Survey of MUP users. Prepared by Charles Cave charlesweb@optusnet.com.au Invitations issued to subscribers of the MUP email list. 29 responses received between 15th November and 1st December 2007 1. What operating system do you use to run MUP? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 20 Linux (Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Slackware, 5 Windows 3 Mac OS X 1 Atari FreeMiNT 1 OS/2 Linux (8 responses with Linux only) Linux (Debian) Linux (Ubuntu 7.04) Linux (Ubuntu latest, 7.10 right now) Linux (currently Redhat Enterprise, Release 4) Linux (ubuntu) [occasionally, Windows XP] Linux - Fedora 7 Linux Fedora and Atari FreeMiNT Linux Slackware 12 Linux and Apple OSX Linux and MacOS Linux, currently either Debian or Fedora. Mac OS X (3 responses) OS/2 Windows Windows XP Windows XP / Linux Windows XP Pro 2. What editor (and extensions or modes) do you use to edit MUP Source code? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8 vim 2 vi 3 mupmate 8 emacs/Xemacs 1 Notepad Emacs (2 responses) Emacs (and live in it). mup.el Emacs (haven't tried mup mode, though I guess there is one) Emacs (mupmode) Emacs and my own score editor Emacs with MUP-MODE Gvim with mup.vim for highlighting Mupmate Notepad (2 responses) Smultron Text editor / mupmate Tritus SPF Vim with mup syntax highlighting and mapped to mup -F filename joe or kate kwrite (KDE) with my own syntax highlighting file (part of KDE) mupmate, kate nedit vi (2 responses) vim (3 responses) vim [UltraEdit] vim using very basic mode. vim with mup.vim syntax highlighting, Atari: QED xemacs + mupmode 3. What sort of music do you typeset with MUP? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Classical music. - Esp. Classical Guitar, but lots of other types too - Renaissance motets - Swing band arrangements - Solo instrument parts, and once a 4-part vocal - a) French baroque for musette de cour (+ accomp) b) liturgical (simple chants and responses) - Shape note. Various Folk - Church hymns,psalms etc. - SATB choral original compositions with keyboard and guitar chord accompaniment, mostly liturgical (hymns). - Jazz lead sheets - Choral, keyboard. - Mostly my own compositions -- solo vocal, chamber chorus, chamber instrumental. - musical examples - 4 part hymns (SATB) - Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical music (unmetered chant and polyphonic, all a capella) - Classic music - guitar - standard notation and tablature - various - Classical - Liturgical Music - Plainsong etc - opera reduction (voice + piano) - Mostly piano solo music and ensemble music for piano group lessons. Usually piano or piano + voices; especially - but not always - excerpts from operas (piano-vocal reduction). Mostly from standard classical (in the sense of not-pop) repertoire from 18th century on. - classical, organ music, hymns - Orchestral/chamber/vocal, original compositions - Choral, piano, piano + instrument, recorder - Classical - JS Bach keyboard music, Mozart string quartet, a few cello parts for my daughter 4. What is the greatest strength of MUP? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Syntax is easy to use, can learn quickly. - Fast outline or fiddly details - you get what you want - text-based interface - Has to be the beautiful typesetting. but the ease of writing code is a strong feature. For me is sure beats using a mouse to insert notes etc. - complete control over layout - a) unbeatable support b) small, portable files and ascii format - Text editing provides efficient entry of notes. - You can key in data instead of manipulating a mouse. - I never used any other.... I found it very easy to learn with the user documentation. - Quick and easy. Good output. - Open source. - It has five that set it apart from all other score editors I've looked at: it uses a non-proprietary ASCII-text file format; it is very well documented; it is extremely reliable (bug-free); the source code is available; and it is totally platform-independent (in particular, it's available on Linux). - simplicity, possibility to add raw PostScript code - Beautiful output, flexibility - text-based input - good-looking - quality of output - looks good, easy to use - It produces PostScript output and it is very flexible and has macros to make things quicker and more consistent when preparing scores - concision of the syntax - You just need a simple text editor to get started. It's very flexible and the results are excellent. And user support is very good. (Great mailinglist!) - You can get quite reasonable-looking (and sounding) output *quickly*. For me the keystroke input is much easier and faster to use than any mouse-based system would be. Other nice features which contribute to the above: 1. The format is logical and pretty easy to remember. 2. Running the mup program is fast. 3. Error messages are clear and generally point right at the problem. - its speed and excellent layout - Fairly complete, but the developers are extremely responsive and available. - Sane defaults. Flexible. Easy to teach. - Easy for coding, good typography - Scores are in plain text. Only one executable required unlike the messy Lilypond. 5. What is the one feature you wish MUP had? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Unicode support and cross-bar beaming. - GUI - auto-generating the range and median note for each voice part - Happy with Mup as it is - don't use it enough to have found any short-comings! - "indefinite length" bars for non-metrical chants with a lot of text to associate to a single note - Easier way to handle ties covering several notes. e.g: 1 1: 4b[startthigh];a;c;f[endtie]; Right now the calculation of x and y positions is tedious in the extreme. A close second would be allowing for irregular rhythm without changing time sigs on every measure, for chant etc. - mupmate: syntax highlighting and checking. - Generation of MIDI crescendos and decrescendos -- closely follosed by generation of MIDI legatos (it handles staccatos OK already) and rallentandos. - direct inclusion in a text-manuscript (like lilypond-book) - An easy way to say "I want this piece of music to fit on exactly 1 page or exactly 2 pages", etc. - the ability to better handle unmetered music (variable number of beats per "measure" by automatic line wrapping - Additional features for tablature notation. - nothing - At present MUP does most of the things that I want except read my mind! The other thing that would be nice is to be able to prepare the f line staff with the old plainchant neumes. - typesetting line by line instead of measure by measure - MusicXML export. Maybe even MusicXML import. - Can't quite put my finger on it, but some aspects of handling multiple voices on a staff could be done better, I think. For example, 1. there could be more options for controlling stem direction (sometimes it looks better to have stems point the same direction; should be easy to change per measure and 2. when two voices on a staff both have, say, a quarter rest, and I want to notate it with just 1 rest, not one per voice, it often by default has unattractive vertical placement. - polymetry (different time signatures in different staves) - better lyric melisma handling. - Individual parts in sequence rather than all, measure by measure. I've done this separately in the past "outside" of mup and them imported the results, but it was too piece-specific. - Most of the quirks I've come across have been where notation changes across linebreaks. eg. It's nice to have a cautionary accidental on a tie if the next bar is on the next line. Maybe a macro like ifdef NEWSCORE ? Native pdf output might be nice but hardly necessary as ps2pdf does a fine job. - More MIDI directives for configuring dynamics 6. What is your main purpose for using MUP? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - For own leisure. - Make my ten cm stack of manuscripts readable, maybe selling them - setting Renaissance motets for my sight-singing group (eventually to be placed on CPDL.org) - Making swing arrangements for my little band - Re-writing of band parts and transposition - a) working copies I can scribble on (musette lessons) b) distributing harmonisations (liturgy) - Personal use -- sharing music with the family and friends. - Creating readable copies of traditional hymns for insertion in my Sunday score. - Printing original music. - Lead sheets for personal use. - Church-related music. - Producing printed scores for, and "pre-hearing", my own compositions. - academic - Typesetting church music - text-based input and low cost - private purpose only - Transcribing ascii tab for better legibility, notating original guitar arrangements of popular music - producing hig-quality printed output - setting music - To prepare things for our church choir to sing preparing psalms and the proper chants for the day - reprint scores for personal use - I prefer using text and commandline above wysiwyg and mouseclicks. I'm more in control with mup than with expensive programs like Finale or Sibelius. - Most common use these days is to produce midi files of opera chorus music that others can use to help learn the music (I'm chorus manager for West Bay Opera, small company in Palo Alto CA; not my 'day job' though), but I've also used it to produce a better, cleaner copy of poorly printed music or to typeset arrangements or songs I've written. - making choir scores - Preparation of scores and parts for performance and subsequent publication. - Composition, arrangement, transposing existing works, editions of early choral works. - Typeset of Arragements - Producing MIDI files from published scores to play in REASON software 7. Please comment on your use of the MIDI generation features of MUP. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is there additional information you need or features? - I don't use it. - haven't used it, don't foresee a strong need to use it - I use it to check for errors in my arrangements. - not used - not that I can think of - Not now. - Occasional use to help me practice. - It helps enormously, would be great if it paid attention to and interpreted dynamics! (everything sounds like beginner's Chopsticks) - I use them heavily. - no opinion (I hate midi-sound) - MIDI used only to hear if the music I've entered has any wrong notes. - It is perfectly adequate for previewing and error checking. verify correctness of notation - I rely on MIDI generated by MUP to provied audio feedback when composing. - no - I have not as yet made much use of the MIDI feature althoug I will be shortly as I now have a MIDI interface for my MIDI keyboard. - no use of midi - I use MIDI for test-hearing. Support for dynamics ( f, p, crescendo, accents ) would be nice. But I can live without it. - I use it a lot! I could use more documentation of MIDI parameters. There may be something that would be of use to me that I don't know about. Since this is specifically MIDI, not MUP, stuff, all I ask is that a pointer or two to good MIDI documentation be included in the MUP doc. - Only casual use, proofreading as much as anything. - Pretty much just 'proof-reading' - handy. I like the cookbook approach to learning a programming language. 8. What is your job or profession and is it music-related? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Not music related. - IT-Professional - Internet privacy related - Retired engineer - scientist no - technical author; no - IT. Not music but I play and sing. - Retired. I typeset books but not music books. - Church oragnist and chorister. Fri, 11/16/07 3:52 AM - Electrical Engineering, no. Fri, 11/16/07 2:04 AM - I'm a composer. Fri, 11/16/07 1:56 AM - Professor, systematic musicology Fri, 11/16/07 1:22 AM - System Administrator--not music related Fri, 11/16/07 12:45 AM - Engineering consultant, non-music related Fri, 11/16/07 12:09 AM - I am a therapist (medical massage) and play viola, violin and guitar in my free times. - computer programmer - Retired system programmer - not music-related - Teacher. Not music-related - I am a consulting engineer in the building services discipline, and industrial electrical engineering. - software development engineer: not music-related - I'm a piano teacher - I'm a programmer for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). I've done scientific programming for high energy physics experiments and, most recently, GLAST (a gamma-ray telescope due to be launched next year). - Organist, choir conductor - Composer - Programmer but I have been a performer in the past. - Leader of a concentus - Technical Courseware Developer. Music is just a hobby! 9. In which country do you live? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Americas 12 USA 3 Canada Europe 2 UK 2 Germany 2 Netherlands 1 Belgium 1 France 1 Switzerland Asia Pacific 2 Australian 1 Hong Kong 1 New Zealand 10. Do you have any other comments about MUP? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Better if document is provided in XML format too, so that conversion to and from other formats is easier, and translation can be easier as well. For someone interested in mup browsing the mup site it's hard to form an opinion whether this project is alive or not. E.g. I didn't find any date anywhere that tells me when the last release of mup did happen. Happy with everything so far! Bill & John have done an excellent job and are very responsive to questions and problems. Very helpful mailing list community documentation good - once I find what I'm looking for! The documentation could be presented better, and is often hard to navigate. The content, however, is usually good once you find what you're looking for. I wish it were open source so more people would use it. It'll end up marginalized. But I understand why it isn't too. I think the format of the file is going to end up being the driver for larger acceptance, and mup won't be the standard. Perhaps it'll be MusicXML? It is the biggest bargain ever! I think lyrics should be introduced earlier and more examples given. The manual index should highlight where a feature is defined by boldface and eliminate multiple entries of the same page number, e.g: foo 12,12,20 Have you thought about offering a printed, mailable documentation manual? The documentation is very, very good, and the support I've gotten from Arkkra has been outstanding. Great software--well worth the price It's all wonderful! Those boys done a great job Brilliant, Excellent, Superlative.... what more can anyone say? Bill & John provide superb service. I like MUP because it is more useful than most other music typesetting programs that I have seen. Sometimes it is not very easy to find out about a specific feature in the documentation The organization of the doc. seems a little strange, but has improved since I started using MUP..index is a big help. The mailing list is a great resource. It's a very well-mannered and helpful community, and John and Bill are incredibly responsive. The website could do with a more professional layout, but Bill and John are doing an excellent job regarding the contents! This is an excellent project. It's very hard to keep up the level of enthusiasm and care over time. The developers deserve a *lot* of credit. The documentation is quite extensive. I do find if coming back after a long break it is helpful to read through it end to end though. It can be hard to find what you need without a good overview. Also, worth keeping up to date as John and Bill regularly add new features (or tidy old ones). I think it is time for the web site to be modernised and better organised. Documentation is fantastic and the support on the mailing list, especially from Bill and John. Thank you! -end-