LilyPond for Windows

User Reviews

• Beautiful music layout, but not for everyone

  Arle_LommelSeptember 7, 2012

  Pros

  Lilypond is free to use and own. It handles musical constructs with ease that other expensive software cannot even begin to address and there is a fantastic community to help you figure out how to do things when Lilypond doesn't already handle them automatically. For my work in ethnomusicology MuseScore, Finale, etc. are not even options because they simply will not handle some of my notational requirements, requirements that Lilypond handles with ease. If you have a programming mindset, Lilypond frees you to focus on describing the structure of the music and then does beautiful layout for you, closer in appearance to good hand engraving than any other product. It also handles layout changes with ease, so you are working with the music, not a graphical output that will get messed up when you change the page layout. Finally, if you use Lilypond Tool (a JEdit plugin), you can get live previews and many features from WYSIWYG packages, giving you the best of bother worlds.

  Cons

  Lilypond is not for everyone. If you find code like HTML impossible to understand, you won't like Lilypond. All the input is text-based and debugging problems can be a challenge if you aren't used to working with error consoles and the like. As a result it has a fairly steep learning curve and for people not used to programming environments, it could look impossible. (That doesn't bother me, as I am a programmer, among other things, but this isn't the software if you just need to note a few simple melodies now and then and you want a graphical way to do it.) Another issue is that while Lilypond is regularly updated to add new features (and motivated people can get involved and add features as well), this comes at the cost of syntax that sometimes changes. While every effort is made to provide convert features that can take old files and update the syntax, every once in a while you'll find something that the convert tool can't handle and you have to do it yourself.

  Summary

  When I look at previous reviews, it is obvious that at least some of the reviewers do not understand what Lilypond is and are reviewing it based on their expectations that it will be like Finale or MuseScore. But it is a completely different kind of application. Lilypond interprets text-based code that represents the music and produces a graphical output. It makes no effort to allow you to click and drag notes or do the sorts of input supported by other programs. I'm not surprised that other reviewers dislike Lilypond if they didn't understand what it was before trying to use it. For billbois, one of the major points of Lilypond is to make PDFs of music, so asking users to save PDFs is hardly strange. The console window you saw is also normal for this sort of software. Lilypond is not malware and there is nothing to be suspicious about. Spending a little time learning about the program should allay your concerns. For the user neilmak, if MuseScore meets your needs, that is great, but that does not mean Lilypond has no pros. It's just that they are not relevant for you and the cons of Lilypond are. But MuseScore quickly breaks down for some of us, and I'd hate for people to think that Lilypond is useless based on your preferences. With regard to the "antiquated, out-dated data entry method", think of the distinction between a text-based HTML editor and a graphical web design tool (like DreamWeaver): both have their uses and you cannot replace one with the other. Lilypond is like the text-based editor, and for those who like that approach, it is cutting edge and state of the art. Again, as noted above, Lilypond is not for everyone. If you are scared of programming and want a simple, easy-to-use graphical editor, Lilypond is not for you. If you know what an IDE is and are comfortable in that kind of environment, Lilypond will make sense for you. If you need to handle unusual notation requirements that Finale, MuseScore, etc., cannot handle, then you should take a look at Lilypond as well. And finally, if you are working with Lilypond, make sure to download JEdit and Lilypond Tool so you can make the most of Lilypond.

  ---

• Don't waste time with this, get MuseScore

  neilmakSeptember 7, 2011

  Pros

  None to speak of

  Cons

  Data entry is primitive and unwieldy

  Summary

  Antiquated, out-dated data entry method.

  ---

• Excellent program for creating sheet music

  Greg LovernSeptember 7, 2010

  Pros

  It has a brilliant way of encoding musical notation in text. Reminds me somewhat of Regular Expressions. There is a lot there, so it can sometimes be a challenge to find how to do some detail, but the extensive tutorial is very helpful.

  Cons

  The interface is extremely primitive. The programmer probably just doesn't know Windows programming. The documentation, which is absolutely necessary, is not downloaded with the program. You have to go to the web site to download it.

  Summary

  My 6yo son has been taking a music class and learning to read and play simple sheet music. He's been asking for sheet music for the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, but what I've found online has been too comlex for him. I wanted to write a simple version for him, so I've been looking for a free program to write simple sheet music.Everything else I looked at was worthless. LilyPond was excellent. The scheme for encoding musical notation is brilliant and reminds me of Regular Expressions. The interface is very primitive. You write your text file in Notepad, save it, and drag & drop it on the icon for the console (character-based) application. Wow. Takes me back to the early 90's. But it's adequate. As with Regular Expressions, all you really need is Notepad and the documentation. Be sure to go to the website and download the documenation. You won't get anywhere without it.

  ---

• Am I Being Paranoid?

  billboisAugust 30, 2010

  Pros

  I can't really comment about the program itself.

  Cons

  I can't really comment about the program itself.

  Summary

  It was easy to install but upon starting, it asked me to save a .PDF file to my desktop and then drag it to the icon it had created there. There was also an open CMD window. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but it struck me as suspicious. Why would a true Windows program have a CMD window and need user interaction to start? So I did neither of those things. I'm in the process of deleting it which also strikes me as suspicious. Has anyone else run this program?

  ---

• Show reviewsHide reviews
• Rate it