Workflow Demands

Inspired by a recent discussion on The Electric Semiquaver, a blog on composing with notation software, I tried to pin down what are my workflow demands concerning notation software. The imperative could be put like that: after having found the basic compositorical idea without computer, but also without a pencil, just walking around or so, I want the notation software to

1. allow me to get the idea stored as fast as possible, as easy as possible, as less distracting from the music as possible.

2. ease the elaboration of the basic musical ideas, i.e. arrangement, orchestration etc., I certainly do not shy away from using the acoustical MIDI feedback. Detection of mistakes, i.e. mistranslations from the mind to the score, but also, as the libraries and performance automation become better, checking if some orchestration sounds reasonable (keeping in mind what real players can do, of course)

3. provide me with readable and cool looking sheets almost on the fly, so that I have to do only minor editing. Thumbs up for magnetic layout!

4. provide me with a playback sounding good enough to be used as a first layout for, say, a theatre director. Or at least after substituting some solo voices by real performers. That said, it should also be possible to leave some voices played back by the notation software in a hybrid production, e.g. soft pitched percussions which are not so sensitive to being recorded against staying MIDI. Thumbs up for Sibelius Sounds Essential, and all thumbs up for ReWire integration in Sibelius 6, wow!