Q & A(gain)

You sent more questions than one episode could hold, so we split them in two. Part one was brought to you by two letters: AI. This is everything else in the mailbag, from the practical side of the music notation software and technology world.

Philip Rothman and David MacDonald work through the rest of the mailbag: an iPad that won’t behave like a desktop, an app that has gone quiet, a singing plug-in that is rapidly evolving, world instruments that have to be taught to a notation program, a page somebody has to read at tempo, organizing a lifetime of files, keeping current with operating systems, and — perhaps the most practical question of all — our take in response to a question from a young copyist asking how any of this becomes a living.

The answers range over layout options and staff sizes, expression maps and subscription libraries, file metadata and backup schemes, security updates and Apple silicon, and a set of accessibility guidelines deserving of wider recognition. Believe it or not, there are a few things here we plainly don’t know.

Underneath most of it is the same instinct: keep the things you control in good order, and keep an exit from the things you don’t. Export the files. Learn the search box. Test the backup. Ask the player what size they can actually read. And never underestimate the value of a performance librarian in your corner.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in. We take questions and suggestions year-round at podcast@scoringnotes.com.

Notation software and apps

• Sibelius (Avid) — desktop, iOS/iPadOS, Android and Chromebook
• Dorico (Steinberg)
• MuseScore Studio (Muse Group)
• StaffPad
• Cantai (Turing Opera Workshop)
• forScore
• SheetCue

Sample libraries, expression maps, and playback

• Spotlight Collection (Native Instruments)
• Phoenix Orchestra (Orchestral Tools)
• ComposerCloud+ and the RA and Silk collections (EastWest)
• Musio (Cinesamples)
• Soniccouture
• Art Conductor 26 Dorico (Babylonwaves)
• NotePerformer (Wallander Instruments)

Hardware

• Stream Deck (Elgato)
• Steam Deck (Valve)
• MacBook Neo (Apple)
• Surface (Microsoft)

Files, backup, and organization

• Airtable
• Dropbox
• Backblaze
• LOCKSS — lots of copies keep stuff safe

NYC Music Services / Notation Central

• Scoring Express
• Notation Express
• Norfolk fonts for Sibelius

The Q&A episodes

• Q & A(I) (part one of this two-parter)
• Half-time report: what’s new, and a call for your questions (the call that brought these in)
• You have questions, we have answers (2025)
• Asked and answered, part 1 and part 2: in awe of the DAW (2023)

Sibelius for iPad and mobile

• The history and future of Sibelius for iPad (podcast with Sam Butler and Joe Plazak, August 2021 — the design rationale, in their own words)
• Sibelius arrives on iPad (review, 2021)
• NAMM 2026: An Avid Sibelius discussion with Sam Butler and Joe Plazak and the companion podcast
• Comma sense: Command Search in Sibelius
• Sibelius 2026.6 makes cross-staff notation no accident (auto-save on mobile, accessible touch navigation, Quick Look, Cantai support)
• Sibelius 2026.2 cleanses the palette (dark mode and score colors)

StaffPad

• StaffPad is a music handwriting app (March 2015, the original Surface release)
• StaffPad wows with long-awaited iPad release and new free StaffPad Reader (February 2020)
• David William Hearn and StaffPad (podcast, 2020)
• StaffPad acquired by Muse Group; audio support planned (May 2021)
• StaffPad brings live recordings into your scores with new audio update
• StaffPad “captures” the imagination — and your piano performance
• StaffPad updates go beyond just keeping the lights on (podcast with David William Hearn, November 2023)
• Private equity exits Muse Group amidst MuseScore Studio leadership changes
• Everything we’ve written about StaffPad

Cantai

• Cantai now sings straight from Dorico (review)
• Cantai 3.0.0 supports Sibelius; adds ensembles, Spanish language
• Richard deCosta gives your score a voice (podcast, May 2026)
• Dorico 6.2.20 released with Cantai vocal synthesis support and Dorico 6.2.30, which added independent Cantai voice playback
• Sibelius 2026.5 adds VST3 support

Readability, page size, and accessibility

• SheetCue turns your scores into a practice flow, part of our Overture series of first looks
• Brief thoughts on the size of music paper
• The point of point sizes
• Orchestra librarians want you to know about parts and paper sizes

Archiving, file management, and backup

• Get organized with music notation files (podcast)
• Half notes: Jane Cross on keeping music files safe (the LOCKSS conversation)
• File renaming and PDF Batch Utilities (podcast)
• Restore the link in File Info fields in Sibelius
• Exporting PDFs from Dorico with better filenames
• Sibelius 2026.8 improves lines and cross-staff ties (macOS Spotlight support, including search inside .sib files)

Operating systems and platforms

• Music notation software and macOS Tahoe
• Notion Mobile 3.5 released with support for Linux, Windows on Arm devices
• Finale’s twilight zone and Leaving Finale behind

Making a career of it

• With freelancing comes responsibility (podcast with Paul Beck, August 2025 — the episode Philip refers to)
• An interview with librarian Paul Beck
• How to charge for music preparation
• Welcome to the new Scoring Notes (how a Sibelius blog became this one)

• UK Association for Accessible Formats: music, and their guidance on modified stave notation (PDF)
• RNIB: modified stave notation
• Windows 10 Consumer Extended Security Updates, now running through October 12, 2027
• Using Intel-based apps on a Mac with Apple silicon — Apple on Rosetta and its retirement
• StarCraft II
• Elaine Gould, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (Faber Music)