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I looked around at other answers on audio stackexchage that are related to my question, but the answers seem to leave much to be desired. (At least, for my situation :P )

As a hobby, my wife is a music artist (piano/sing) and she works as an accompanist for a voice teacher (which sometimes includes transposing music for the teacher). She has a nice 88-key midi keyboard (connects via USB) and she records using Garage Band and the (garbage of a...) mic built into her MacBook Pro.

I'm thinking about buying her a new mic (and accessories)

However, she doesn't like Garage Band because the notation is limited. So I started looking at software for editing. I'm looking for something with powerful notation editing (record from midi device, edit/fine tune with mouse, print sheet music that looks good), and the ability to do some basic voice tuning/mixing. I know that good software is expensive, at my budget will be in the $100-$500 range. But lower is better :) Being able to trial software would be a great bonus. Also, if it's one of those

Anyone have any recommendations? It would be preferred if it worked on OS X, but Linux and Windows will work as well, so don't let the OS limit the answers. And again: great notation and at least some basic/useful voice tuning.

Thanks!

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Score Editors

Free: Muse Score and Denemo are fantastic score editors. windows/mac/linux. They both are good lilypond front-ends. They produce beautiful sheetmusic.

Budget: Harmony Assistant / Melody Assistant (windows/mac)

Audio

Reaper is an amazing DAW. You can record & mix audio and midi. Piano Roll view for midi. no score editor.

free: Audacity, Jokosher, Ardour ...

There are many free/inexpensive audio/midi/score softwares. Depending upon the work, you can use a combination of these softwares. You can make the score in MuseScore, import the midi in reaper for adding a voice track. Rosegarden is a decent all in one.

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  • I'll look at those. Seems like it might be a good idea to go with separate apps for separate tasks.
    – Joel
    Feb 24, 2011 at 17:38
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    +1 for Reaper - I keep looking for a DAW and keep coming back to Reaper.
    – gomad
    Apr 22, 2011 at 22:19
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The standards in this arena for commercial software are Finale and Sibelius.

Both of them have packages in your stated price range.

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I use a Linux package called Rosegarden to do Midi and audio work. It also does notation (and the screen shots look nice), but I haven't played much with that side.

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