At the 2026 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

In this interview, we talk with Sam Butler, Avid’s vice president of product management, and Joe Plazak, Sibelius product owner and senior principal software developer at Avid, to reflect on the philosophy behind Sibelius’s recent development approach, how user feedback shapes prioritization, and where they believe users should most clearly feel progress compared to a year ago. We also talk about automation and AI in notation, the realities of cross-platform and mobile workflows, and what Avid wants musicians to understand about its long-term commitment to Sibelius.

Be sure to check out our other conversations from the NAMM Show from earlier this month. And as always, if you like this podcast episode, there’s plenty more for you from Scoring Notes — be sure to follow us right in your podcast player.

More about the 2026 NAMM Show from Scoring Notes:

• NAMM 2026: On the scene
• NAMM 2026: Piascore’s bet on interactivity
• NAMM 2026: John Barron opens the door to Dorico’s future
• NAMM 2026: Sounding out the inputs with klang.io’s Sebastian Murgul
• NAMM 2026: Getting into a Fender-bender with Chris Swaffer
• NAMM 2026: An avid Sibelius discussion with Sam Butler and Joe Plazak
• NAMM 2026: An interview with John Barron
• NAMM 2026: An interview with Sebastian Murgul
• NAMM 2026: An interview with Chris Swaffer

At the 2026 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

In this interview, we talk with Chris Swaffer, senior product manager of software at Fender, about how he thinks about Notion’s current phase in its lifecycle, what the Fender name signals to users today, and how decisions around refinement, continuity, and cross-platform consistency get made in practice. We also dig into under-the-radar improvements, accessibility as a core product principle, direct transfer between Notion and Fender Studio Pro, and how intelligent assistance can support — rather than replace — human musical judgment.

Come back next week for more conversations from the NAMM Show. And as always, if you like this podcast episode, there’s plenty more for you from Scoring Notes — be sure to follow us right in your podcast player.

More about the 2026 NAMM Show from Scoring Notes:

• NAMM 2026: On the scene
• NAMM 2026: Piascore’s bet on interactivity
• NAMM 2026: John Barron opens the door to Dorico’s future
• NAMM 2026: Sounding out the inputs with klang.io’s Sebastian Murgul
• NAMM 2026: Getting into a Fender-bender with Chris Swaffer
• NAMM 2026: An avid Sibelius discussion with Sam Butler and Joe Plazak
• NAMM 2026: An interview with John Barron
• NAMM 2026: An interview with Sebastian Murgul

At the 2026 NAMM Show, we interviewed representatives from the businesses in our field of music notation software and related technology.

In this conversation, we speak with Sebastian Murgul, co-founder and CEO of klang.io, to talk about a category that sits just adjacent to music notation — and yet increasingly intersects with it in practical, unavoidable ways: music transcription. Sebastian explains what klang.io’s tools are designed to do — and just as importantly, what they are not. We talk about why AI-based transcription has reached a point of practical usefulness now, where the hardest musical problems still lie, and how klang.io thinks about accuracy as something musicians can trust and build on, rather than a promise of perfection. We also discuss interoperability with notation software via formats like MIDI and MusicXML, real-world use cases that have surprised him, and the broader anxieties musicians understandably have around automation and AI.

Come back the next few weeks for more conversations from the NAMM Show. And as always, if you like this podcast episode, there’s plenty more for you from Scoring Notes — be sure to follow us right in your podcast player.

More about the 2026 NAMM Show from Scoring Notes:

• NAMM 2026: On the scene
• NAMM 2026: Piascore’s bet on interactivity
• NAMM 2026: John Barron opens the door to Dorico’s future
• NAMM 2026: Sounding out the inputs with klang.io’s Sebastian Murgul
• NAMM 2026: Getting into a Fender-bender with Chris Swaffer
• NAMM 2026: An avid Sibelius discussion with Sam Butler and Joe Plazak
• NAMM 2026: An interview with John Barron