any pair of staves

vertical spacing between adjacent systems

relative horizontal spacing of individual measures within a system (line).

Yes

Add and control the placement of page title, footer and header text.

Yes

Optionally hide resting staves.

Yes

Expand or collapse multiple-measure rests.

Yes

Format parts using templates.

Yes

Display one-line drum instrument staves using special percussion noteheads.

Yes

Export a High Resolution PDF for sharing your score

Yes

Export a High Resolution image (.png, .jpg, .bmp, .gif) for sharing your score

Yes

Re-arrange the notes of an existing song, or create music from scratch.

Yes

Create a new song using a pre-defined template for a variety of solo instruments, duet pairs, small ensembles, and large ensembles. Or, use a custom song template that you have previously prepared.

Yes

Add notesby whatever method is most convenient for you:

with the mouse and computer keyboard.

using the Sequential Note Entry method, whereby where you rarely have to select the note duration, even when the sequence of notes has different note duration.

using Step-Time recording, one note or chord at a time, from your MIDI keyboard or input device.

using the virtual keyboard using the virtual keyboard to enter notes by clicking them with your mouse.

Yes

Change pitches of notes.

Yes

Add staves (instrument parts).

Yes

Yes

Yes

Change the meter and barline positions.

Yes

MusicXML - Transfer your score to other popular music notation programs, such as Finale(tm) and Sibelius(tm), using the MusicXML file format.

Yes

Record music from your MIDI keyboard or input device to create song files.

Yes

The recording of your performance is transcribed using the same excellent MIDI-to-notation transcription technology that Notation uses to transcribe MIDI files to sheet music. Composer also records all MIDI CC events as well as the notes.

Set up the tempo for recording.

Yes

Set up the number of pick-up measures.

Yes

Record (punch in) into a selected region of a staff.

Yes

Add (punch in) a recording of pitch bends or MIDI controllers on top of notes previously recorded.

Yes

Edit the performance (MIDI) of the song.

Yes

Notation Composer offers the features of a typical MIDI sequencer program but in a more musically oriented way. Editing of the music performance is highly integrated with the music notation. Notation Composer offers an intuitive and fun way to refine the details of the performance without requiring that you know details about MIDI nor requiring you to work with tedious numbers.

Yes

Edit the exact as-performed rhythms of notes while viewing Piano Roll Notation that is drawn on top of the notes.

Yes

Edit the loudness of individual notes while viewing "vectors" (lines drawn at an angle from each notehead) that graphically show the loudness of each note.

Yes

Snap ("quantize") the as-performed attack or release of a note to its notated rhythm.

Yes

Independently edit the notation or the performance of notes, or edit both.

Yes

Edit the underlying performance of ornaments: grace notes, trills, turns, tremelos, and arpeggios.

Yes

Graphically edit the song tempo.

Yes

Graphically edit the volume level, left-to-right pan, pedal, and pitch bend activity in a staff.

Yes

Graphically edit any MIDI controller data.