Forte 3 Premium is the best music-composition tool available from the Forte family of software. The application is capable of many of the tasks we looked for and is a worthy contender among premier music notation software products on the market today. The application's best features include a library of fully notated classical music from composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and piano great Muzio Clementi.
Forte 3 Premium uses extras like its Sheet Music and Live Performance options to enhance tried-and-true tools such as an internal metronome, percussion notation, guitar tabs and easy-to-use editing tools.
In the language of music, the marking "forte" in the score directs performers to play loudly. The mark is often shortened to a simple f for brevity's sake. A doubled f, then, means to play or sing even more loudly – fortissimo. A tripled f means you should play or sing almost as loud as you can, but not quite as loud as you would on an important note marked sforzando or sfz.
Forte 3 Premium has many of the capabilities we looked for in premier music notation software applications. These components include basics such as the ability to insert notes and rests and to change the time signature to create a waltz, march, tango or five- and seven-beat African and Latin-American tunes. Forte 3 Premium has a metronome that keeps your compositions exactly in time. You can also change timing, dynamics and expression with a new audio sequencer. Use this feature to perform solo concertos accompanied only by your PC.
Forte 3 Premium includes all of the capabilities featured in less-expensive music-notation applications produced by software publisher Lugert, including drum and guitar notation, eight clef options, 26 accent types and support for duplets and triplets. The publisher's website claims that Forte 3 Premium can "add chord symbols effortlessly" with the Chord Analyzer, but we were unable to make that function work.
If you're a music educator, perhaps the best reason to choose Forte 3 Premium is the free software available to your students. Forte Free has limits on things including the way you can view a score and has a more elementary mixer, but it's sufficient for students' needs such as sight-reading practice, elementary counterpoint composition and music-theory exercises. Students will also have access to all the sheet music provided by the publisher.
Unfortunately, even the premium version of Forte music composition software won't create student exercises for you. Forte 3 Premium also lacks ear-training lessons, jazz-improvisation worksheets and classroom control functions for situations like music labs where multiple computers are licensed.
Forte 3 Premium is top-notch when it comes to interacting with other software products and files. It can scan and re-notate sheet music and allows for note entry via mouse, QWERTY keyboard or MIDI keyboard. If you choose the QWERTY keyboard method, be sure to try the FastInput Mode. With that tool, the keys within reach of the fingers on your left-hand input notes by name. The keys in reach of your right hand enter note values and accidentals. A colorful map of the key functions is available for reference.
Forte 3 Premium can also understand standard MIDI files and can export your creations in that format. You can print your composition on paper or export it as an audio, music, XML or graphic file. Forte 3 Premium lacks the option to input notes using virtual instruments like a keyboard or fretboard.
You can easily input notes and rests via keyboard with Forte 3 Premium, but the application's other functionalities are less impressive. For example, you can't select measures, just staffs that contain measures. You also must use your PC's mouse very carefully to avoid errors like a half note that starts on a measure's second-and-a-half beat instead of its second beat. Furthermore, you must also input dynamic and expression markings one instrument at a time, and copying and pasting is finicky.
Unlike its top competitors, Forte doesn't provide free training videos online or free telephone support. However, its user guide, user forums and email support are ample for most of the issues you'll encounter.
Forte 3 Premium is an adequate application for music-composition needs that comes with benefits including free sheet music and promising technological ideas. The application is missing some of the extras touted by its competitors, but it is nevertheless a solid investment for music educators of all stripes.
