Mosaic notation program
An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Mosaic is a Macintosh application for producing music from Mark of the Unicorn company.
First released as Professional Composer among the early Macintosh software in 1984, the application introduced user interface similar to word processor.[1] Main features comprised entering musical notation, printing of sheet music and support for lyrics under the score with font of choice. Notes may be selected from the user interface or entered from the keyboard. User could also change or extend tempo, key signature, meter, and other parameters.[2] Next major release, Professional Composer 2.0, supported writting on up to 40 staves and allowed to enter notes as short as 128th notes - with all operations mainly controlled by menus and dialog boxes. Version 2.0 also introduced several improvements for printing (eg. condensation of parts with several rest measures is automatic) allowing to produce professional quality scores. Although the application demanded knowledge of music theory to use its rich features, it offered only rudimentary playback capabilities. Macworld review also criticized high price (495 USD in February 1986) and no automatic scrolling when staves are filled (only via scroll bars).[3] Version 2.2 (1988) corrected number of bugs and improved compatibility with Mac Plus, SE and II.[4] Version 2.3M was the last release of Professional Composer.[5]
Mosaic entered market in 1992 as successor to Professional Composer.[6] As of version 1.58 released in 1998, this new incarnation of the notation software removed all limits to page size, score length, number of staves, or number of voices per staff. However, configuration of several options in different windows created flexible, but sometimes confusing user interface.[7] Drag-and-drop features and ability to convert MIDI files into usable notation were counted among the strongest points of Mosaic.[8] Sibelius and Finale were the competitor notation packages.
References
- ^ McGeever, Christine (June 4, 1984). "New Programs, Macintosh carries a tune". InfoWorld. Vol. 6, no. 23. CW Communications. p. 44. ISSN 0199-6649.
- ^ Clapp, Doug; Ryall, Pat (1985). "12 Sound & Animation Software". The Complete Macintosh Sourcebook. Santa Monica, CA: InfoBooks. pp. 135–136. ISBN 0-931137-03-9.
- ^ Swigart, Bob (February 1986). "They´re Playing Our Song". Macworld. Vol. 3, no. 2. PC World Communications. pp. 109–112. ISSN 0741-8647.
- ^ "Updates, Professional Composer". Macworld. Vol. 5, no. 8. PC World Communications. August 1988. p. 230. ISSN 0741-8647.
- ^ "MOTU's MOSIAC". Newsgroup: rec.music.synth. February 1992. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
- ^ Gruberman, Ken (October 1992). "Composer's Mosaic". MacUser. Vol. 8, no. 10. Ziff-Davis. p. 85. ISSN 0884-0997.
- ^ Whitney, Ross (December 1998). "Composer's Mosaic". Notes. 55 (2): 436–438. ISSN 0027-4380.
- ^ Shirak, Rob (November 2000). "There's More to Creating Good Scores and Parts Than Just Putting Notes on Paper, Get It In Print, Mark of the Unicorn Mosaic (Mac)". Electronic Musician. Intertec Publishing. ISSN 0884-4720. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
External links
 | This music software article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |