You may be a songwriter/producer who, like me, doesn’t know how to read sheet music but needs to work with musicians who do. Being able to easily bounce my MIDI compositions to sheet music allows me to send the parts to a classically trained musician. Life-saver.

But maybe you’re a composer who knows how to read and notate sheet music. A sheet music maker is amazing for you because it lets you compose things digitally, which can speed up your process, be more convenient to edit, and definitely will be easier on your writing hand.

Here are the 5 best sheet music makers and what makes them great…

You may not need to download a piece of software that makes sheet music. Your digital audio workstation (DAW) most likely has the ability to export your MIDI tracks as sheet music. Any of the industry-standard DAWs – like Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton, and Reaper – will allow you to convert MIDI to sheet music and export it to a shareable file format.

So before you download an additional program, Google “[your DAW] sheet music” to see if your DAW will do what you need. No need to clutter up your computer’s hard drive!

MuseScore is a free and open-source music notation software that lets you compose, transcribe, and arrange music. Then you can easily export those compositions in MIDI and PDF format, making it easy to share your work with others.

Not only can you create sheet music and add lyrics, but you can play back the music you wrote through the Play Panel. It supports VST instruments, so you can play back the arrangement in whatever virtual instrument you want.

Sibelius is the go-to music notation software for professional composers, arrangers, publishers, and educators.

Here are some of its key features:

• Intuitive interface: it has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and edit sheet music, even for users with little to no experience in music notation.
• Advanced notation capabilities: it offers a wide range of notation symbols and options, making it possible to create highly detailed and accurate sheet music.
• Music notation symbols library: includes a large library of music notation symbols that you can use to create sheet music.
• Playback and sound libraries: includes a built-in playback feature, so you can hear your compositions as you work. It also includes a wide range of high-quality sound libraries, which you can use to create realistic instrument sounds.
• Collaboration and sharing: allows users to collaborate on compositions in real-time. It also allows you to export your compositions in file formats like PDF, MIDI, and MusicXML.

Dorico is made by the highly respected Steinberg, the company who created Cubase. It’s designed for professional composers, arrangers, and engravers and is considered as one of the most advanced music notation software on the market.

Some of its key features are:

• Intuitive interface: it has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and edit sheet music.
• Advanced notation capabilities: it offers a bunch of notation symbols and options.
• Music notation symbols library: includes a large library of music notation symbols.
• Playback and sound libraries: includes a built-in playback feature and high-quality sound libraries.
• Music notation symbols library: it has a large library of music notation symbols you can use in your composition/arrangement.
• Collaboration and sharing: it allows users to collaborate on compositions in real-time and export files in PDF, MIDI, and MusicXML.
• Advanced Engraving: known for its advanced engraving capabilities, which are designed to create beautiful and professional-looking sheet music, with advanced layout options, automatic collision resolution and more.

LilyPond is a free and open-source music notation software. The unique thing about it is that it’s designed to produce high-quality sheet music using a simple, text-based input format. It’s also known for its powerful engraving capabilities and for producing beautiful, professional-looking sheet music.

Here are some of its key features:

• Text-based input format: its unique and simple text-based input format makes it easy to create and edit sheet music, especially if you’ve never worked with music notation software.
• Advanced notation capabilities: it offers a lot of notation symbols.
• High-quality engraving: it’s known for its powerful engraving capabilities, which produce beautiful, professional-looking sheet music, with advanced layout options and automatic collision resolution.
• Music notation symbols library: includes a library of music notation symbols you can use to create sheet music.
• Playback feature: it can export sheet music to MIDI files, allowing you to listen to your compositions as you work on them.
• Collaboration and sharing: it allows you to export compositions in PDF, MIDI, and MusicXML file formats.

Whether you’re an experienced composer/arranger or a novice who needs sheet music, you can pick a sheet music maker from this list and you’ll be good.