Verified answer

Finale Notepad is a very basic version of Finale and meets many student's needs. Best of all, it's free. http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

A full version of Finale 2008 (one of the two main programs that professional arrangers and copyists use) is $600 but can be purchased with a student discount for only $350

Finale Allegro is a lite version of Finale and is only $199

Noteworthy Composer is a very easy to use program that many of us learned on years ago. It will do much of what you need and is only $39 http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/

Many programs, like Cakewalk, require a midi input. But there are some on the market where you can use the keyboard and mouse to place notes on the staff.

The two biggies in the field are Finale and Sibelius; both cost several hundred.

You'll find programs at CompUSA or Best Buy that claim to be good music authoring programs; don't buy them, they're generally too limited.

There used to a good cheap program called MusicTime, but it's been swallowed up in some educational online enterprise. Maybe you can find an old copy of it on ebay; it did exactly what I think you want.

Now I have a program called Magix Notation that seems to do the same things; you might shop for it as well.

Traveling to New York city, by myself, changed the way I communicate and interact with people. Being alone was a challenge at first, but once I got over the fear of the big city, I was okay. It is amazing how much different it is traveling alone. For some of you it might not be the right thing, and that's okay. But you won't know for sure unless you give it a try. That was the greatest travel experience of my entire life. It changed my preconceived thoughts about New Yorker's and about life. Now, I travel to New York a few times a year, by myself of course, and I have come to realize that all the cliches about New Yorker's are false. I found New Yorker's to be very kind and helpful. Did I bump into a guy who was interested in teaching me the subway system? Sure. But you bump into grumpy people any where in the world. Just move on to the next person, or the next one after that. New Yorker's are persistent, so you have to be as well, if you want to get to where you are going, or find your way around.

Some are cheap. Under $100.

You need a MIDI program and you need a MIDI keyboard or MIDI trigger and then you play the piece in real time and it logs in your notes and geneartes sheet music for them.

Orchestrator Plus is such a program.

I use Finale

and I used to use one called NoteWorthy Composer, which was pretty good

I like Finale better though (though its more expensive)

I dont know how much it costs, but its really good and really easy to use.

And its so popular that if you have composer friends they are likely to have Finale so you can send your music - thats only a sidenote though

I can almost guarantee you she was using Sibelius. Our professors use it all the time for class work and such.

Sibelius 5, the newest edition, costs 3-4 hundred bucks if i recall correctly