Personal Composer
Personal Composer Product Features
A comprehensive list of personal composer feature and comparison between versions
| File Compatibility | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Imports MIDI, RIFF-MIDI, NIFF and Music-XML files. | Pro | - | - |
| Exports MIDI and NIFF files. | Pro | - | - |
| Imports Type 0 or Type 1 MIDI files. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Exports Type 1 standard MIDI files. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Copy a selected area and paste to a WP, DTP, or Graphics application. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Opens files from previous versions of program. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Document Display | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Use scroll mouse for zoom. | Pro | - | - |
| Intermediate barline symbol. | Pro | - | - |
| Blank pages may be inserted into the score, for text or other uses. | Pro | - | - |
| Use scroll mouse for scrolling. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| View a score in page view. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| View a score in scroll view (continuous staff). | Pro | 16 | - |
| Hide secondary beams. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Beams will cross barlines. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Can use certain alternate music fonts. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Text equivalents for Pedal marks. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Use short staff names or none at all in systems after the first. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Optional boxes or circles around measure numbers (square box, rounded box, circle). | Pro | 16 | - |
| Add rehearsal marks emphasized with rectangles, rounded rectangles, or circles. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Wavy, dashed, and dotted straight lines, optionally with arrowheads. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatically adjusts note spacing to accommodate accidental on first beat of a measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Note-owned fingering numbers, in vertical array. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Move between main score window and individual part views. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Restart page numbers and measure numbers anywhere. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Enlarge/reduce a view between 33% and 2250% of normal working size. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Use on-screen rulers and non-printing guide lines to position score elements. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| View each window in any fashion desired (view, magnification, etc.) | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Cut, copy, and paste between windows. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Move immediately to a specified page or measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Number of scores open at once: PC-44, unlimited; PC-16, 4; PC-8, 2. | |||
| Toolbars and Palettes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tool palettes can follow a movable main tool palette. | Pro | - | - |
| Tool palettes can be reshaped. | Pro | - | - |
| Tool palettes can be larger or smaller (PC-8 palettes are large only) | Pro | 16 | - |
| Toolbars can be larger or smaller (PC-8 larger only) | Pro | 16 | - |
| Status Line identifies objects and parameters. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Vanishing palettes for a "cleaner" look. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Use a palette to select notes, accidentals, rests or articulations. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Documentation and Online Help | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy start-up instructions. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Comprehensive user manual on disk. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Comprehensive on-line documentation with direct links. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| On-screen messages identify tools and their uses. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Choose from pre-designed score templates, design your own. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Music Entry - Manual | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Select rhythmic values with the computer keyboard or with the mouse. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Enter pitches and position them with the mouse. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Enter pitches and position them with the computer keyboard. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Select and position articulation markings, text, and dynamics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Music Entry - Real Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Notate as you play a MIDI instrument, with a program-supplied metronome. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Set rhythmic values with the MIDI keyboard, computer keyboard or from a palette. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Record and play with a resolution of 1024 parts per quarter note. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Record on one staff while playing back others. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Set split point for recording two parts. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Preset note quantization. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Preselect MIDI controllers to be hidden or filtered out. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| In Step Time mode, enter pitches one beat at a time using a MIDI instrument. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Music Capacity | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter rhythmic values from a double-whole note to a 128th note. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Define up to four independent note streams of music (voices) per staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Define up to four timbres (channels and patches) per staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Optionally enter as many notes in a measure as you wish, regardless of time sig. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Staves | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple staff sizes in the same score. | Pro | - | - |
| Ossia staves, cue staves. | Pro | - | - |
| Choose from ten standard staff sizes, or define a custom size. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Set the number of lines in any staff from 1 to 15. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Clefs and Signatures | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Choose from 15 clefs. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Place a new clef at the start or within any measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Optionally hide a clef, time signature, or key signature. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatic courtesy clef at the end of previous line. Hide if desired. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Key, Time Signatures andBarlines | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Restart measure numbers any number of times. | Pro | - | - |
| Easily set up Key and Time signatures. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Use standard key signatures. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Use a different key signature in each staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Create complex time signatures. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Hide key and time signatures if desired. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Ignore the key signature on percussion staves. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatically place double barlines before key changes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Easily place an end barline and trim empty measures. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Restart measure numbers any number of times. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Hide a measure number. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Text Handling | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rich Text box permits block text with style, formatting, and color options. | Pro | - | - |
| Define up to 64 QuickFonts. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Create and position titles, copyright notices and other text. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Text on master page appears on all pages. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Text macro can be placed on any page, to print on all following pages. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatic page numbering. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Stamp each page with file name, date and time. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Place large blocks of text with a built-in text editor. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Cut, copy and paste text. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Create and edit text blocks on any view. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Control font, size, style and alignment. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Independently specify the alignment, position and font for any staff name. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Change style of all selected text by pressing B, I, U on keyboard. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Change fonts globally for text blocks, staff names, group names and lyrics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Lyrics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 8 lines of lyrics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Auto space hyphens in lyrics . | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Auto melismas in lyrics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Type lyrics directly onto the score. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatically aligns lyrics with notes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Align lyric lines globally or syllable-by-syllable. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Mix fonts, sizes and styles as needed. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Chords and Guitar Notation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Plays guitar chords. | Pro | - | - |
| Permits user-defined chord types. | Pro | - | - |
| Plays a Tab staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| TAB clef auto-adjusts to staff height. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Select and place chord names and/or chord frames easily. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Chord names can be user defined. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatically transpose chord symbols with changes in key. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Use positioning guides to accurately place chord symbols. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Guitar Tablature notation. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| TAB clef. Auto-adjusts to staff height. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Percussion | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Supports PAS percussion notation standard as well as the MIDI standard. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto drum rolls. | Pro | - | - |
| Music Editing | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| “Copy to end” selected staves, for pasting elsewhere. | Pro | - | - |
| A barline can be moved with respect to notes, to reformat measures. | Pro | - | - |
| Dynamics can be incremented/decremented (such as from f < > ff) in place. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Define music metrics - line widths, spacings of notes, accidentals, clefs, etc. | Pro | - | - |
| Select any group of notes, including partial measures, for editing. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Objects will snap to guide lines (option). | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Focused item is displayed in color (optional). | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Auto grace notes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Lock measures against positional changes by page refreshing or reformatting. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Each slur end can be "owned" by a note, and moves with that note. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| When an object is focused, a dashed blue line connects to the owning note, beat, or measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| When placing a hairpin or slur, cursor jumps to right end for faster editing. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Insert, cut, copy, and delete music. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Click and drag a single note horizontally or vertically. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Move selected groups of notes verically. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Double-click almost any item for immediate access to its parameters. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Reposition any object or text anywhere on the page simply by dragging it. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Transpose, rebeam and apply other changes to music. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Select and position articulation markings, text and dynamics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Apply articulations with automatic positioning and stem direction sensitivity. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Respace notes and rests within measures. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Adjust measure widths by moving barlines. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Control stem direction individually or throughout manuscript. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Control stem direction individually or throughout manuscript. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Add graphic repeat signs and text repeat markings. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Adjust the positions of beats in a measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Adjust positions of notes without moving the beats. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Adjust ties, slurs, crescendos and diminuendos. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Add rehearsal marks emphasized with rectangles. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Easily place a repeat barline and a repeat ending for any selected region. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Move all notes in a selected region upward or downward using the arrow keys. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Move notes from one "Voice" to another. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Part Extraction | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Extract one or more staves at once. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Text macros for part-extract templates. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Automatic condensing of empty measures and placing of multimeasure rests. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Create end barline and trim empty measures. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Transpose part on extraction, or transpose it only on playback. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Page-owned text on Page 1 and master-page items are copied to extracted part. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Extraction copies original manuscript attributes such as measure numbering. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Setup and layout of extracted part can be based on the original score or a template. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Dynamics and MIDI controllers designated as "all staves" extract with each part. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Beams, Stems & Note-heads | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary beams can be hidden. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Cross-barline beaming is supported. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Supports cross-staff notes and beaming, beam width, rests within beam groups. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Select standard oval notes or shaped notes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Control stem direction of individual notes or selected groups of notes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Independently position note-heads and stems if desired. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Assign a playback meaning to any graphic. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Add Cue Notes - easily place cue notes on any staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Automatic Barlines - Place double-barlines automatically before all key changes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Change fonts globally for text blocks, staff names, group names and lyrics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Change the stem direction of all notes in a selected group. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Change the sizes of note-heads of all the notes in the selected region. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Graphics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Paste graphics from other applications. | Pro | - | - |
| Select any area and copy it as a WMF or BMP graphic. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Create lines, ellipses, rectangles, perfect circles and squares. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Place dotted, dashed, and wavy lines. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Control line thickness and fill for rectangles and ellipses. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Playback | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics, octave marks, repeats and tempo marks control playback. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto trills, turns, and mordents using only the signs. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto arpeggios over one or two staves. Just place a wavy line. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto glissandos. Just place a straight or wavy line. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto pitch bend for continuous instruments such as trumpet, violin. | Pro | - | - |
| User-definable chords. | Pro | - | - |
| Auto drum rolls. | Pro | - | - |
| Plays guitar chords. | Pro | - | - |
| D.S., D.C., Segno, al coda and al fine control playback. | Pro | - | - |
| Stem slashes on notes effect repeats. | Pro | - | - |
| On-screen timer for playback. | Pro | - | - |
| Repeat signs (slashes) repeat playback of note groups and measures. | Pro | - | - |
| Use a MIDI message symbol to set or change playback transpose. | Pro | - | - |
| Fermatas will pause playback. | Pro | 16 | - |
| User-defined default values for dynamics. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Dynamics, octave marks, repeats and tempo marks control playback. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Play your score through a MIDI instrument, Sound Module, or Sound Card. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| On-screen mixer adjusts tempo, volume of each staff, solo or mute staves. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Play selected staves or an entire score, start and stop at will. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| After playback, display returns to the starting measure. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Scrolls music on-screen during playback in Page view. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Scrolls music on-screen during playback in Scroll view. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Define playback sound of each staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Easily assign a MIDI channel or patch, and solo/mute setting for each staff. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Define playback of interpretive marks, text and shapes. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Play a score as notated or as recorded. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| MIDI Control | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamics, octave marks, repeats and tempo marks control playback. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Place and edit individual MIDI events. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| MIDI controllers can be single events or transitions, linear or nonlinear. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Page Layout | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Control the layout of individual staff systems and page margins. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Insert blank pages into score. | Pro | 16 | - |
| Move lyrics, chords, expressions, titles, text blocks and other elements. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Fit selected measures into staff systems. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Insert staff systems into your music while keeping the original systems intact. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Insert staff systems while reflowing measures across systems and pages. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Easily set the distance between staves. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Indent staff systems and adjust systems horizontally or vertically. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Simplify the conductor's score by hiding resting instruments. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Printing | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Print on virtually any Windows-compatible printer. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Print random pages. | Pro | 16 | - |
| One-side or two-side printing. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Collate pages. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Print to a file that can be printed without Personal Composer. | Pro | 16 | 8 |
| Miscellaneous | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Symmetric slurs and hairpins for easy editing. | Pro | 16 | - |
| On-screen timer for recording and playback. | Pro | - | - |