Installed - no problem. It doesn't work! W7 64bit, 6 GB memory. Windows is checking for a solution. Meanwhile - it just doesn't work!

Well, from what I can see, it's a great program.

My only problem so far is getting Flight Of The Bumblebee to play with a piano, nylon guitar, or even steel guitar. No matter what changes I make, it plays only with a Distortion Guitar! (Ugh!)

The other songs don't give me this problem. Am I the only this is happening to?

Installed flawlessly in Windows XP Sp3. And although it's simple and neat I could show my people, that's my family, that one can use the PC for more rejoicing!!! Thanks for this giveaway to DG Software and GAOTD!!!

BUMMER - installed ok and registered likewise BUT the old program worked pretty good - this one plays CHOPPY music and often the wrong note - terrible playback no matter what output device I set it for. Worse, the old program did fine (paid for that one whatever it was) but can't get it back as this installed over it and don't have the old copy anymore.
Likely will just take it "out" though I did edit MIDI's with the old one if I made a boo-boo note when entered. So unhappy "as is".

First, I truly don't need/use this type of software, but thought it would be fun to check out. If you are expecting a knowledgeable review, look elsewhere. I am slightly music literate and can say the following. Installation, registration running the program, no problem at all. Seems to do what it's supposed to do, soemwhat intuitive, even for us non-musicians (I play the radio and MP3 player),therefore THUMBS UP!

Installed quickly and easily. No probs with registration, although it helped to know that it still left the reg. keys empty even when registered. I was a little unclear on that.

Question: it seems the program wants to change the default program/player for midi files. Is this a requirement in order to make this work, or just a preference of the software. I would rather not change my default midi player, because it would not be the first time that things would get messed up if I uninstall said software.

Once again...THANKS SO MUCH!!! :)

Downloaded and installed easily. IT'S GREAT! My son is studying classical guitar in high school. Took one of his pieces and manually entered half the piece in a few minutes. Fairly intuitive so far... I think this will really help him learn and study the music he is playing. Thanks!

I've been looking for months for a program like this!

Sometimes I find a few lines of music in a book (a simple folk tune, nursery rhyme, etc.) and want to know what it sounds like. My knowledge of music is virtually zero, so a written score is useless to me. So I've been trying to find a program that will let me simply copy what I see and then listen to the result.

I know my use is only scratching the surface of what the software can do. I don't even understand what the more advanced features are talking about! But I'm delighted with it for my purposes.

MagicScore is a very good, straight-forward and simple music notation package. The user really must have at least some exposure to music theory to get to the meat-and-potatoes of producing music. But just through experimentation and a simple library book even a novice will be able to learn by using MagicScore.

On the other hand, this isn't really "professional" notation software either. There are some less commonly used notational functions that are not supported. Most of them will not bother the average user, but in my trial of MagicScore I didn't find a way of entering triplets. Personally, I would see this as a disadvantage.

The workspace layout it well thought out and intuitive. However, I would have put the notation symbols as a left side panel instead of the context help box. That way the symbols panel would be larger and easier to use when the bottom panel is opened. Maybe the panels are movable and stick to where they are moved ??

Two things I like: they haven't wasted time and bloat on a "piano roll" view (never could figure out why people would ever want that) and there is a good-sized piano keyboard panel which can be be iconized on the ribbon view by going to >View>Tools>Keyboard . Being such a good size it is easy to use and to see, clicking the icon give you the keyboard across the bottom of the desktop.

Unfortunately, there are no midi editing capabilities here, nor VST plugin support. These features would be nice to have but would certainly increase the general learning curve for many and probably scare them off from just having fun and learning more about music.

Best of all, MagicScore runs fast and stably. No one would want to be working on a score and all of a sudden lose their last 1/2 hour's work because Windows didn't like something MagicScore was doing.

Though this is not of "Professional" quality, even professionals will appreciate being able to use MagicScore to quickly jot down ideas. The program itself is quite small and it makes my wonder if DG Software might be planning to produce an Android and/or iPad version for tablets on the go. Now that would be cool: touch-screen note entry !

In all I say, "Well done, DG Software" and "Thanks GOTD" .

Addition to #39

Installed and registred flawlessly at Windows 8, 64 Bit

Danish UI can not handle the special Danish characters: æ ø å (guess if this system can)

i left a comment, well, question, early this morning but i don't see it now. it seems many of us are having questions about the registration. yes, i installed and activated it without problems, and no, i don't get a windonw that says anything. but when i go to the "help" and then "registration" page, it shows it is registered to GOTD, but it doesn't give a registration number. so, does that mean it IS a full registration or do we need a number?? i don't see GOTD anywhere on the first page (as noted in above comment).
thanks for this program! i'm really looking forward to using it!

Dls and installs cleanly without any nasties or email harvesting. An elegant program and well thought-out. I've been reading / writing music since the age of eight as my mother was a professional pianist so music's pretty much in my blood. I've never bothered with computational composition before because scribbles of my pen in standard, blank, staff & stave pages has always seemed quick and easy, if not necessarily tidy or even particularly legible to anyone else.

I'm running through this software right now but -- and it's a big "but" -- can only wonder at the kind of learning curve involved here for those who've never written any kind of score before. And as for those who've no idea about musical notation, then really, this ain't for you, nor was this software ever developed with non-musicians in mind.

Thanks, then, GAOTD and DG Software: it's a super offer for niche market users and greatly appreciated -- even if I'm finding it a bit daunting after the simplicity of pen and paper. . .

* As to all the negative votes cast here today, how wonderful it is to discover that the GAOTD community is stuffed full of latter-day Mozarts and Beethovens who when they're not downvoting stuff they don't understand are out there composing symphonies and operas.

Great pick for musicians and musicians-to-be. If you are at all musical, get this and play with it. Works fine (W7 U 64 bit) - is intuitive and is FUN!

I appreciate GAOTD and the software maker for this. I will enjoy showing it to my sister. She is a musical person, and has written a piece or two, and has wanted something like.

Thanks a million!!

Absolutely nothing musical about me,.. but this looks like fun and I may learn a few things!! Thanks GAOD and DG!! Never know,.. I may learn a little! :)

nice, it has MIDI export for your digital audio workstation
writing notes is intuitive with this.

I guess this software will get a lot of thumbs down because not everyone knows how to write music.
But from me it's a big thumbs up

thanks for sharing this with us

Cheers

Hi

FINALLY a usefull offer from GOTD... Thumbs up...

But it seems as "Save As" mxl (MusicXML) has gone. Was in version 5...

Well, this is completely useless to me.

LOL, I play guitar but never bothered with music notation. Too dark to read besides a campfire anyway.

But I'm having some real fun here with MagicScore Note 7! For one, I learned that I shouldn't quit my dayjob and become a composer... The playback function is a great way to troll the hell out of my roommate though hehe!

Seriously though, installed and registered without problems on win 7 64-bit. I can't really comment as I have no experience or comparison for MagicScore Note 7. But as far as I can judge it offers enough for both novice and experienced users. Although noobs like me are quite likely overwhelmed by the interface and the myriad of options. It looks really crowded and for a moment there I mistook it for a 3d modelling program. It could use some cleaning up but I bet that users who know musical notation are just fine with the current layout.

I'm gonna keep it just for fun. I wouldn't buy it obviously but I'm not their target audience. Thanks GOTD and DG Software, thumbs up!

A supplement to Giovanni's list:
Frescobaldi: Not a composition program in itself but a (script) editor for LilyPond notation files. Open Source and a really cool name imho.
Anvil Studio: Somewhat crippleware (plugins will cost you and saving files is limited) but suited if composing is all you want. But it's much more of a MIDI studio/editor than anything else and has a good rep in gaming communities afaik.
Easy Music Composer: Limited freeware version, only the first 8 bars are recorded. The 255-bar version is $29, that's 10 bucks more for far less functionality. Doesn't even compare to MagicScore Note, just forget about this one.
Quelea: Not a composer but projection software for church songs and music. Uses chords rather than notation and focuses mainly on lyrics. Kind of a karaoke program. Open Source.

Oh damn, sounds like my roommate also found today's GOTD...

An outstanding free alternative is Finale Notepad: http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad.

Thanks for this music givaway. I have been looking for a decent piece of free music software to write a simple score for my own songs. This one installed easily and runs perfectly on my Windows 7 setup. The programme is functioning really well. I am very pleased with this one so a big thanks.

Has anyone found an 'automatic update' box that has the check mark in it? If so where? Hate to lose this one due to it getting a 'free upgrade/update and becoming a 'temporary version". I'll keep looking for it but any help is appreciated. Thanks!

I have uninstalled twice and every time I try to get the key it opens and then goes away it is not opening to the web site that has the key no matter if I run it as administrator or not it disappears there is something wrong with the package and I will not be able to obtain the key with what is in the soft ware package downloaded. You need to look at the activation exe it is not working for me any way I try to do it.

Ran setup.exe on Windows 7x64. Installed fine. Then ran activation.exe and also fine. Tried it out for a few minutes and it sounds pretty good to me. Note that if you know little or nothing about music notation, you might be overwhelmed.

The description says it's "...basic music notation and music writing software, offering the advanced capabilities for music schools, students, teachers and music lovers." It might be "basic" compared with more professional programs, but there's a lot on offer here.

So thankyou DG Software and GOTD.

I got this program the last time it was offered, and have had a couple of plays with it. The layout is very nice, and there are some nice features like adjusting the height of the stems, and having sensible keyboard shortcuts for the piano. Although, when I was trying to change the time signature and set the tempo it wasn't obvious how to apply it, and I remember going through the part and stave settings a couple of times before I worked out how.
The sounds on the playback are nothing special, but I don't see that as a big deal. Also, I got used to NoteWorthy Composer (which has a free trial version) when I was younger, and found that other professional software such as sibelius and MagicScore were less user friendly in creating a piece. NoteWorthy allowed text-like editing, where the number of beats in a bar wasn't being counted - I could place a bar or new time signature anywhere, and this enabled much simpler copy-paste. In MagicScore, you have to be careful that you don't lose half of a bar or two in the process, as it can't cope with extra / less beats in a bar at any moment.
I see this software as being more useful to production of sheet music, than as a compositional tool.

Installed and activated in Win 8 x64 with no problems. I totally agree with #3 - HOLY MOLEY. This program is way past my guitar cord playing but I was hoping I could use it with my guitar to USB hook up. I will try it out when I get back to the states but for now, thanks for the program. I tried a program someone suggested to me two days ago so I will not lose any of my GOTD programs if my hard drive crashes again called "Cameyo". The program installed beautifully with Cameyo and it made it portable so I can save it to my Pogo plug and have an offsite back up. Thank you also to my fellow Pennsylvania person who suggested Cameyo to me.

First off, I'm no musician. I can play the radio and thats about it. I will pass on this one. But I'd like to know, why people rated this thumbs down, just for that reason. Those people, IMO are idiots. If the program operates, as it should, it doesn't come with hiddenware, if it doesn't mess up you rig, then why dog it? If you have a problem with the program, or even the company, then tear 'em up, but write why.
Instead of, "Duh I'm a twinkie, and I don't do this type of program, so thumbs down".
Try something like, "I had problems with install, or this program was written by a squirrel".
Just my two cents. Peace.
One Big Ass Mistake America!!!

I used in the past. Thumbs UP for sure and... Rock ON! \m/

Nice music tool,not an all in one-do everything but very useful to have in your toolbox.Installed over previous version without running activate(as good as an automatic update),shows registered version 7.605 so it's good to go.Thanks DG & GOTD for a definite thumbs up

For those wanting guitar chord symbols check out the Autumn Leaves fragment.

Only had a quick look but the software looks quite good.

Installed and activated ok on Windows 7, 64 bit.

RichieS

Nice program for music making

Don`t know how to set the my computer keyboard key assignment as i want but i had no problem with the default keys
the best of all maybe the easiness to use mouse to press the Virtual Tuts as i can change the notation from 1/4 to 1/64 just by slide a my pointer a little
i just playing with this program for half hours and i can said maybe this is the most easy to understand program of its kind, or maybe because i already used to something so complex from some program. :P

just a little thing:
Gray that "Registration' in the help menu if the program was activated, although i can see the "About" splash screen said it was licensed too "GiveAwayoftheDay", it still make me doubt the program was activated, since that "registration" will show the "Buy Now" button and "Serial key" input box

Don't forget Finale Notepad:

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/default.aspx

#DG Software alias musicaleditor.com

Search for DG Software leads to http://http://www.dgalaxy.net/ with old version 5.325 (February, 20 2007) but also to the "new homepage" http://www.musicaleditor.com.

By the way on homepage http://www.musicaleditor.com/magicscore.html they should correct "Msuic Softwarre" to "Music Software" in:
"Maestro Music Software
MagicScore Msuic Softwarre is a part of Maestro Music Software, is a company which successfully develops and implements tools for personal, office and corporate use. The company was founded in 1998. We have been creating music software since 1998."

Good:
hotline +38-0642-62-43-96 on homepage
but address only found otherwise but is available:
Maestro Music Software
50 let Octyabrya Block 9/50
91040 Lugansk
Ukraine
hotline +38-0642-62-43-96

MagicScore Maestro, their top product, can be found on music fairs like Franfurt (Francfort), Germany, e.g. http://musik.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/de/exhibitor.collection.html/chp-golovanov-dv/mf_bata_0029222351.html.

As far as I know this company has good reputation with music experts.
But on their homepage http://www.musicaleditor.com/magicscore-music-notation-products.html no "MagicScore Note 7" is to be found neither the above direct link http://www.musicaleditor.com/msn7-music-notation-software.html. Only comparison by size of different variants on http://www.musicaleditor.com/music-notation-software-download.html shows MagicScore Note 7 is 5.78 MB i.e. 1/2 of MagicScore School 7 (12.65 MB) and 1/3 of MagicScore Maestro 7 (15.06 MB).
Comparing prices:
MagicScore Maestro 7.x $79.95
MagicScore School 7.x $19.95 ($29.95)
MagicScore Note 7 not mentioned

So MagicScore Note 7 seems to be a stripped down product not sold normally and without being told the restrictions.
But it's worth downloading for me, a rare case because of Themida (16.6 MB instead of 5.78 MB from their homepage!!!!).
After installation Readme.txt tells about "MagicScore School". Now what? But I will keep it!

And there is free software "MagicScore Virtual Piano" on www.musicaleditor.com/virtual-piano-keyboard.html

Thanks!

the program says unregistered in the window screen mentioned previously, and will stop working after 30 days - what is needed to register? i also emailed support with a screen shot showing unregistered

Easy installation with smooth activation. I tried to play a midi file, and found too many notes not correctly notated -- the left/right hand of piano parts are too mixed up, and even the violin solo part -- although it plays correctly, though poorly. The working space is also too cluttered. I am comparing this with Notation Composer which I am using. While Notation Composer is more expensive that this software, it is worth the price to pay for. And if you just want to hear midi music with the score presented before you, you can have Notation Player for free.
While someone suggested Sibelius above, I think it is far beyond what an ordinary professional musician really need, much more so for a hobbyist.
For those who need a Notation software, I will suggest you to try Notation Composer, which includes some functions which only the most expensive notation software has (I am referring to the practice performance setup ), The working space is also non-cluttered. And yes, the midi notation is also better than all others that I have tried.

#15 - In the program folder there is a "License.txt" file that specifies restrictions, and a limit of 30 records. Is that the case with the version that is being given away today?

#15 - Then it IS registered! :) I cannot thank you enough! Maestro Music Software and you folks here at GAOTD! :)
I'm still at it and now I'm writing out John Lennon's "Imagine" for something simple to learn with. :)
Such an excellent program, I've wished for this for many years.
Thanks again for your time and service!

Is there a way to change the default colour scheme of the whole program ? The black on white burns my retinas ! I have sensitive eyes and on with so much white background this program is really painful for me to use. Shame as it looks really good. Maybe there is a way to change the background colour ... I looked but could not find it. If there is, please tell me

Many thanks

Nic

Well...I'm not particularly interested in such kind of apps so I pass on, but I'm amazed by the high rating score this software got so far (usually programs like this get poor ratings here because are used by few people).

So it must be a very good application for musicians and music composers!!

For sure this is NOT a saturated field...LOL...so does this mean that for the first time in history Giovanni is not able to mention any other good FREE ALTERNATIVE?

hmmm...let's see....hey, try these:

http://musescore.org/
http://musink.net/default.aspx
http://www.frescobaldi.org/
http://www.anvilstudio.com
http://lilypond.org/web/
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~mcs/emc.html
http://quelea.org/about

Want to play PIANO with your PC keyboard?

http://freepiano.tiwb.com/en

Have fun!!

Welcoming all the negative votes for my simple useless neutral decent comment of appreciation (after all it should be a democracy to comment on the software) i would like to express my sentimental liking and gratitude to the software publisher for making a technical art software, let me put it in another way that softwares like these do help in cultivating a balance in an overactive logical mindset. I mean even if one fiddles it helps in cultivating creativity and lightens the moods. Regards to all!

It works. This program is almost perfect for a beginner, useful even for a pro. Thumbs up from my behalf.
Dear Paul, and all those with Fast Black Thumbs: music is "just" another language, some people begin to learn it while still wearing diapers. Like I did... Others will never learn and understand it, as I will (probably) never learn and understand cantonese or zulu. Please don't rate (at all) a program just because you don't need, want or understand it!

#7 - If I click on "register" the program still shows empty boxes for the serial key even though I did "activate" as administrator.
When I clicked on the activate.exe file it did say "activated" - but is it really?

I don't want to lose this great software - it's so easy to use and I've already got an entire page of sheet music written! I love it!
Thank you very, very much! :)

I am just trying be helpful and I hope I will be given some latitude,
there is an online application - AudioSauna which is a full featured audio work station with synthesizers and live effects ( It will allow you to record, write, edit and mix! )

It is my guess that it is as good or rivals anything you can download, it is free, and this is where to check it out:

http://www.audiosauna.com/

after checking out the site just click on the open studio link or button and you are ready to get started.

One major drawback with it, being an online program, is you need an internet connection to use it.

Check out the video on the Home Page of their website. It is very informative and the software looks quite good. Not for me but I can see it as being very useful in the right hands. I'll personally give it a thumbs up.

Installed and activated no problems on XP service pack 3. Looks like an interesting tool - thanks, GD and GAOTD!

This looks promsing I think I can use MagicScour Note for diffrent applicantions regarding music. The lac of guiter cords should not kept this from using. Thank! :->

What version is this?, Sept.2011 download was 7.2.8.5

download fast, installed fast.
upon opening of the unactivated program, user is prompted to buy (which i didn't do because it's a giveaway today) or press ok (30 days evaluation).
a language selection prompt appears.
the next prompts are for music creation.
since i'm no musician, i did a quick tour of the unactivated product resulting in a good impression.
a sample can be played by pressing the play button (appears similar to default music player play button).
this one is a keeper (unless a musician friend of mine disagrees).

running activate.exe results in a fast successful activation of music note version 7.605
i wonder though why the program installs it in a default directory of "MagicScore Music Software\MagicScore Note 7.x".
can this be upgraded free to future 7.xx? i hope so.
thanks gaotd/gotd and dg software.

for future versions, i suggest an option to display guitar chords for us common folks.

I love the program but the readme file says to run setup.exe and when that's completed just run activate.exe.
I did that. Now it wants a registration number. Don't have one.
Must now delete software.
I had completed all of the settings and was just about to enjoy using this thing.

I guess I'll wait and delete it all tomorrow, just in case the developer comes and tells us that they have corrected the problem.

Installed pretty easily and activated like all giveaways. HOLY MOLEY !?!?! This program is for people that have gone to university and studied how to write classical music. The program is like a Microsoft Office Word document. That's all I can say. I tried to get a couple of notes to work to see if I may have found a new toy. NOPE! I've uninstalled already.

It is a quite useful proge, for instance I installed it when it was offered last time here in GAOTD page more than a year ago. We do not have a piano in our flat but my daughter needed to learn some songs so I typed those songs in and let the proge play them. It helped us a lot to learn those songs at home. There are some minuses to - when I wanted to ad lyrcs next to those songs and perhaps I wanted too much of it the proge crashed town.
I'm not a professional musican but I have studies music some time and I recommend it.