Note: GenieSoft
now owns Overture and Score writer.
Overture was previously owned by Cakewalk.
From Electronic Musician, March 1999
CAKEWALK OVERTURE 2 (MAC/WIN):
An old standby receives a
major face-lift.
By Thomas Wells
Features: 4 (5
point scale)
Ease of Use: 4.5
Documentation: 4.5
Value: 4.5
Pros: Intuitive,
easy-to-use interface. Stable operation. Powerful page-layout
capabilities. Very good MIDI-editing capabilities. Excellent
documentation.
Cons: Doesn't
play back articulations. PC version's MIDI editing is not as developed
as Mac version. Mac version lacks multiple undo. PC version cannot
import/export graphic files.
In the arena of
music-notation software, it's hard to find a single program that can be
all things to all people. One program might be well suited for lead
sheets and horn parts, while another might work best for complex, modern
notation. GenieSoft Overture 2 stands out from its competitors in its power and
versatility, its thoughtfully designed and easy-to-use interface, and
its high-quality printed output. It also offers features that are useful
for many different musical applications.
Originally developed
for the Macintosh and marketed by Opcode Systems (see the review of Overture
1.0 in the April 1995 issue of EM), Overture was later
licensed to Cakewalk, which has taken great pains to bring the program
to the Windows world. With a few exceptions, the Mac and PC versions are
remarkably similar so much so that a single 795-page manual (with
differences clearly indicated) works quite well for both platforms.
AT A GLANCE
Among the first things I noticed about Overture was the
microscopic control it provides over the look and placement of symbols.
After a short time, I also noticed an increase in my productivity and
speed when copying music and doing MIDI orchestrations. Overall, Overture
can competently handle every detail, from copying and pasting pages
of orchestral systems to notating complex nested tuplets. The Mac
version is also adept at saving notation as EPS or PICT files for
importing into graphics programs or combining with text files, and it
can also import external graphics files for creating custom symbols.
Both versions include a Graphics palette for creating your own symbols.
The program lets users
assign different fonts to various score elements, such as lyrics, bar
numbers, track names, tempo indications, and rehearsal numbers. It would
be helpful, however, to have more flexibility in the low-level
manipulation of symbols and fonts, such as changing the size and shape
of accents. (The PC version already has an edge over the Mac in this
area.) The quality of Overture's printed output is high, and its
Aloisen music font is attractive and looks professional.
Screen redraw in the
program is so quick that I didn't even notice it on the machines that I
used for this review: a 233 MHz PC and a 132 MHz Power Mac. The Mac
version has a special feature called Speedy Scrolling, which loads the
entire contents of the page into RAM so the program doesn't have to
redraw the screen from scratch each time you scroll the window.
Although I don't
recommend using Overture without reading the manual, it is
possible for the average user to get around in the program pretty well
without first getting lost in the documentation. Try that with some
other high-end programs and you won't get very far.
IN YOUR FACE
From the moment you launch it, Overture is the epitome of the
"what you see is what you get" interface.
As with many notation
programs, the interface divides its functions between menu commands and
tool actions. Although many of the menu and submenu commands have
keyboard shortcuts, many do not, which makes a good macro editor (such
as CE Software's QuicKeys) a wise investment for serious Mac
users. (The Windows version offers greatly improved keyboard shortcut
access.)
The toolbar is divided
into five groups of buttons that control specific types of actions: the
Arrow, Erase, and Scale cursors; Notes, Groups, Ornaments,
Articulations, Noteheads, Tablature, Guitar, and 'Jazz buttons;
Dynamics, Text, Expressions, and Graphics buttons; Clefs, Staves, and
Barlines buttons; and the Transcription Quantize Amount button. You can
orient the toolbar and any of its tear-off menus vertically or
horizontally, and the Windows version lets you arbitrarily resize the
toolbar palette.
READY, SET, ENTER
As with any good notation program, Overture lets you import Standard
MIDI Files or enter notes by step-entry, mouse-entry, or real-time
performance (with 480 ppqn resolution). You can't, however, freely enter
music to your own beat (and have the barlines end up in the right
places), which may disappoint some users. However, Overture makes up for
this deficiency in many ways. For example, it doesn't complain when you
put too many beats in a measure (although the program's Show Incorrect
Rhythms command can check for bars with too few or too many beats). It's
also interesting to note that the Macintosh version of Overture can
still import Opcode Vision files.
The step-enter function
is easy to use and nicely enhanced with keyboard shortcuts, so you can
keep one hand on the MIDI keyboard and one on the computer keyboard,
with few side trips to the mouse. The keyboard shortcuts for note
durations are logical, although there's no shortcut for 64th notes.
Overture provides
automatic, as well as manual, transcription capabilities. Recorded or
imported note data first appears onscreen as what Overture calls
"raw" data. It's a kind of "time notation" in which
noteheads are extended in proportion to their duration. (Notes can also
be printed in this form for contemporary music scores.) Manually
quantizing the raw data is a simple matter of selecting a region with
the mouse, clicking the Quantization button, and entering the desired
resolution when prompted. You can also specify the quantization
resolution when importing files (or before using real-time recording),
which provides automatic transcription.
Furthermore, Overture
lets you import score setups, or templates, which simplifies the task of
importing MIDI files. GenieSoft supplies a large assortment of
ready-to-use templates on the Overture 2 CD-ROM.
Overture offers several
attractive features in the areas of note entry and symbol manipulation.
The Make Invisible command (which hides all currently selected notes and
symbols) is a terrific feature, and you can apply it to any symbol on
the page. It will be especially appreciated by those who write multiple
parts in different voices on a single staff. Overture also lets you
specifically assign tip to eight independent voices per staff with
individual control over such things as stem direction and playback
parameters.
The Scale button lets
you resize almost any symbol on the page (such as staves, clefs,
dynamics, and notes with associated articulations and ornaments) from 25
to 250 percent by selecting a region and specifying the percentage
change. The Display on Previous Staff and Display on Next Staff commands
are extremely handy, particularly for piano notation. They allow you to
move a note or group of notes from one staff to another. (These commands
don't move the data to another MIDI track, however; separate Move to
Next Track and Move to Previous Track commands do that.) Another
important time-saver that Overture provides is the ability to apply an
articulation marking to a range of notes simply by selecting the notes
and choosing the appropriate marking. That feature can really improve
efficiency and boost productivity.
Chord specification is
another area in which Overture excels. Its repertoire of chord types is
extensive and well thought out. You can enter something as outrageous as
C7(b9/#9/b13), and Overture will handle it without a problem.
User-defined chords can be stored in libraries and imported into an Overture
session. The program also provides great tools for jazz notation:
the jazz Articulations palette comes complete with flips, doits, plops,
lifts, slides, falloffs, shakes, and smears.
FREE ASSOCIATION
When you're working with notation software, associating symbols with
certain staves can be frustrating, especially at part-extraction time
when you're up against a deadline. The ability to attach symbols to the
proper staves is crucial to the usefulness of any notation program. If
you have to spend hours chasing down articulations that have mistakenly
glommed onto the wrong staff, you might as well copy the parts by
hand in the first place.
With Overture, when
you place a symbol with the cursor, its position is shown by a cross
within the five-line staff region. As you move the cursor down, the top
of' the cross grows a small arrow that points toward the staff. Move out
of the staff-capture region, and the arrow appears at the bottom of the
cross, pointing toward the system below. The process is similar for above-the-staff
operation. In either case, you can always verify that symbols and
markings are being associated with the proper staves as you work
with them.
Positioning symbols is
equally simple: click on the symbol and move it with the cursor, or
nudge it with the arrow keys. When you've made your fine adjustments to
accidentals (in a big chord, for example). Overture lets you lock
that measure to prevent a global justification from undoing your work.
Fine editing is facilitated by Overture's ability to zoom in by up to
800 percent.
HAVE IT YOUR WAY
You can control the overall appearance of your finished notation in
Overture in several ways. You can globally, change the space occupied by
different note values in an Allotment Table. Different Allotment Tables
can be stored and called up for different notational tasks. For
adjusting the spacing of notes within individual measures, Overture
includes a Beat Chart, which provides a series of small handles that
appear above the measures, enabling you to position notes at the
metrical and submetrical levels.
Overture's Recalc
Layout command adjusts material based on measures-per-system settings.
In practice, I use this command sparingly because Recalc Layout can lead
to some surprising changes in otherwise carefully tweaked measures that
you've forgotten to lockdown. (Unlike the current Mac version, the PC
version provides multiple undo capability, which can help you recover an
earlier layout if necessary.) Measures-per-system settings are most
easily adjusted at the local level, using the Wrap Left and Wrap Right
commands. These commands are particularly helpful for preparing parts
where the placement of rests is critical for page turns.
The tools for setting
the space between staves, naming and hiding staves, and setting the
space between groups of staves and systems are always intuitive and
easily accessible in Overture. The implementation of these
functions differs in the Mac and PC versions, but the capabilities are
equivalent, for the most part. The PC, however, has a slight edge over
the Mac when it comes to making microadjustments on such things as the
thickness of barlines, beams, staff lines, stems, and related items.
These are all specified in the Engraver Settings window.
You'll find it easy to
drag individual staves around with the mouse until you get them where
you want them. For precisely positioning staves and other score
elements, mouse movement is constrained to the first detected direction.
That's handy when you're working with complex page layouts.
Flipping symbols above
or below the notehead¾ a nail-biting experience in some programs¾ is a
simple matter in Overture. The same is true for placing
cautionary accidentals. Overture allows you to override the usual
settings and add these extra sharps, flats, and naturals directly from
the Accidentals palette in the toolbar.
Part preparation with Overture
is straightforward. You specify instrument transpositions along with
instrument names and abbreviations. They are then applied automatically
during the part extraction process. You call specify minimum and maximum
lengths of multibar rests, as well. Parts can also be extracted together
into multiple-staff systems to create, for example, an orchestral
percussion score or an instrumental part with cues.
MAD ABOUT MIDI
Overture's ability, to edit and massage MIDI data is a feature that
really sets it apart from the competition. The Mac version has an
advantage here because it has access to OMS, with its patch name
management tool. The PC version. However, provides a Name Manager, which
is used to assign MIDI instrument definitions to available ports and
channels. Each of the eight voices per staff can be assigned to a
different MIDI device.
The Graphic Window,
where you can edit MIDI data in a piano-roll display, is the area of the
program where the Mac and PC capabilities most differ. The Mac version
has much of the sequencer like look and editing capabilities of Opcode's
Vision, while the PC version looks identical to Pro Audio's
Piano Roll.
FINAL CUE
Overture is a terrific and stable piece of software that provides
complete professional music typography and page layout with a
user-friendly and intuitive interface. It's a breath of fresh air amidst
other high-end programs that are burdened with overwindowed and
overkeystroked interfaces. The documentation is clear and well presented
and offers plenty of examples. A separate 104-page Overture 2
Encyclopedia is also provided as a quick reference.
Overture 2 shows
that a professional-level notation program can be powerful without being
cumbersome to use. The program clearly points the way, to the next
generation of music-notation applications.
Thomas Wells is a
composer, author, and professor at Ohio State University and has been
involved with electronic music and audio production for more than 25
years. |