Roger Hare Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 (edited) I'm getting bored - time for a new 'project'... Does anyone here have any experience using the TeX/LaTeX-like music type-setting program lilypond? What front-end should I use? frescobaldi? I did try it at a very elementary level about 5 years ago, so I'm familiar with the general approach, but didn't pursue it as I was using [Easy]ABC by then. Always up for something new, though... Thank you. Moderator: If this isn't the correct forum, please feel free to move to the correct one... Edited January 9, 2023 by lachenal74693 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Schulteis Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I've used it, but it's been a long time. My experience (what little of it I can remember) probably isn't entirely relevant anymore. I certainly can't recommend a frontend - I was always more of a command line guy anyway. I did get nice results with it. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Hare Posted January 10, 2023 Author Share Posted January 10, 2023 15 hours ago, Steve Schulteis said: I've used it, but it's been a long time. My experience (what little of it I can remember) probably isn't entirely relevant anymore. I certainly can't recommend a frontend - I was always more of a command line guy anyway. I did get nice results with it. Best of luck. Thanks for that reply. It looks a little as if we both did somewhat similar things somewhere in the dim and distant past. I looked at it in a fairly cursory way, and came away with the idea that it did a pretty good job, but was very verbose (like TeX/LaTeX). Files were simple text, but were likely to be 2.5-5x larger than an equivalent ABC file for the simple tunes I was working with. Like you, I didn't use a front-end, but used it in command-line mode. As a result of a conversation I had with someone a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try it again, this time with a front-end. I installed Frescobaldi/Lilypond on two of my machines yesterday (one I don't connect to the internet), and got it working fairly quickly. Even with the Frescobaldi interface (with an easy-to-use 'score wizard'), it still seems complicated, even for simple tunes. It's probably great for the musical director of a symphony orchestra who wants to provide a full score for Beethoven's 5th, complete with parts for every instrument in the band. For blokes like me who simply want to get 'Three Blind Mice' down on paper in a way which is usable by other folks, it's probably serious over-kill... I'll be pursuing the matter, but at a lowish level. I suspect that if I decide to use Lilypond at all, I'll be building my own 'score wizard', rather in the way I built a simple 'HTML file generator' 20+ years ago... Thanks for the input. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Hare Posted January 12, 2023 Author Share Posted January 12, 2023 (edited) On 1/10/2023 at 5:40 AM, lachenal74693 said: ...I suspect that if I decide to use Lilypond at all, I'll be building my own 'score wizard', rather in the way I built a simple 'HTML file generator' 20+ years ago... Well, I tried it - spent 6-8 hours on it so far. A simple text-based 'Lilypond tune creation tool' running in a command window. Hard work, and not a lot of progress so far. As a comparison, I tried the same with ABC - a simple text-based creation tool for writing ABC tunes. Got the whole thing working in prototype form in ~90 minutes. Good enough that I may well pursue the matter and develop a more sophisticated version. Quick and easy when away from home with a small, slow machine, which can only run [Easy]ABC slowly... The comparison isn't completely fair because my familiarity with ABC syntax means that the ABC tool was 'easier', but to my mind, it's a striking difference... Edited January 12, 2023 by lachenal74693 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Schulteis Posted January 12, 2023 Share Posted January 12, 2023 That's consistent with my memory. Lilypond is far more versatile than ABC, but it's also far more complex. I eventually figured out a template and some usage patterns that worked well for the music I was interested in. But there's a reason I use MuseScore these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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