Reaper 6.0 Score Editor - Better?

buckman · 03-13-2020, 06:31 AM

I am about to start a project that needs various sheet music for other players of conventional instruments, like violin, cello, strings, brass in a small orchestra.

I'd like to use Reaper 6.0 and its score editor?

I did ask this question for a small quartet that i was writing for a couple of years ago, and a few said on this Cockos Forum, that Reaper's score editor, wasn't quite there yet (maybe v5.5?) when it was just introduced.
So i ended up using Logic Pro X and its score, which was frustrating in places, and not ideal, but eventually got it done..

What is Reapers' score editor like now? has there been some major improvements now we are in 6.0 and even more features and stability at the latter end of v5 releases?

More importantly, can it export to Sibelius or similar for other musicians and writers that do not use Reaper as a DAW?

Or is it still one of Reapers' weak points, and do i need to start work on the whole projects in Logic Pro X?

mehmethan · 03-13-2020, 06:40 AM

I'm using Reaper's score editor for the same purposes but I always export the score as xml and make final touch on Sibelius. Reaper's score editor is still not fully ready for professional scoring needs.

buckman · 03-13-2020, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mehmethan

I'm using Reaper's score editor for the same purposes but I always export the score as xml and make final touch on Sibelius. Reaper's score editor is still not fully ready for professional scoring needs.

Thanks mehmethan this is exactly what i was thinking, or wanted to hear.

Its a shame, but i suppose I can still start and use Reaper for the Midi and some of the score?

Or can you do this all in Sibelius from the start, linked to Reaper or any other DAW?
Or is Sibelius just a hand writing score editor?

mehmethan · 03-13-2020, 07:14 AM

Reaper is my main and only DAW: I do all my work in Reaper except a final touch for the score. My workflow is like this:

1- I made arrangement,composing, scoring with midi vsti instruments all in Reaper.
2- I export the score as xml and make final touch on Sibelius. This way I can have %100 correct and ready score. I print the notation for live musician recordings.( cello, viola, etc...)
3- I record them with Reaper and finish production.

buckman · 03-13-2020, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mehmethan

Reaper is my main and only DAW: I do all my work in Reaper except a final touch for the score. My workflow is like this:

1- I made arrangement,composing, scoring with midi vsti instruments all in Reaper.
2- I export the score as xml and make final touch on Sibelius. This way I can have %100 correct and ready score. I print the notation for live musician recordings.( cello, viola, etc...)
3- I record them with Reaper and finish production.

Can you do any MIDI in Sibelius? for your 'final touches' ?

mehmethan · 03-13-2020, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckman

Can you do any MIDI in Sibelius? for your 'final touches' ?

Yes of course you can. Sibelius is very powerful for scoring. But I use to work in Reaper. I do my job better and faster with Reaper. I only use Sibelius for missing features in Reaper's score editor. For example You can't do these in Reaper's score editor :
- Start Repeat , End Repeat barlines
- Bar number system
- Show/hide multirests
- Layout for printing... etc There is much more but these are very important for printing the notation for musicians, easy sight-reading etc...

Xasman · 03-13-2020, 12:51 PM

REAPER's notation is really great for work-in-progress stuff but it's not really designed to be a fully-fledged notation application. I export music XML files from REAPER to MuseScore (which is quite amazing, and free/open source) for anything that needs proper layout/printing. FWIW, Sibelius is all but dead in the water at this point - I understand that the development team moved to Steinberg to work on Dorico quite some time ago now.

buckman · 03-13-2020, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xasman

REAPER's notation is really great for work-in-progress stuff but it's not really designed to be a fully-fledged notation application. I export music XML files from REAPER to MuseScore (which is quite amazing, and free/open source) for anything that needs proper layout/printing. FWIW, Sibelius is all but dead in the water at this point - I understand that the development team moved to Steinberg to work on Dorico quite some time ago now.

Thank you! Free and open source sounds great! I will check out the latest version.

I did wonder why Sibelius wasn’t mentioned as much and thought it was all part of Avid now?

I’ve already seen that there are plenty of MuseScore videos tutorials on YouTube which I shall check out

peter5992 · 03-13-2020, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mehmethan

I'm using Reaper's score editor for the same purposes but I always export the score as xml and make final touch on Sibelius. Reaper's score editor is still not fully ready for professional scoring needs.

+1

I use Sibelius (and Dorico) for creating scores and parts for live musicians, the quality of the output is infinitely better than that of Reaper. No disrespect to the wonderful Cockos team.

Sibelius is far from dead by the way, years ago the core development team (led by Daniel Spreadbury) were laid off by Avid and subsequently taken over by Yamaha / Steinberg to develop a new engraving program. That program is Dorico. But Sibelius is still in development, and last year several very useful updates were released. The current project development is Sam Butler, great guy, and they have a team in London and in other parts of the world.

MuseScore is free, but there are also free versions for Sibelius (called "First") and Dorico, you may want to check them.

o_e · 03-13-2020, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

+1

I use Sibelius (and Dorico) for creating scores and parts for live musicians, the quality of the output is infinitely better than that of Reaper. No disrespect to the wonderful Cockos team.

Sibelius is far from dead by the way, years ago the core development team (led by Daniel Spreadbury) were laid off by Avid and subsequently taken over by Yamaha / Steinberg to develop a new engraving program. That program is Dorico. But Sibelius is still in development, and last year several very useful updates were released. The current project development is Sam Butler, great guy, and they have a team in London and in other parts of the world.

MuseScore is free, but there are also free versions for Sibelius (called "First") and Dorico, you may want to check them.

If you dislike using the mouse (like me) and more into coding, I can highly recommend Lilypond (lilypond.org). It can produce IMO beautiful scores and your musicians will be greatful.. You can export musicxml files from Reaper and import them into Lilypond. Just check out its website, its worth it..

alanofoz · 03-13-2020, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by o_e

If you dislike using the mouse (like me) and more into coding, I can highly recommend Lilypond (lilypond.org). It can produce IMO beautiful scores and your musicians will be greatful.. You can export musicxml files from Reaper and import them into Lilypond. Just check out its website, its worth it..

Absolutely!

And if you use Lilypond you really need to check out Frescobaldi (frescobaldi.org). The two together make a very powerful combination.

peter5992 · 03-13-2020, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by o_e

If you dislike using the mouse (like me) and more into coding, I can highly recommend Lilypond (lilypond.org). It can produce IMO beautiful scores and your musicians will be greatful.. You can export musicxml files from Reaper and import them into Lilypond. Just check out its website, its worth it..

I know people who use it and like it, but I'm not much into coding ... greatly prefer the easy layout that Sibelius offers. Great for film scores as well, with the video syncing features (though in the most recent versions a bug crept in where sync is sometimes a bit off).

Aikido123 · 01-04-2021, 05:18 AM

I find Reaper's Score Editor to be quite good in most respects. With just a little more TLC it could actually be pretty great. It has the capabilities it needs and lots of that Reaper direct useability that others I've used do not have. I found Cubase's scoring editor pretty unfathomable for real world use. I've also used Dorico. Both of these, being Steinberg products, basically require you to do things their way and only their way. Sometimes that's good, but others, not so good.
One of Reapers best features is the way it displays note durations and allows you to change them for selected notes.
Where Reaper's score editing falls down is when it comes to working with a full size project, or even a small/medium size project with multiple instruments. If they would do some real world useability testing to actually write real scores, they could easily fix the issues that do pop up. A few options on a scoring preferences dialog would probably do the trick. For instance, I would like to have the option to not keep notes selected after step input. Also, a way to bring up FX window for the current staff instrument. The option to have selected track follow selected staff.
These and other things that many people have requested are not hard, they just need some attention.

pbognar · 02-05-2021, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aikido123

One of Reapers best features is the way it displays note durations and allows you to change them for selected notes.

I like the way that notation editing has been implemented in REAPER.

For clarification, Cubase 11 includes the feature you describe.

vsthem · 02-05-2021, 11:10 AM

I'd really consider hiring a professional to make really nice and detailed parts for the players. As both an orchestrator and a session string player, having clear parts allows for better performances in less time, with fewer questions from the players. You'll also get more buy in from the players. Classical players especially, when they see parts with minor mistakes or non-idiomatic writing, lose respect for the music they're playing and won't give it their all. Not that they'll butcher it, but when everything is really clear and laid out, they can dig in confidently to what they're playing.

peter5992 · 02-05-2021, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsthem

I'd really consider hiring a professional to make really nice and detailed parts for the players. As both an orchestrator and a session string player, having clear parts allows for better performances in less time, with fewer questions from the players. You'll also get more buy in from the players. Classical players especially, when they see parts with minor mistakes or non-idiomatic writing, lose respect for the music they're playing and won't give it their all. Not that they'll butcher it, but when everything is really clear and laid out, they can dig in confidently to what they're playing.

True ... well engraved and laid out parts make all the difference in the world.

Programs like Sibelius / Dorico / Finale are not cheap, but if you do live recordings with musicians having the ability to quickly and easily create scores and parts will save you $$ in the end of the day.

Fergler · 02-05-2021, 02:22 PM

Musescore has come a loooong way in just the last 2 years

martifingers · 02-05-2021, 02:40 PM

I have to agree with fergler 100%. I came back to musescore after about that time. I have only a very rudimentary knowledge of music notation but jumped in just to get a feel for it. I had written a simple page of music for guitar and piano in minutes that played back acceptably without so much as reading a single tutorial.
I am sure for advanced users it has its problems but as it stands it is very... enabling?
I wonder how much the adoption of Tantacrul as the leading light is helping. A lot, I would guess.

JonUsesReaper · 05-15-2021, 10:20 AM

This seems to be the right group to ask my question. I recently started using Reaper on my old computer running Windows XP. I love it, but the music notation editor will not note display traditional notes. It only displays large rectangles where the notes should be. Am I missing the correct font? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love using Reaper, but I'd love it more if I could use the notation editor.

Thanks for any help offered,
JonUsesReaper