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(More customer reviews)This review is written from the prospect of using Guitar Pro for Classical Guitar purposes. I have tried many notation programs for classical guitar. None are perfect. I've concluded that you need a high end music notation program for professional looking scores and another program for doing transcriptions for personal use or sharing.
On the high end, the choices are Finale, Sibelius, or Lilypond. I chose Finale for this purpose. You can do anything with it, but there is a steep price to pay. It is not intuitive at all, and it's expensive. The interface is a cluster of years of buildup. One wouldn't design a user interface like this from scratch. If I didn't already own Finale, I'd might go with Lilypond, or look more carefully into Musecore.
But I decided that I needed a notation program for simple transcriptions. Here are the ones that I tried in increasing order of my preference:
1) TablEdit - seen some decent scores for this one on the web. Deal breaker the UI is confusing. I'd just as well use Finale for everything.
2) Power Tab - interface OK, free, lots of features. Deal breaker most of the focus is on the tab representation, very little on standard notation.
3) Tux Guitar - nice interface, very similar to Guitar Pro, free. Deal breaker can't add fingerings. This program may eventually catch Guitar Pro.
4) Guitar Pro - nice interface, will do just about everything necessary easily. Can display/print standard notation only, tab notation, or both. Output is very good. ASCII import. Drawbacks for standard notation are that fingering are unconventional in location and labeling, bar can only be specified though text input, crescendo specified through volume control which is tied to a track(s).
In the end, the decision was an easy one. It just took a while to download all of the programs and try them out. Hopefully, I just saved you a little time.
Update 11-04-2010:
Since I wrote this review, I've switched from Finale to Lilypond. Even though I am a programmer, I was intimidated by Lilypond until I discovered using Frescobaldi (available on Linux only) as a front end. This system is just a pleasure to use and way easier than Finale. Lilypond doesn't do tab very well at the moment, so I'll likely continue using Guitar Pro when I need tab.
Click Here to see more reviews about: eMedia GuitarPro 5.1 Win/Mac
Guitar Pro 5.1 has all the tools you need to improve, compose and accompany yourself on the guitar. It's got a multitrack tablature editor for guitar, banjo, bass and other stringed instruments. Scale tools and a chord diagram editor lets you create the perfect score and the guitar composition you've always wanted.
Click here for more information about eMedia GuitarPro 5.1 Win/Mac
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