Software for chart creation

[Tim F Thornton]

I've been experimenting with software that creates charts, not finding anything that seems really intuitive and easy. I've tried several of the freeware ones and demo versions of finale notebook(?) and songwriter. Everything is so gal darn complicated.

Seeing the tab files on a few other posts made me think to ask if anyone has a program they like.

I don't so much want to use it to create standard notation or tab (though that might be nice), but more primarily to create a measure-by-measure chart that shows what chords to play when, and possibly can transpose them in case a hired gun wants to use a capo or we change the key we do a song in.

I've been frustrated that the finale versions I was using didn't allow any chords to be placed over the measures unless some melody was entered as well. And to get it to put the right number of measures in a line so it's intuitive to read was nigh impossible.

Is tabledit a good solution for this? I'm on a mac.

Thanks y'all ahead of time for your help. I think I'll slam my head into the keyboard if I have to try another un-intuitive program that's too complicated for my simple needs.

[mando.player]

I've got a Mac and I use G7 by Sibelius. It hasn't been updated in a while but it works well for me. I just tried the chart scenario you outlined and it seems to work.

[Tim F Thornton]

Thanks Charlie! I'll check it out. Anyone else?

[Pete Martin]

Allegro would probably work fine (Finale user here).

[Doug Hoople]

I'm a bit surprised that you couldn't get Finale to lay out the chart the way you wanted. I've done that in Finale, and have been very happy with the flexibility and power and directness of its formatting capabilites. #

By comparison, Sibelius is much less intuitive and much less direct for the kinds of detailed and comprehensive layout control you're looking at. By less direct, I mean that you have to master the whole domain of "House Styles," importing, exporting, tweaking, running down level after level of menu to achieve what you want. #

Finale is also better at chord symbols for lead sheets than Sibelius. Sibelius seems to be targeting complex orchestral scores at the expense of lead sheets.

At any rate, Finale can definitely do what you've been having difficulty getting it to do, and quite directly and intuitively, once you get to know how it goes.

BTW, I may prefer Finale, but I use Sibelius now, mostly because most of the Bay Area musicians I work with have moved over to it.

[Tim F Thornton]

That is interesting, Doug, and thanks for your thoughts. Are you running the PC version? I wonder if some of the difference might be that, like with some other programs, the mac version is an afterthought? The help sections I looked at and tutorial videos featured PC version images and instructions, so I was left somewhat to my own devices.

I guess spending some more time with it would help, since no one else has chimed in, and I can't even get sibelius g7 to load on my macbook (I know, I sound more computer illiterate all the time, but I'm really not).:O

[mando.player]

G7 is definitely a simplified version of Sibelius. It's targeted at fretted instruments and that focus seems to make it a bit easier to use. At times the formatting can drive me nuts, but for doing charts it should be very straight forward. Chord symbols in G7 are very nice. You can do just text (G, Em, BbMaj7, etc) or you can do chord grids. It allows you to create your own grid libraries also. For example, I have a set of grids that represents the 3-note chords I use. When entering the grids onto a chart, you can specify to only use a particular library. Kind of nice.

I looked into Finale, but their Mac versions always seemed one or two releases behind. That may have changed, I can't say.

[Tim F Thornton]

So, Charlie, you can put down chords above the measures without also specifying a melody? Sounds like the thing. I must try to get it to install. You on a mac or PC? Just curious.

[mando.player]

Yes you can. #There are a few ways to do this. #The easiest way is to create a common rest structure that accommodates the number of chords per measure in the chart you're creating. #Making all the rests half-note rests, would allow you to add two chords per measure. #Make sense? #Yes, I'm on a Mac (G5 running Leopard).

They offer a demo version here (http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/download/get.pl?com=sh&prod=g7demo).

[Tim F Thornton]

Thanks!

[Doug Hoople]

That is interesting, Doug, and thanks for your thoughts. Are you running the PC version? I wonder if some of the difference might be that, like with some other programs, the mac version is an afterthought? The help sections I looked at and tutorial videos featured PC version images and instructions, so I was left somewhat to my own devices.

I guess spending some more time with it would help, since no one else has chimed in, and I can't even get sibelius g7 to load on my macbook (I know, I sound more computer illiterate all the time, but I'm really not).:O
Tim,

Yes I used to run the PC version, actually it was Finale Guitar, which was last updated back in 2003. Even if the Mac version is a little behind, it should be fully caught up with the standard of a half a decade ago, and the Finale features that I describe were long since established even by then. #

What I found in Finale was that a little time and experience with it yields big benefits. I had to wrangle with the layout features for a little while before I finally broke through. Once I did break through, though, I was amazed at what I could do through relatively simple means, and after that I rarely seemed to be stumped for anything that I wanted to do. #

It's been a few years, though, and my transition to Sibelius is complete, in spite of some of my misgivings.

So my experience with Finale is a little out of date now.