Professional Software for writing musical orchestral scores

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Hi!
I am trying to find advice regarding the most professional software for writing complex orchestral scores for classical music (symphonies, etc).
My father is a teacher at a music conservatory and would like to use the benefits of using such professional software for writing and listening/playing its own classical music compositions.
I have browsed the internet and I have found some sites providing such software ; Finale, Sibelius, Lilly Pond.
What I need advice for is which one of these software is the most performant covering all the needs for musical notation for writing complex musical scores, for instance allowing scores written in mixed musical keys and with more then 50-60 symphomyc orchestra instruments including all possible voices (alto, soprano,bariton, bass, etc.)
I also need advice regarding the system requirements (Windows, Linux, processors (Intel Althom, Ghz needed, hard drive capacity, etc) as well as what would be the best sound system device ( Creative Audigy, M Audio Revolotion, Terratec, etc)on which a such complex and performant software can run best. At the same time I would need to know if there are musical keyboards (Creative Prodkeys , Casio , Yamaha, Moog, Roland, etc) allowing for a normal/maximum number of octaves (similar to a standard piano) that can be connected to a PC and that enables a classical music composer to write directly/instantaneously what he is playing into the musical scores provided by a relevant software.
I would appreciate, if I am not asking too much, to receive a full detailed answer covering all issues described above maybe under the format of a comparative table presenting different options with their technical features and conclusions regarding the best option that should be considered by me.
Thank you in advance for anyone providing me this much needed, support and advice.

George

Topic

Wrong forum

In reply to Professional Software for writing musical orchestral scores

You need to talk to some professional musicians and composers. You’re more likely to find the info you want on a music board than on an IT board.

Judging from the conversations that I, an amateur, have had with music professionals, I believe you will find the following:

The software you want exists and there is quite a variety to choose from. But it’s not cheap. I bought one for about fifty bucks a couple of years ago because, as merely an amateur, I was not very well qualified to judge its features or even to know what I needed. It turned out to be utterly useless. Sorry I don’t remember the name and the CD-ROM has been buried in a closet somewhere for a long time.

You’ll find your 88 keys.

I assume that by mixed key signatures you’re referring to the fact that, e.g., all woodwind music is scored for the flute but the same fingering on an oboe puts you in a different key, so the oboe score has to be transposed. I haven’t seen that but since every orchestral composition has to deal with it, it’s got to be standard.

Ditto for more than sixteen instruments. Nobody could write an orchestral score without that feature. It’s got to be there.

As for platform, you’re probably going to find that the best packages run on the Mac. Artistic people are very fussy about what they devote brain cells to and most of them don’t want to waste a single one learning to be a software mechanic. 99 percent of the artists and craftspeople we know and of those we meet at shows are Mac people. If your father is not already PC-literate, be kind to him and set him up on a Macintosh. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never touched one: he won’t need any help.

I can’t advise you on playback equipment.

I met a songwriter once who claimed to have software that allowed him to compose by simply playing the notes on his electronic keyboard. But he was vague about the details. Perhaps he was daydreaming. Nonetheless, considering that that is what we all want, somebody is going to invent it if they haven’t already.

Good luck.

Thank you very much …but I think I still need more information

In reply to Wrong forum

Thank you very much DC_GUY for your directions, thoughts and feedback. It’s true that the kind of information I need may not be fully and professionally provided on this IT site. I realize that this is may be a very specialized area within th IT universe but…I still hope to find some professional advice. Maybe this would be a topic for the Thech republic experts to investigate along with the support of a music conservatory professor. Music plays a such an important part of our life and it would be a pitty not to be aware about the challenging and rewarding relationship it has with the Information Technology.
The fact of the matter , as I mentioned in my previous email, is that I identified so far some software vendors ( Finale, Sibelius, Encore, etc) but each one of them are praising their own products and making negative advertisement toward the competition. Therefore it’s a bit confusing when you need to take a decision.
I also found out that you can have electronic keyboards , play them and have immediately the musical score written on the PC. I just want to know which one of them is the best. It’s not a matter of money since I want to buy the most performant and reliable devices/software formy father.
I found also a couple of comparative reports concerning different music notation software but they are incomplete since for instance no reference is made to one important product- Sibelius (at least it seems to be like this from the many refference I read).

If anybody could give give additional feedback and maybe some web site addresses where I can find such specialized reports I would really appreciated.

Thanks

George

No demo?

In reply to Thank you very much …but I think I still need more information

If you can’t find a store that has demo copies of these products running, the industry is in a sorry state. I wouldn’t dream of buying something like this without a hands-on trial. Reading about it just won’t do. It may actually be everything it purports to be and more, but may still not be a good fit for a particular user, too many imponderable subtleties in the interface.

Cakewalk and Finale are two of the best

In reply to No demo?

If you are a student,you should get discounted rates.

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