If you are a music composer, no matter whether aspiring or expert, this write-up is for you. Here, we’ll discuss writing music. Yes, this is about music notations. All music composers know the value of music notations in creating, editing, and writing music. Hence, we have brought a list of some of the best free music notation software for you. Now you can easily transfer your composed songs to a sheet. So, without wasting any further time, let’s check some best free notation software and their features.
11 Best Free Music Notation Software For Windows 10, 8, and 7
Below we have mentioned some of the best free music notation software for Windows in 2020. Now you’ll be able to convert your music compositions into sheet music much faster.
1. Finale
The best music notation software without any doubt
Supported OS: Windows 8,8.1, and 10
The first name on our list of some best music composition software is Finale. It is quite famous among expert music composers and is regarded as the world standard in music notation software. The reason for its immense popularity is the features that it offers. It has everything for everyone, whether you are an expert music composer, songwriter, or amateur musician. Hence, despite being a paid software with a 30-day free trial, we have listed it on our list.
Features:
- It lets you enter notes via the mouse of your computer, a MIDI, or the computer keyboard.
- Boasts a human playback feature that makes your compositions even more enjoyable with in-built instruments.
- This software lets you share your creations via PDF and graphic files.
- With this tool, you can share your compositions as audio in MP3 format.
- If you wish, then this software can automatically add drum parts and harmony notes to your compositions.
- It comes with in-built MusicXML support.
- Creating a music notation is easy with Finale.
- The resulting scores seem quite professional.
- Its user interface is friendly enough for beginners to use.
- A virtual keyboard is not available.
- It is compatible with limited file types.
2. Notion 6
The feature-packed best music writing software
Supported OS: Windows 7 and above
Next, we have Notion 6 on our list. It is a famous name among music experts. The reason for its immense popularity is the incredible features that it offers to delight the users. It has everything for all your requirements. No matter whether you are a music maestro or a budding musician, it perfectly caters to all the needs. Hence, we think that the list will remain incomplete if we do not mention this software.
Features:
- It has an interactive keyboard, drum pad, and many other features to help you in recording your music exceptionally.
- Notion 6 can also convert your handwritten score into a digital format.
- This software also supports major video formats.
- It also offers an in-built audio mixer with eight different sound effects.
- This best notion software is compatible with platforms other than Windows as well.
- It comes equipped with cross-platform handwriting recognition.
- Hosts native 64-bit support.
- Exports scores as PDF, WAV, or MP3 audio files.
- Boasts touchscreen support.
- Supports a massive range of languages.
- The interface is simple and easy to use.
- Hogs up the hard drive.
- It is a bit costly than other software.
3. FORTE
The best free notation software with quality service
Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10
FORTE is also one of our top choices. It boasts both premium and free versions. If you are thinking that the free version might not be worth a try, then you are a bit mistaken. It has a bunch of features and provides quality service. That’s the reason why it is considered one of the best free music notation software. Here are some of the features that FORTE offers.
Features:
- It lets you enter the notes using a MIDI keyboard, virtual piano, or the keypad of your computer.
- Tracks the missing counts and adds the required rests.
- Boasts a volume mixer to manage the volume and panning for all the instruments.
- You can share your creations in an MP3 or WAV file.
- Allows you to print the physical copies of your creations immediately.
- Easy to use.
- Volume mixer to control the volume.
- Virtual keypad for note entering.
- Only 14 days trial of the premium version.
- It is less visually appealing than other software.
4. Dorico
The best music composition software with advanced features
Supported OS: Windows 10
Dorico is another music notation software for all your mesmerizing musical compositions. It offers. It offers some of the most advanced features such as automatic display of cautionary accidents to make sure that each of your creations turns out to be the best ones. Here are more of its features.
Read More:- 16 Best Music Players For Windows 10 in 2022
Features:
- Encompasses automatic engraving capabilities to produce the most beautiful results.
- It creates exceptionally amazing condensed scores.
- Boasts a lot of page layout features.
- You can input notes via your keyboard or mouse.
- Allows you to define your key commands.
- It supports six chord symbol conventions.
- Easy for beginners to understand and use.
- A plethora of advanced features.
- Some users reported bugs.
5. Sibelius First
The best free music notation software for beginners
Supported OS: Windows 7, 8.1, and 10
If you are a beginner music composer, then you should try this. Sibelius First is highly recommended to those composers who have not used any music composition software before. It can be the best music writing software for amateurs due to its easy user interface. Along with a simple user interface, it also offers various other features. Here are some unique features of Sibelius First.
Features:
- First of all, it is free and offers a few advanced features to the users without any cost.
- The software is beneficial for beginners as it provides quite an intuitive interface.
- It offers cloud storage and allows you to share your compositions with others.
- Sibelius First allows you to share your compositions with other Sibelius First users for review.
- It offers 40 genre-specific templates to ignite your imagination and help you create your next composition.
- It makes entering notes an easy-breezy task.
- Allows you to share the compositions with ease.
- The free version has limited features.
- Let’s you write out the band arrangements effortlessly.
- You cannot save the compositions as a graphic image.
- Consumes a lot of space on the hard drive.
- Convoluted user interface.
6. MuseScore
One of the most trustworthy free notation software
Supported OS: Windows XP and above
Here comes comprehensive music composition software. MuseScore is one of the most reliable software for music transcription. It offers quite advanced software to its users. It gets regularly updated. Here are some of the advanced features that this one of the best music transcription software offers to its users.
Features:
- You can enter notes through a MIDI keyboard, virtual keyboard, or your keyboard.
- It allows the import of MusicXML and MIDI files from other music notation programs.
- You can export your compositions as a graphic file, a MusicXML file, or an audio file.
- Perfect for budding musicians.
- Completely free with no limitations.
- Instrument samples aren’t as realistic and dynamic as you would expect.
7. Notation Musician
The best free composing software for both experts & budding musicians
Supported OS: Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10
Notation Musician is the music composition software that provides you with multiple choices. It lets you add lyrics or other types of text to the score. Along with this, it offers many other features as well. Here are some of the salient features of the Notation Musician.
Features:
- Let’s use MIDI files to find and display the notations as a sheet music score.
- Allows you to change tempo, volume, and instrument sound to create a custom band for playback or practice.
- Supports piano reduction from multi-instrument songs.
- It has easy note creation options for budding musicians.
- Enables you to transpose the music as per the instrument (s) or voice range.
- Quick and easy performance annotations.
- Fast creation of FakeBook leads sheets.
- Easy to use for both beginners and experts.
- Becomes a bit buggy at times.
8. LilyPond
The best notation software that integrates programming with music
Supported OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10
LilyPond is not a usual music writing software. It is one of the most unique software that allows you to type music notes like a programming language. Yes, Lilypond has a quite different approach to writing musical notations. You have to type the musical notes just like any programming language. Here are some more unique features of this one of the best music transcription software.
Features:
- It offers quite different user interfaces as compared to other such software.
- You can convert the notes that you have typed into PDF or MIDI.
- Despite being a unique software, it is quite easy to use.
- Most importantly, it is free.
- It allows you to easily revert the changes that you have made.
- The text files are robust enough to not get corrupt.
- Boasts the version control functionality to effortlessly manage scores.
- Encompasses a multitude of customization options.
- The text editor interface is quite amazing.
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- It is a bit tough to learn LilyPond.
- UI is a little unfriendly.
9. ScoreCloud
One of the most intelligent free notation software
Supported OS: Windows 7 and up
If you are looking for an easy way of writing musical notations, then ScoreCloud is a great choice. As claimed by the developers, it is the most intelligent music notation software. It enables you to write your music compositions on your computer. It can be a perfect choice if you want to compose your original music. Here are some more features of ScoreCloud.
Features:
- Produces instant scores from MIDI or audio.
- Allows you to arrange or edit the score as per your requirements.
- Syncs across all your devices for seamless composition and sharing.
- Let’s print, export, and share the compositions from the program itself.
- Analyzes single instrument audio.
- Let’s transcribe acoustic piano to sheet music.
- UI is fairly easy to understand.
- Sometimes, transcription is not precise enough.
- You cannot save files locally in the free version.
10. Musink
The best music composition software to make transcription easier
Supported OS: Windows XP and above
Here comes another free composing software. It is one of the most personalized software for music composition that changes the way you write music and makes transcription a lot simpler. Here are some more features of Musink that make it one of the best free music notation software.
Features:
- Lets you export your creation as a MIDI file.
- With this software, you can compose snippets, scores, books, and even MIDI files.
- It supports looped playback.
- Allows importation of MIDI files.
- It comes with an in-built template designer.
- Boasts auto layout system.
- Exports drum loops.
- Easy to use software.
- Features are quite less as compared to similar software.
11. Soundslice
The best notation software that needs no downloading
Supported OS: Windows 7, 8, and 10
Next, we have Soundslice on our list. It is software to compose as well as learn music. It offers various features that make it one of the best free notation software. Below are some of the comprehensive features that this free music score software offers to its users.
Features:
- It supports multiple file types such as MusicXML and Guitar Pro.
- You do not have to install it as the software is cloud-based.
- Boasts a lot of keyboard shortcuts and editing tools to make transcription easier.
- Let’s you import YouTube videos, MP3, and other files.
- Allows you to loop the recordings.
- Imports GuitarPro files.
- Completely free to use.
- Do not have much control over the engraving.
12. Noteflight
Undoubtedly, one of the best music notation programs for educators and learners
Supported OS: All Windows versions
Let’s now talk about Noteflight, an excellent software for your musical journey to take off. With this completely online program, you can create, sell, share, and purchase music with no tiring effort. In addition to this, features like Google Classroom sync make it a lot different from the rest of the lot. Talking about the features, below is all that this software has to offer.
Features:
- You can create and edit over 10 scores.
- It allows you to import MIDI and MusicXML files from other notation programs and edit them.
- You get 85 built-in instrument sounds.
- With Noteflight’s audio recording option, you can add audio segments to any score you want.
- It boasts an easy-to-use volume mixer.
- Noteflight lets you share audio files with other musicians in MP3 or WAV formats.
- Top-class support for educator platform
- Availability of Noteflight Marketplace
- User-friendly
- Supports cloud storage
- Seamless import and export of files
- No permanent download is available
- The free version offers only a limited number of instruments
The list of the best free music notation software has ended!
So these are some of the best free music notation software available for Windows 7, 8, and 10. If you are a music composer or one who wants to be, then you can opt for any one of the above-mentioned software depending upon your specific requirements. We wish you all the best for your musical career ahead.
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