Encore is a music notation (
scorewriter
A scorewriter, or music notation program is software for creating, editing and printing sheet music. A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to text, in that they typically provide flexible editing and automatic layout, and p ...
) program for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and
macOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
.
MusicTime Deluxe is a 'reduced functionality' version of Encore.
Encore is meant to play back music – either imported as
MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
, recorded from a MIDI device, or entered with mouse and keyboard.
History
Encore was originally created for the Apple Macintosh by Don Williams for the US company
Passport Designs Inc. of Half Moon Bay, CA., and first released in 1984.
Lyrrus Inc., d.b.a. GVOX purchased the intellectual property of Passport in 1998 and Encore 5 was released 10 years after Encore 4.
Encore is notable for being one of the first scorewriter programs to enable items in the musical score to be added and edited using the mouse.
Encore 5 included wizards to create scores for numerous types of ensembles from scratch,
MusicXML support (although in now obsolete 1.3 version), use of
VST, and
J.S. Bach complete works for keyboard in Encore format.
On August 1 of 2013, Passport Music Software LLC, acquired the rights of Encore, Music Time Deluxe and
MasterTracks Pro.
On June 16 of 2022, Sonic Scores, Inc,
acquired the rights of Passport Music Software, Encore, Music Time Deluxe and
MasterTracks Pro.
Status
Direct competitors in the music notation niche have taken market lead over the last decade, surpassing Encore in features and improved standards. While Encore runs on the latest versions of Windows, it is not compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina), and it lacks support in some areas, such as for 4k displays, recent MIDI to USB applications, and later versions of VST.
Passport Music Software, LLC claimed to be reworking Encore, departing from the original code that was created over 20 years ago. With no version updates since at least 2015 (version 5.0.4 for Windows and 5.0.7 for macOS), Passport Music Software closed doors in early 2022.
Following the subsequent acquisition of the product line by Sonic Scores,
version 6 of Encore is being developed by its original author, Don Williams, for both Windows and macOS.
See also
*
List of music software
This is a list of software for creating, performing, learning, analyzing, researching, broadcasting and editing music. This article only includes software, not services.
For streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora (service), Pandora, Prime ...
*
Overture (software)
Overture is a music notation (scorewriter) program for Windows and Macintosh platforms, published and developed by Sonic Scores. While Overture is primarily a scorewriter program, it also allows editing the score's MIDI audio playback data in ...
, a notation program being developed by the same author, Don Williams, and sharing the original Encore interface
References
External links
Passport Music Software Website
{{Scorewriters
Scorewriters
Windows multimedia software
MacOS multimedia software