FORTE Basic by Forte Notation is offered as a completely free download from their website until September 14th. It is the lightweight version of the FORTE Premium ($229) music notation platform, normally priced at $24 in the Forte Notation online shop.
Compared to the Premium version of the software, FORTE Basic brings a limited feature list although it still remains a very capable music writing application. With FORTE Basic you get full support for notes, accents, chords, clefs, and ornamentation, along with drum notation and guitar/bass tabs support. The Basic version also supports exporting the score to WAV format and using the optional FORTE Player, as well as importing external SoundFont and SFZ files. It is more powerful than the standard Free version of FORTE, which doesn’t support external sound libraries and offers only one stave per project (compared to four in the Basic version).
I’m not a big notation software user myself so I can’t really put FORTE Basic to a good test, however the feature list and the user reviews I’ve seen online so far are a good indication that this is a freebie offer that shouldn’t be missed. During my short test run of FORTE Basic, I really liked the user interface which looks really nice and clean, as well as the fact that the program includes the SFZ player and thus can load SFZ and SF2 libraries. I’ve tested some of my SFZ libraries with the Basic version of the application and there were no compatibility issues whatsoever. You also get a huge library of MIDI files and all I can say is that pairing up J.S.Bach’s Minuet No.4 with the Korg Delta bass patch from my free BPB Mini Analogue Collection sample library was tons of fun. :)
If you’re a composer who’s looking for a capable music notation program for Windows, definitely check this one out. Since the FORTE Basic supports guitar and bass tabs as well, it is obviously worth a look for guitar and bass players who are looking for free tablature software.
To download your free copy of FORTE Basic, visit the giveaway page linked in the downloads section below and enter your email address. You will instantly receive a confirmation email, shortly followed by another email containing the download link and your personal activation key. Your activation key is not time limited, meaning that you will be able to use FORTE Basic for free even after the promo period expires.
Video Demo
Check out the Forte Premium intro video:
Download
FORTE Basic is available for free download via Forte Notation (45.7 MB download size, EXE installer, 32-bit & 64-bit standalone application for Windows, free until September 14th).
