Hi!
I found MusixTeX a couple of weeks ago, and after a while also PMX. Today
I use it regularly. The result is very good, and the time needed for a
simple sketch in PMX is about the same as writing by hand. But there's a
big difference: Scores written with PMX can be converted to PDF and sent
by electronic mail to my band members (I have a little jazz
quartet/quintet). This is wonderful!
However, since I'm a jazz musician, I have some special needs that PMX
does not yet support:
First, there's the possibility to write chord names. This can easily be
done with inline TeX, and I have, with help from Don Simmons, created a
macro package that does all this for me. However, lots of complicated
chords (that is, lots of inline TeX) clutters the PMX source file and
makes it difficult to read. Incorporating this into PMX is on my
whishlist. Writing, for example, "&Bb9#11" is much easier than my macro
"\uc{B\flat\up{9\shp11}\".
Second, when I write chords, I sometimes need to specify the chord rythms.
I want to do this with either small notes above the note system (without
help lines) or the special percussion notes. I have not been able to solve
this with PMX yet. Anyone has any ideas?
Third, there's a bug in PMX. When I create a volta with a whole rest in
the first voice (i e the lowest voice), the volta and it's number is
misplaced, several points too low, interferring with the note system. This
might, however, have some correlation with \raisevolta that I also use.
Thanks for PMX and MusixTeX, friends!
Stefan - composer, jazz musician and UNIX freak
