# How long have you composed with a computer?



## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Or if not, tell us why...


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Since 1991, because it was the future.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I've gotten the year confused so often in my head that it could be anywhere between 2001 and 2003, I err on the side of the former since I distinctly recall doing it at least a little before I was in secondary school. In any case, my friend sent me a link to a cheesy little MIDI program called TablEdit one day, and it was a demo version that could "record" up to 16 bars 4/4 @120 with three instruments (around 32 seconds, though it was possible to cheat the limit by setting the tempo to 60 bpm and scaling the magnification to 1/64, giving you 64 seconds to play with). I just used it to make silly tunes for fun at the time, and somewhere between then and 2007 I started upgrading to bigger and better systems and taking it a lot more seriously.

By the way, Stirling, I appreciate you making threads like this, too often this place ends up being used as a free advertising space, so it's great to have some general discussion topics here as counterbalance.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

About ten years, I'd say.

I started back in the days of pencil and paper. I did all scores of a piece (piano sketch, full score and all parts) by pencil.

I got my first computer in 1987, and discovered music notation software then, but I still used pencil and paper to start, and then copied it onto the computer. Eventually (around 2005), I got lazy, and forced myself to use the computer for notation of initial sketches, and just copy/paste between files for the finished file. Quite a time saver!  And no more copying individual parts!


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## paulc (Apr 18, 2011)

About ten years, ever since I first heard and then purchased EWQLSO Platinum. 

I still LOVE this sound library, but I no longer regard the music I produce with it as 'the finished product'. I am now committed to learning proper orchestration & producing notation for everything 'of substance' I write.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

That is why I use the term " realization" for what a sound library produces. there is more substance in the score than just what the sound library is able to find.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

I find the similarities to Quiet Guy's history and mine eerie. I attended a computer music workshop in 1986 and saw the potential of a Mac and a program called "Professional Composer" (based out of the Boston area I think). So I bit the bullet and bought the computer, program and an laser printer. (Do you realize that such a good laser printer went for around $4K-$5K back then? I do because it practically bankrupted me to purchase all of the above). I don't think playback was even possible so merely transcribing from my pencil notation was the only thing I did for many years thereafter. But oh dear, there were so many things though that the program could not do (for example for the first few years almost all objects/symbols were NOT moveable which meant slurs would slice thru dynamics, stems, etc). Work-arounds were always in play.

The first time I composed at the computer was 2006 after I attended a workshop that let me try both Finale and Sibelius and between the power and ease of Sibelius plus a decent sound library I realized I needed to move forward.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I've had a software notation program since about 1998. It's a simple no nonsense no bells and whistles kind of application called NoteWorthy Composer. It does what I need it to do and I'm able to input a MID file, edit it and transpose the score for a soloist I've been accompanying for the last 15 years. 

It's not as great as the more popular ones, but it works fine for me and what I need it to do. And it's certainly faster than doing had notation on scored paper, at least for me it is. 

What I have been looking for, and apparently it does not yet exist (although some have valiantly tried) is a software program for converting MP3 or WAV into MID. There are the ones that will convert a single line melody, but I'm talking about conversion of some improvisations that I've recorded over the years played on the pipe organ. 

Kh


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## freixas (Jan 4, 2016)

I started using computer notation programs (vs. pencil and paper) when I encountered MuseScore in 2012, but that was mostly for transcriptions and for laying out some stuff I already had on paper. I started actively _composing_ using computers this last year (somewhat inspired by the release of MuseScore 2).


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

freixas said:


> I started using computer notation programs (vs. pencil and paper) when I encountered MuseScore in 2012, but that was mostly for transcriptions and for laying out some stuff I already had on paper. I started actively _composing_ using computers this last year (somewhat inspired by the release of MuseScore 2).


I'm still not there yet, with composing straight into some program. I don't notate, I just do things at the piano with memory. When I get back to composing in the future, my first effort will be to improve my relationship with paper.

But I have contemplated getting MuseScore 2, which seems like a vast improvement from the original.


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## Rhombic (Oct 28, 2013)

Since I'm rather young yet, by the time I started to think about composing -pretty serendipitously- there were already quite a few free programs available. However, I do like to take notes sometimes for brief motives. Once the idea starts to get too big, pen(cil) and paper become too much of a hindrance compared to computers.


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

What do toy mean by "too big"?


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## Rhombic (Oct 28, 2013)

Already including various instruments, more complex textures or even just a motivic-thematic development that does not require as much playing as formally structuring it (until that passage is completed).


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