Three of my favorite notation programs for teachers have recently been updated.
PreSonus recently released version 6.2 of its notation program Notion. The big news is that slurs are now editable, a feature that Notion users have long requested. Along with tighter integration with their DAW, Studio One, the update also includes many bug fixes and improvements. Notion for iOS has also been updated to include slur control. Here’s a link to the complete update announcement.
MuseScore also recently released version 2.1. The most significant feature added are new input modes, including real-time recording. One of the more interesting modes is Rhythm mode where you can step enter the rhythm by playing a key on the keyboard and then use repitch to enter the notes. I’ve found this to be very fast when working on tutti or soli section. Other improvements include better playback quality through support for Sound Font libraries, improved selection filters and an interesting Swap command that does what it sounds like; swaps music in one section with that in another. You can find the complete release notes here.
Noteflight has also been busy. They’ve just announced a link up with SoundTrap, the online DAW. The programs now integrate automatically Now you can collaborate with other users, export notation directly to SoundTrap for improved or playback or see the notation of your SoundTrap sessions. Full details here.
