Music Scoring Software Review:
Sony Cinescore

Mark Montgomery
October 2006

If audio is truly half of the total production, Cinescore might live up to be your better half.

Installing Cinescore was a snap. The package comes with an installation disc (CD-ROM) and an additional DVD-ROM disc containing the majority of the music and sound effects. In total there's not more than 1.7GB of audio to be stored from the DVD-ROM. That's a rather light load for most users, which means you probably won't have to buy an additional hard drive. However, you'll definitely want to consider making RAM a priority in running Cinescore. Our modest Dell with a 1.7GHz P4 and 256MB was choking from time to time on video previews, even at draft resolutions. Sony recommends 1GB of RAM, and we would agree.

Sony Cinescore benefits new users to soundtrack creation by creating interactive tutorials. Upon opening the application for the first time, Cinescore prompts you to take the introduction tutorial. After about 10 minutes and 20 or so short slides, you'll become familiar with the interface. Anyone new to video editing or soundtrack creation will benefit from this greatly. Otherwise, it's a sure way for the rest of us semi-pros to not pull out the manual from the box. By the way, the manual is quite handy and easy to understand.

Sony Cinescore is not unlike most soundtrack creation software, in that the interface is pretty much ho-hum. There's a timeline with multiple tracks (1 video and 3 audio), a video preview window, Stereo VU meters and explorer/project media window set. The real strength here is that it is not overwhelming or confusing. In fact, it's so easy to use and incredibly easy to find your files with the explorer/project media window set.

The explorer window is just like having a Windows Explorer window open, but instead it resides within the interface. This makes tracking down video or audio files anywhere on you computer much simpler. Furthermore, if you just want to keep track of the files specific to the project you're working on the Project Media tab will get you there in a single click.

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