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   MusEdit is a powerful music notation editor which first went on sale in 1997 but after 14 years of continuous upgrades is now (as of March 1, 2011) offered FREE OF CHARGE to the music community! See bottom of this page for more details about the history of MusEdit, it's author Doug Rogers, his company (Yowza Software) and the reason MusEdit is now free (with open source code to come soon so other C++ developers can improve the program!)
Downloading MusEdit is easy - the whole program is still only around 3.5 megabytes in size! Think about that when you look at all the samples of what MusEdit can do! These days some programs that can barely do anything take up 250 Megabytes of hard disk space while the MusEdit program by itself (with out help and samples) can still fit on a floppy disk (if anyone has one anymore...).
Use MusEdit to write standard treble and bass music notation, tab notation for 2 - 16 string instruments in any tuning (including bass), rhythm notation, lyrics in any font, and to draw chord diagrams -either from a chord dictionary or by creating your own. Click on the samples above to see full screen examples of these features. You can also use MusEdit to translate standard music notation to tab, or vice versa; transpose; play your music as sound; print beautiful looking scores, and more... Plus, MusEdit comes with a well illustrated, 284 page manual as a pdf document.
For a slide show about...
...what MusEdit is for, click here:
What MusEdit is For
...what MusEdit can do, click here:
What MusEdit Can Do
...how to use MusEdit, click here:
How To Use MusEdit
MusEdit has received great reviews in many music magazines:
Acoustic Guitar, Fingerstyle Guitar, Electronic Musician, Gig, Folker!, Soundcheck, Banjo Newsletter,
and others. (MusEdit was first released in June, 1997)
And gets enthusiastic comments from MusEdit users...
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"Awesome product! You guys have
thought of everything." - Raymond Cho
"It's a great program, you did a fantastic job!" - F. MacriÂ
"The ability to translate between different tunings is just fantastic!
It's so useful!" - J. BertonÂ
"Thanks again for such a great product!" - B. VaughnÂ
"A great program at an unbelievable value. Awesome." - J. KingÂ
"[The] combination of mouse and keyboard [music entry] is fast and easy.
The chord designer... is excellent!"- V. AprilÂ
"I think your software is great!! I've tried several other packages and
none of them offer what MusEdit does" - S. RigelhofÂ
"I think your program is excellent..." - B. Hamning             Â
click here for more user comments...
    
   Click here to download the MusEdit demo so you can try it out for yourself!
 | Introductory information about MusEdit |
| Notation examples |
| Description of MusEdit features |
| Downloadable demos |
| The MusEdit "Tip of The Day" Series |
| User Questions |
| Suggestions and Tips |
New development! Â
The newest version of MusEdit
(3.90 - Feb. 2005) has several new
useful features! Â
 (As always, current MusEdit customers can
download theÂ
latest MusEdit update for free - click here
to find out how)
New version 3.90 features in MusEdit include...
The "analytical figure drawing Kevin Chen [BETTER]" method isn't just about drawing better figures; it's about training your brain to think structurally. By prioritizing the 3D, structural, and foundational aspects of the human form, you develop a skill set that allows you to draw with confidence, accuracy, and creativity, regardless of whether you have a reference in front of you.
Analytical figure drawing is the exact opposite. It is the practice of breaking the human body down into simple, three-dimensional geometric volumes. Instead of seeing a thigh as a soft curve, an analytical artist sees it as a tapering cylinder that twists and connects to the pelvis.
: Limit your sketch times. Spend 1 minute on gesture, 3 minutes on geometric mass, and 1 minute on key anatomical landmarks.
Constantly ask, "Where is the horizon line? Is this cylinder pointing toward me or away from me?" analytical figure drawing kevin chen %5BBETTER%5D
: Students prioritize large masses (torso and pelvis) before moving to limbs and smaller anatomical details.
His methods are "better" because they do not ask you to choose between being an artist and being an engineer. He teaches you to be both. By utilizing the 2D manikin for design, analyzing gravity for weight, and locking in the ribcage for stability, Chen provides a logical framework that has successfully transitioned hundreds of students from frustrated copiers to confident character designers. If you are tired of your drawings looking "off" or feeling "squishy," perhaps it is time to stop guessing and start analyzing.
: Students spend weeks mastering the head's construction. The "analytical figure drawing Kevin Chen [BETTER]" method
: Students are taught that anatomy is a "secondary form" that must strictly adhere to the underlying mannequin to avoid "adding anatomy for the sake of it". 3D Spatial Reasoning
Over the next few weeks, Emma continued to practice analytical figure drawing, pouring over her sketchbook and experimenting with different techniques. She drew from life, using a model or a mirror to study the human form. She also drew from photographs, using images by Kevin Chen and other artists as inspiration. And slowly but surely, her skills began to improve, her drawings becoming more confident and expressive.
: Reviewers from sites like Reddit note that the methods are excellent for creating solid, "constructed" figures, though some caution that the focus on accuracy can occasionally lead to slightly "stiff" drawings. It is the practice of breaking the human
10 weeks of Analytical Figure Drawing with Kevin Chen at CDA
Pay close attention to bony landmarks—clavicles, elbows, knees, hips, and ankles. These define the structure more than muscles do.
: The course emphasizes building a simplified mannequin using 3D primitives like cylinders and boxes.
Chen’s method begins with constructing a . This step focuses entirely on establishing correct proportions and negative space without the distraction of three-dimensional rendering. As the student noted, Chen’s approach was "to first start off with a 2D mannequin to establish all of the proportions, then to take those shapes and build 3D forms off of them."
( The image below is an actual MusEdit score illustrating these new features )
and other recent new features include...
  Standard tablature indicates which fret and
string should be used to play notes, but it does not provide any information
about which finger on the fretting hand should be used to play the notes.Â
Ad-Tab (“Advanced-Tab”) is a system which can optionally be used with
standard tablature
to show this fingering information in an easy to see manner, as in this example:
This system of symbols is useful for beginning students - it shows them how to fret the notes, and it also makes the score fun to look at! Click here for more details about Ad-Tab in MusEdit.
*Â Automatic translation of any chord
diagrams into any
new tuning
*Â All chord diagrams can be transposed
into any key
*Â Support for "swing time"Â ( 
) in Midi playback
*Â Choose any font for chord names above chord diagrams
*   and many more... see Newest Features in MusEdit
   Also, be sure to check out the MusEdit music library for free downloadable scores in many different styles (classical, folk, jazz, etc.) sent in by current MusEdit users. By checking the library's "Quick Views" you will be able to see the many different types of music you can edit with MusEdit.
The first lines of code for MusEdit were written in January, 1996 by Doug Rogers. I wrote most of the core part of the program while living in my 1971 Volkswagen Van, and while living in Blanding Utah and Berkeley California. MusEdit first went on sale in June, 1997. At that time the manual was 84 pages. The manual is now 284 pages - that indicates how many new features have been added in the 14 years of continuous upgrades.
For many years I managed to sell enough copies of MusEdit to survive in my van as I travelled around the country, constantly updating the code, answering technical questions, creating ads for magazines, etc. For a long time that VW van was truly the "world headquarters" of Yowza Software.
I never made enough from MusEdit to live a normal life though - ie. live in an apartment in a city. So when I felt the need to do that I would return to Berkeley and resume my alternate life as a scientist at UC Berkeley, working on the cameras for astronomical satellites - some of which went on the space shuttle. I even did some minor work for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, now on the Hubble Space Telescope!
In October 2010 I started an open ended world trip (my second - I rode my bike around the world in 1984-85!) starting with six months in Vietnam, where I am now. I've been travelling all over the country on a motorbike and making tons of Vietnamese friends. In a couple of months I'll be heading for Cambodia, Laos, China, and beyond. I still live a very low budget lifestyle - a step up from the van, but rarely paying more than $10 for a hotel room - so I can travel quite a while on very little in savings.
Since I arrived in Vietnam I've found that it's almost impossible for me to provide the user support people would expect from software they had to pay money for, so I have decided to make MusEdit free for that reason. In a few more weeks I'll also be making it "Open Source" so anyone with a good knowledge of C++ can work on the code and make the improvements I simply no longer have time to spend on. I'd love to see MusEdit improve in a number of ways, but my heart (and mind) simply aren't into spending the hundreds of hours a month I used to put into MusEdit. When I post the code for MusEdit I'll also post my wishes and suggestions on things I've always wanted to see the program do, but never had the time or energy to finish.
Given my situation, please understand I'm unlikely to answer tech support questions about MusEdit. You can write to me, but I have so much else going on that quite frankly I'll probably never get around to answering. There is a pretty good MusEdit forum on Yahoo groups though - with lots of long time MusEdit users who often provide good answers to questions.
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Yowza Software, P.O. Box 642413, San Francisco CA 94164 USA |
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