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Topic: Is this software dead? (Read 2182 times) previous topic - next topic

Is this software dead?

I'm sure this is an old topic since the last update was years ago.
I'm still using NWC at present, because I'm so used to it, and for certain very specific things that it does well.  So I would be disappointed to hear that no further development will be undertaken, but such is the fate of all software eventually.
- To whom does the company / product IP belong? 
- Could the product be given or sold to an enthusiast to develop further?  Or made open source?
Anyone with info please let us know?  Or (kindly) direct me to another thread.

Re: Is this software dead?

Reply #1 –
The software being "dead" is, IMHO, different from no longer maintained: NWC can be used as it is on Win 10 and Win 11 without any problems.

For maintenance, my honest take is this (being a software architect in a medium-sized special-software company - not a product manager, but knowing lots about writing and delivering software):

a. The expected level of features of a typical music editor (like NWC) has grown significantly over the last 10 years: Part creation is of course necessary; also roughening out usage weirdnesses from old times; creating apps for at least listening, maybe assembling play lists or the like; but the most important thing is a modern sound rendering engine with qualitative initial sound configuration, and of course the ability to connect to all known sound rendering standards.
MuseScore, with its 4.x rewrite, and Dorico are two baselines against which small(er) music editors need to position themselves, IMHO.

b. As I know NWC from long ago, I'd guess(!) that the organization would need quite some overhaul to make it fit for the features under a. - mainly because you need specialists in a few areas for this. MuseScore, as an open souce project; and Dorico at Steinberg can do that: Tapping deep-knowledge personnel from nearby areas. I would doubt that "an enthusiast" is, as of nowadays, easily capable of that.

I dont want to cast deathspells on anything; and I quickly returned and return to NWC for most of my work after learning MuseScore 4, with a real course, and "even" writing a few scores with it. For actual composing and arranging, there's nothing better than NWC. Yet, I'm now setting up tool chains (e.g. with Opagust's NWCConvertor) that embed NWC in a somewhat larger ecosystem to compensate for missing features, especially in the sound rendering area.

H.M.