Scoring Notes

Newzik started in 2015 as a music reader solution for iPad, and since then it has grown into a complete digital solution that serves musicians, publishers, orchestras and opera companies. CEO Raphaël Schumann discusses its recent developments and its bright future after raising €3 million in private investment.

How do you technologically revolutionize the long-established custom and practice of working with printed music that has been evolving for centuries? Cloud sharing, collaboration, and licensing are just some of the areas that Newzik must navigate as it continually innovates, aiming to make a seamless transition for customers to read, share, rent, purchase, and sell sheet music on digital devices.

Justin Tokke joins us on the show. Justin is the technical lead at the music publisher Carl Fischer, and you may also know him as the founder and admin of Music Engraving Tips, a web site and Facebook group with more than 20,000 members. Justin talks to us about his work in publishing, including everything from learning the ropes printing scores to the intricacies of digital distribution. We uncover the publishing mysteries of licenses, rights, and promotion, and what you should consider when publishing your music. We also learn about the origin of the Music Engraving Tips group and get Justin’s thoughts on where music notation software is headed.

Listeners responded to our “call for calls” with some terrific questions about music notation software, related technology, the business of music preparation, and more.

On this episode, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald take a variety of questions and dispense solicited (and unsolicited) advice. The topic at hand for this part: Using music notation software with — or as — a digital audio workstation (DAW).

The second of a multi-part episode — because we got so many questions that we didn’t have enough time to fit them all into one sitting.

More from Scoring Notes:

• Asked and answered, part 1
• NotePerformer 4 connects your favorite notation software to your favorite sample libraries
• Graphical MIDI Tools 2.1 for Sibelius updated to add transport, more editing features
• Graphical MIDI Tools 2 is a major upgrade to the DAW-like plug-in for Sibelius
• Graphical MIDI Tools plug-in brings sequencer-like capabilities to Sibelius
• Dorico 5 review: Moving the music forward
• Dorico 4.2 adds percussion to the Key Editor and improves linked mode
• StaffPad audio update, Graphical MIDI Tools, and software licensing
• StaffPad acquired by Muse Group; audio support planned
• “Playing” with notation software, part 1 of 2
• “Playing” with notation software, part 2 of 2
• Long-awaited MuseScore 4 release brings major improvements to engraving and audio

The release of MuseScore 4 is a major update and quite possibly the most significant one in the open-source application’s history since the release of MuseScore 1.0 in 2011. It includes major improvements to the user interface, layout, engraving, and playback features.

Not coincidentally, this is also the first major version of of MuseScore to be released under the product leadership of Martin Keary, Muse Group’s vice president of software. Coming nearly two years after the last MuseScore update (3.6) and nearly four years after the release of MuseScore 3, Martin said, “I’ve worked on a lot of complex creation software and this is the largest release I’ve ever put out,” including the launch of Paint 3D and a variety of PS3 games.

Martin returns to the Scoring Notes podcast along with Simon Smith, Muse Group’s head of engraving, to talk with Philip Rothman and David MacDonald for a thorough discussion about MuseScore 4’s design and engraving improvements. We go behind the scenes to hear about the decisions, roadblocks, and good fortune that happened along the road to the release of this version of the software.

They discuss their philosophies about creating tools for musicians and how they approached the challenges of modernizing an existing application, all the while keeping both existing and new users in mind. We cover the details of engraving, including ties, beams, note spacing and more. Martin and Simon tell us their favorite “under-the-radar” features in MuseScore 4 and highlight some items that users might not be aware of. Finally, we learn what’s missing in MuseScore and what to expect as they continue to develop the product for MuseScore 5 and beyond.

More on Scoring Notes:

• Long-awaited MuseScore 4 release brings major improvements to engraving and audio
• MuseScore 3.6 focuses on engraving upgrades, new fonts
• Daniel Ray “muses” about Audacity and StaffPad
• StaffPad acquired by Muse Group; audio support planned
• Muse Group formed to support MuseScore, Ultimate Guitar; acquires Audacity
• Daniel Ray, Martin Keary, and Musescore

For the first time ever, MOLA, An Association of Performance Librarians, devoted an entire day to technology that featured vendor exhibits, presentations, discussions, and meetings. Bookending the day were two panel discussions; one moderated by David MacDonald on the subject of music reader tablet experiences, and one moderated by Philip Rothman with representatives from the music notation software platforms.

We’ll bring Philip’s discussion to you later this summer, but first, we hope you enjoy the discussion that David had to kick off the tech fair, about the real-world challenges and benefits of using tablet readers in orchestral performances. His co-moderator was none other than Mark Fabulich, assistant librarian of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the co-chair of MOLA’s Technology Committee.

The distinguished panelists they spoke with were three librarians, each of whom primarily use different reader apps: Julia Pestke of the West German Radio Orchestra, who uses dimusco; Luke Speedy-Hutton of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, who uses Newzik; and Signe Marie Steensland of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, who uses forScore.

More from Scoring Notes:

• The tech trek to the 2023 MOLA conference
• The best iPad score reader for most people [2023 update]
• Justin Bianco, forScore, and more