Reviews of our Music Notation Software

I get so many letters and emails that it's hard to pick out a representative sample. But here are some ranging over various years of the software. All are completely unsolicited.

For an interesting phone call click here.

January 2011:
I am really enjoying learning to use your Music Publisher, what a brilliant program. I am full of admiration for you. It looks as though it is very much a product of a one person, with amazing attention to detail, without the problems of coordination inherent in a team effort. [BT, London]

February, 2010:
"As a new user of notation software, I did a lot of homework -- including the loading and deleting of trial products -- to finally find something that made sense to a software notation beginner.

Even [prominent competitor's name removed] is now gathering dust on my shelf because I believed the hype that it was easy to become productive with the product. Not!

Here's the thing: All of the many programs I've evaluated force you (or at least me) to work the way the developer wants you to work. The programs simply do not let you do the logical things you want to do (or at least they don't make it easy to find out how). It was just so easy to get productive with Music Publisher 7 right from the start because the user interface simply makes sense and doesn't get in the way. Now I'm learning more every day about the much deeper richness of the program and other ways available to save time. But I was able to get productive in just a few days!

In truth, any notation program worth its salt has a learning curve, but this one didn't have me pulling my hair out (which I can ill afford). Most important, the product support is fast and fabulous!" [DE, Texas]

October, 2010:
Music Publisher - I love it!!! It is so easy to use. Even when I "manually" enter the score is surprising how quick and easy it is. Today I scanned some music and I was amazed at the accuracy. [TM, Queensland, Australia]

January, 2010:
Thank you so much for sending me Music Publisher. I think it is a fantastic program and I find it really easy to use and quick to write music in.

[20 lines of details followed, ending with...]
Thank you again for an absolutely fantastic program... one of the best I have bought for my computer in a very long time. [JC, Suffolk]

Summer 2010: a long-term customer who first purchased in 2000 wrote this on news of MP8 being in preparation:
I cannot wait for MP8 - I have been so pleased with MP5, 6 and 7! My wife says it is the best thing that's happened since my retirement as it keeps me out of her hair! [GS, Essex]

And another on the same news, July 2010:
I'm looking forward to MP8. It's amazing what you've done with MP7 and it remains an incredibly easy program to use. Sometimes I don't use it for a while but all the shortcuts are so obvious I don't forget them and everything seems so logical. [TJ, Spain]

From a customer who had lost his CD - April 2009:
Thanks for your help. You are so good at maintaining your customers. I kind of wish you could go around and give lectures to other software publishers about it. [JH, Michegan, USA]

Not sure about the comment at the end of this one - Jan 2009:
Just a note to say thanks for the software. We have had the software for a couple of years and did upgrade to version 7, but really only put it to use recently.

I had to scan and transpose a four page song with guitar chords and I have to tell you that Music Publisher has to be the easiest and fullest featured of any piece of dedicated software I have ever used.

The scanning works very well ... the transposition was easy and accurate and corrections were easy. Merging the four scores at the end was dead easy.

The Help is amazingly complete and easy to read.

I could go on but I think you can tell I'm impressed with your product, so from one old guy to another, thanks [CS, Ontario, Canada]

This arrived by email in May 2009, about three weeks after purchase:
As a self-employed musician for the last forty years I have toyed with the idea of doing arrangements using computer software. Tempted by the demonstrations on your website I thought for this type of money it can't be much good. It was not much good! - it was SENSATIONAL! The help files are superb and cover every aspect of musical notation. Come on people - put away the quill pen and buy this INCREDIBLE product! [TF, Tyne & Wear]

[posted on rec.music.makers.choral newsgroup, 2008]
"I am currently using Bernard Hill's program to good effect, to scan orchestral parts that need to be transposed and in some cases to be converted from bass clef to tenor, or from treble to alto. The scans are surprisingly accurate, and - being essentially a graphics program - MP mercifully doesn't attempt to juggle with the result in an attempt to tidy up the layout, as more elaborate programs do. This means that the scanned layout is exactly the same as in the original, bar for bar, system for system, and generally just omits any item it can't decode. So proof-reading is largely a matter of finding gaps and filling them, and then listening to the playback to spot the occasional problem with accidentals.... "

A selection from 2009:
"Dear Bernard, Just received the software and have begun the tutorial. I can actually understand it!! Many thanks because I was so afraid that it would be totally beyond me. I was taking a chance ordering it! I am not the brightest IT student on the planet, having started this game in my seventies. But I am finding this fun! Thank you again. It was worth every penny." [MD, Devon]

"It is a real pleasure using MP. I have only attempted to use one other program and it was most unsatisfactory. When I hear the difficulty others are having with other programs I am even more convinced that MP is the best and your tech help is superb!" [MU, North Carolina]

"I tried several popular notation programs before I settled on MP. 90% of our music is from Byzantine chant and with MP I don't have to struggle to make the music fit a particular time signature. Also, your tutorial is great! The other software I tried had nice glitzy tutorials and at the end of them I was still lost as how to proceed. I love the low-key conversational style of your tutorial. Within the hour I was easily entering notation. I find your shortcuts very intuitive and therefore easy to remember. The mnemonics used are also very helpful.
I can read music and understand the basics of music theory but am by no means a music scholar. I believe anyone with just a bit of musical knowledge would find MP very easy to use." [PB, London]

"When I first downloaded MP and ran the tutorial I was writing music within minutes, the fastest program to learn I have encountered. It is very clear for the novice and written with a sense of humour which I very much appreciated. I would recommend anyone new to MP to run the tutorial.

"Bernard: I have been working with the tutorial and I have to say it is possibly the first time I have enjoyed learning about an application. Thanks for the great service and help." [JB Hertfordshire]

This software is excellent value for money. I've used it for a number of years. Bernard's support is second to none. He is very responsive to his customers and often adds extra features as requested. On the rare occasion that a bug turns up, it is usual to find it fixed by the next day and the new release up and ready on the website for free downloading by registered customers. Full marks. [MP, Twyford]

Can I just say that I've always found Bernard's Help Files and his Manual are in a league of their own when it comes to clarity and precision in outlining procedures in Music Publisher." [MH, London]

"If only other software companies would follow your example and write programs which are compact and easy to use but deliver a mighty punch with quality." [email from PG Lancashire]

"I tried several notation software packages from the Internet and yours is the easiest to learn and operate. I can score a song in less than 30 minutes (I write arrangements for a 9 piece big band)." [RG, Alabama]

"Many thanks for providing such a brilliant tutorial, so much better than having to wade through a book full of non understandable terms. This is the first time I have experienced such clear and concise instructions and to realise that there is at least one expert who has sympathy for the amateur!" [JB, Herefordshire]

"... the scanning program is orders of magnitude better than anything I have tried before" [DU, Royston, Herts]

Occasionally I get excited phone calls, but with strange complaints....

"It's super, absolutely super. I can't tell you how thrilled I am with it.... I only got it yesterday, but I could have killed you at 3 o'clock this morning ... no, there was no problem, it was just that I was too excited about your program to get to sleep...". The name of the caller was sadly not recorded, but the words are genuine :-).

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