Best method for typsetting music

August 16, 2010 3:27 AM

What is the best text-based typesetting software for music?

I'm interested in something similar to Latex (MusicTex) or Lilypond, but am not familiar with typesetting music.

All suggestions welcome! Thanks.

posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth to Technology (6 answers total)

I've had lots of fun with ABC. The syntax is super simple. There is free/cheap software for Windows, Mac and Linux and there are online viewer/editors available.

There is a tutorial here.
posted by Jim H at 4:26 AM on August 16, 2010

I've used MUP quite a bit, and can recommend it.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:45 AM on August 16, 2010

nthing ABC (which needs TeX too, alas!)
posted by gregglind at 6:51 AM on August 16, 2010

A few years ago, I installed Lilypond on my Mac and the install process raped my machine. It has never been the same since.
posted by plinth at 8:00 AM on August 16, 2010

Lilypond is great and produces very nice results.
posted by kiltedtaco at 8:57 AM on August 16, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does Lilypond not work for you?

If you're talking only about the final results, nothing even comes close to beating Lilypond. However if you want to make it do something other than its defaults, it can be ... challenging.
posted by phliar at 5:47 PM on August 16, 2010