[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> Cindy wrote:
>
> >I have been asked what is the best software (and why) to
> >download for Mac users. Anyone want a go singing the praises of
> >their favs?
>
> The answer to this kind of question always depends on what you want
> to do with it.
David has an important point here. Generally you don't have *one* ABC
program, you use different programs for doing different things. Since
most of the programs are free, you don't have to worry about downloading
as many as you need.
Here are my (very personal) experiences with some ABC related software:
BarFly
Freeware
Mandatorial for everybody who works with ABC on a Mac.
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abc4mac
Freeware
Converts ABC to postscript and midi. The postscript (sheet music) output
of abc4mac is of better quality than the graphic output of BarFly.
BarFly's midi output *sounds* better than abc4mac's, but isn't very good
for exporting to other notation programs, so you'll want abc4mac if you
want to combine ABC with non-abc noation programs.
-------
abctab2ps
Freeware
Another ABC to postscript converter, specializing in early music.
Unfortunately the postcript output files from the Mac version seems to
be unreadable by any software known to mankind, so it's pretty useless
at the moment. I really hope that bug will be fixed soon, though.
-------
yaps
Freeware
Yet Another ABC to Postscript converter. Some advantages over abc4mac,
some disadvantages.
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abc2mtex
Freeware
The original ABC application. Converts ABC to postscript. I haven't
tried it since you need MusicTex to use abc2mtex and I never even
consider using a program that takes more than five minutes to get working.
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GhostScript
Freeware
Not an ABC program, but with all those ABC-to-Postscript converters, you
need a program that can actually display the postscript too, don't you?
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GhostView
Shareware
A fancier version of GhostScript. Definitely better, but the free
GhostScript seems to do everything I want it to, so I've never seen any
need for upgrading.
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macmidi2abc
Freeware
Converts midi files to ABC. Some annoying bugs, but still quite useful.
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MidiGraphy
Shareware
Not ABC, but a very good, simple and cheap midi program. I use it a lot
for postprocessing midifiles created by BarFly and abc4mac.
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GraphicConverter
Shareware
Not an ABC application, but almost mandatorial for everybody who's
working with graphic files (including sheet music output from BarFly and
GhostScript) on a Mac. Converts between more than 60 different graphics
formats - and it's a pretty powerful picture editor too.
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tclabc
Freeware?
I haven't tried it.
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Skink
Freeware
Java based ABC display program. I haven't had time to test it yet.
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Virtual composer
Shareware
Notation program specially focused on baroque polyphonic music (all the
examples files are Bach!) A pretty basic notation program, but it
creates really nice ABC output - apart from its annoying habit of adding
line breaks after each and every bar in ABC.
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Macabc2chord
Freeware
Extracts the chord symbols from an ABC file. Requires MacPerl to run.
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Melody Assistant
Shareware
Useless crap.
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Melody Assistant
Shareware
Extended version of the useless crap.
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Frank Nordberg
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