Noteability Pro Review

Software Review By Susan Clarke (October, 2005)

A few months ago I purchased Finale 2006, because of its partnership with Smart Music, a program I use frequently with my instrumental music students. But now, after only a few hours, I’m in love with Noteability Pro because of its friendly visual interface and its host of flexible features.

Noteability Pro for Macintosh was developed by Dr Keith Hamel, a professor of music composition at the University of British Columbia in the mid 1990’s. It is a very sophisticated program with some interesting features, designed to meet the needs of composers, students and musicians, who require a flexible, easy to learn notation software program. NA Pro supports graphic notation, early music notation and Guido, a computer language for notation. Unlike Finale or Sibelius, Noteability Pro’s single purpose is to print and play notation, and does not include the plethora of educational add-ons of its competitors.

Downloading the demonstration program was initially unsuccessful, because the program did not download in a useable form with Firefox or Safari. But as with a number of Macintosh programs, it successfully downloaded and installed with Internet Explorer, an anomaly that for Mac users is quite annoying.

The most impressive feature of Notability Pro is its powerful graphics capabilities and visually oriented interface. The “Create New Score” window allows the user to set up the document layout, score options in one simple operation. Time signatures and key signatures are selected with sliders, while the document layout feature allows you to see what the final score will look like without exiting the set-up. Clicking on the “Custom System” button takes the user to a new window that enables him/her to set up to a maximum of forty staves.

Figure 1. Create New Score

On loading there are two main panels – the Score Structure Panel and the Music Images Panel. The Score Structure Panel is used to control and edit all aspects of the score, such as key signatures and transposition, time signatures, measures, and page numbers, while the Music Images panel controls lines, graphics, dynamics, symbols, glissandi etc. Each pane in each panel can be expanded as necessary with each section divided into tabs for easy navigation. After only a short time I learned to appreciate this feature of NA Pro because it was so easy to find and edit every aspect of the score without having to click through menus try to guess where everything was hidden. Clicking through the tabs in the panels was much easier with the functions of each tab visually apparent. I rarely used the manual and frequently exclaimed “wow” over the several hours I took to explore this application as I discovered how easy it was to navigate.

There are several ways to enter notes into a score – step-entry with a midi-keyboard, mouse entry, importing midi files, using an on-screen keyboard and using the midi-recorder.

The “midi-recorder window”, like the “create a new score” window, allows the user to set all preferences for midi recording including the metronome speed and volume, playback options, track options, quantization, time signature, and score transfer options all on the one screen. There was less trial and error involved with this interface than I have experienced with other advanced notation software.

Figure 2. MIDI Recorder Window

The midi-recorder also imports midi files but I only managed to successfully manage this operation on a single melody. When I attempted to import midi files I had created in Finale or Band in a Box, the program crashed. My successful attempt to import a midi file of an accompaniment to “La Bamba” resulted in a discordant cacophony that some might say was an improvement on the original, but in no way like it. I think it was probably the drum score transferred to pitch, so more investigation is needed to fully succeed. This aspect of the software appears to be more complex than necessary.

Mouse entry is less “hit and miss” than with other software programs. The large insertion cursor, features staff lines for the accurate entry of ledger notes. It can also be moved easily from one staff to another by clicking on the large blue arrow at either end.

Figure 3. Insertion Cursor.

The online keyboard appears in the “Tools” menu and features options for enharmonic notes, keyboard split, staff and voice options. Again everything you need can be seen.

Figure 4. Keyboard found in the “Tools” menu.

Creating tuplets of any description is marvellously simple. You just click on the triplet, quintuplet, or variable tuplet box above the work area and click, type or play in the notes and you have a perfectly formatted tuplet.

Figure 5. Tuplets are simple to add and as complex as you could want.

Moving the staves and changing the layout is also simple. To add a bar to a system, click on the plus arrow to the right of the staff. To decrease the number of bars in a system, click on the minus arrow. Beats, shown by pale blue markers, can be dragged closer or further apart, as can barlines. Arrows on the left of the system can be used to drag staves or systems as close or as far apart as you would like. And I thought Sibelius was simple!

Figure 6. Editing layouts is a breeze.

An impressive range of tools including the tempo map, playback map, and meter simplifies the score structure for playback, while speech recognition is available for disabled users.

An online support forum has recently been added to the Opus 1 website and Dr Hamel himself is still actively involved in supporting users of his product.

This software is elegantly designed, simple and powerful to use. While Finale has the features I need in my work as an educator, if I were a composer, I’d use Noteability Pro. It is available only from the Opus 1 website for $225 USD, which represents excellent value.

REFERENCES

Opus 1 Music.

http://debussy.music.ubc.ca/index.html

The Society of Music Theory

http://www.societymusictheory.org:16080/pipermail/smt-talk/2004-September/002274.html


Home About Jiltoa About Jiltoa Biography Susan Clarke Services Contact Us Resources Quote File Articles Teaching Music to Generation Y Flow and Musical Performance Resources I Can't Live Without The Practising Dilemma The Value of a Mentor Teaching With Laughter Music Fun Simple Tunes to Download Extending the Life of a Simple Tune Teaching Anecdotes Teacher's Faux Pas Kid's Oneliners Instrumental Music Posters Links Practice Diary Events Upcoming Events Testimonials	Software Review By Susan Clarke (October, 2005) A few months ago I purchased Finale 2006, because of its partnership with Smart Music, a program I use frequently with my instrumental music students. But now, after only a few hours, I’m in love with Noteability Pro because of its friendly visual interface and its host of flexible features. Noteability Pro for Macintosh was developed by Dr Keith Hamel, a professor of music composition at the University of British Columbia in the mid 1990’s. It is a very sophisticated program with some interesting features, designed to meet the needs of composers, students and musicians, who require a flexible, easy to learn notation software program. NA Pro supports graphic notation, early music notation and Guido, a computer language for notation. Unlike Finale or Sibelius, Noteability Pro’s single purpose is to print and play notation, and does not include the plethora of educational add-ons of its competitors. Downloading the demonstration program was initially unsuccessful, because the program did not download in a useable form with Firefox or Safari. But as with a number of Macintosh programs, it successfully downloaded and installed with Internet Explorer, an anomaly that for Mac users is quite annoying. The most impressive feature of Notability Pro is its powerful graphics capabilities and visually oriented interface. The “Create New Score” window allows the user to set up the document layout, score options in one simple operation. Time signatures and key signatures are selected with sliders, while the document layout feature allows you to see what the final score will look like without exiting the set-up. Clicking on the “Custom System” button takes the user to a new window that enables him/her to set up to a maximum of forty staves. Figure 1. Create New Score On loading there are two main panels – the Score Structure Panel and the Music Images Panel. The Score Structure Panel is used to control and edit all aspects of the score, such as key signatures and transposition, time signatures, measures, and page numbers, while the Music Images panel controls lines, graphics, dynamics, symbols, glissandi etc. Each pane in each panel can be expanded as necessary with each section divided into tabs for easy navigation. After only a short time I learned to appreciate this feature of NA Pro because it was so easy to find and edit every aspect of the score without having to click through menus try to guess where everything was hidden. Clicking through the tabs in the panels was much easier with the functions of each tab visually apparent. I rarely used the manual and frequently exclaimed “wow” over the several hours I took to explore this application as I discovered how easy it was to navigate. There are several ways to enter notes into a score – step-entry with a midi-keyboard, mouse entry, importing midi files, using an on-screen keyboard and using the midi-recorder. The “midi-recorder window”, like the “create a new score” window, allows the user to set all preferences for midi recording including the metronome speed and volume, playback options, track options, quantization, time signature, and score transfer options all on the one screen. There was less trial and error involved with this interface than I have experienced with other advanced notation software. Figure 2. MIDI Recorder Window The midi-recorder also imports midi files but I only managed to successfully manage this operation on a single melody. When I attempted to import midi files I had created in Finale or Band in a Box, the program crashed. My successful attempt to import a midi file of an accompaniment to “La Bamba” resulted in a discordant cacophony that some might say was an improvement on the original, but in no way like it. I think it was probably the drum score transferred to pitch, so more investigation is needed to fully succeed. This aspect of the software appears to be more complex than necessary. Mouse entry is less “hit and miss” than with other software programs. The large insertion cursor, features staff lines for the accurate entry of ledger notes. It can also be moved easily from one staff to another by clicking on the large blue arrow at either end. Figure 3. Insertion Cursor. The online keyboard appears in the “Tools” menu and features options for enharmonic notes, keyboard split, staff and voice options. Again everything you need can be seen. Figure 4. Keyboard found in the “Tools” menu. Creating tuplets of any description is marvellously simple. You just click on the triplet, quintuplet, or variable tuplet box above the work area and click, type or play in the notes and you have a perfectly formatted tuplet. Figure 5. Tuplets are simple to add and as complex as you could want. Moving the staves and changing the layout is also simple. To add a bar to a system, click on the plus arrow to the right of the staff. To decrease the number of bars in a system, click on the minus arrow. Beats, shown by pale blue markers, can be dragged closer or further apart, as can barlines. Arrows on the left of the system can be used to drag staves or systems as close or as far apart as you would like. And I thought Sibelius was simple! Figure 6. Editing layouts is a breeze. An impressive range of tools including the tempo map, playback map, and meter simplifies the score structure for playback, while speech recognition is available for disabled users. An online support forum has recently been added to the Opus 1 website and Dr Hamel himself is still actively involved in supporting users of his product. This software is elegantly designed, simple and powerful to use. While Finale has the features I need in my work as an educator, if I were a composer, I’d use Noteability Pro. It is available only from the Opus 1 website for $225 USD, which represents excellent value. REFERENCES Opus 1 Music. http://debussy.music.ubc.ca/index.html The Society of Music Theory http://www.societymusictheory.org:16080/pipermail/smt-talk/2004-September/002274.html



			"If I were a composer I'd use Noteability Pro"

"If I were a composer I'd use Noteability Pro"