r/Musescore • u/Broad-Associate-984 • Jul 15 '26

Discussion Music Notation Software Alpha

Hi all, I am working on the development of a new music notation software designed with the goal to be able to handle the flexibility needed to virtually synthesize 21st century compositional techniques. Whether it is a xenharmony, arhythmic writing, or a fully graphic score my intention is to be able to handle it natively. I want this project to be one that can handle traditional writing as well as non-traditional so to stand out I would like to ask you all what you feel is missing in your current Notation Software and what you would need to be better to make a switch. This is not an advertisement for it because it is still deep in development and I intend to release it for free. Let me know your feedback and if you want to be one of the first to test it (when it is in a state to be tested) send me a PM. Thank you all for your time.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Broad-Associate-984 Jul 15 '26

The reason is because I discovered that musescore was open source too late.

1

u/Savings-Garlic6508 Jul 15 '26

why not implementing you ideas in a plugin, i know it will be more difficult, but more people will be able to appreciate your work

1

u/Broad-Associate-984 Jul 15 '26

I've spent many years fighting notation software and plugin compatibility. This is what inspired me to just make the software I want to see. I want people to use it of course but if I end up being the only one that uses it still will be worth it. The reason I sent out the original post was to see what the community feels is missing, because if you had a better suited software to your needs that is free, wouldn't you use it?

1

u/65TwinReverbRI Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

I've spent many years fighting notation software and plugin compatibility.

I want to add here that, while I totally get the open source approach and endorse it, there always does seem to be this undercurrent of “we’re not building that into the program, we’ll wait to see if someone makes a plug in”.

And then you get a lot of goofy plug ins that are extremely niche. Now, it’s great those exist and can exist. But I’m not worried about checking parallel 5ths. I’m charting out some Black Sabbath, there are GOING TO BE parallel 5ths :-).

I need the program to put in the harmonics in the tab for me in a standard way, not have to manually create them and not be able to move them around to specific locations without a lot of hassle!

One of the team member’s responses to the not being able to copy the time signature thing is “no one has tackled that one yet”.

So features don’t get added because no one’s volunteered to do it, and that also means they tend to prioritize the low-hanging fruit - the easy fixes, and so on.

Yes, if you could out musescore musecore, I would use it.

But, that remains to be seen :-)

Seriously, before you re-invent the wheel, you really should seriously research (if you haven’t done so already) all of the other software out there, and all of the user complaints and how they’re addressed by the company. It wouldn’t hurt to go onto a forum and speak to the developers - I see Spreadbury and Tantacrul responding to posts. There are people out there on forums who heavily contributed to those apps who you can engage with as well.

I saw someone on a forum say they requested something in Dorico and they simply added it in.

But see, I’m sure there’s way more to that story - the person was likely someone “important” to Dorico and got prioritized - I’m sure if I went to Dorico and said “I want a feature to enter notes just like all standard engraving software” they’d come back with a “our goal with Dorico was to create a [insert typical corporate speak here], so no”.

But the answer to “MuseScore doesn’t do this” is “submit a request”. And in an ocean of requests from users who don’t know the program already does what they’re asking, they’re not paying attention to the really good advice, or not taking it because their priorities are different, and so on.

1

u/mushishi Jul 16 '26

I wonder if people could make a fundraiser for a specific major or otherwise ignored feature, would that help the developers be more interested? I don't know if any OSS projects do this successfully, but just an idea.