Converting Sibelius or pdf files
My Sibelius 5 program has crashed. I had upgraded my laptop to Windows 7 and it seems there are all kinds of compatibility issues. The technicans on the forum and through emails have tried their best to be helpful, but I am not a great techie and have fears that I am going to crash my whole computer! At any rate, I've enjoyed getting to know musescore and have managed to notate a few pieces while I've been trying to fix Sibelius. So my question is, I'd be happy to switch over, but I have more than a hundred Sibelius files that I can't presently open. I've run out of time for technical help before it starts to cost. I can upgrade to Sibelius 7 for $150 if I'm sure there are no bugs or things that will mess up. I'd be happy to continue learning about Musescore, but would need to convert my Sibelius files. I read in some forum or another here - I forget where - that had temporary way to do it, but they did not mention Windows 7 as working with it - I think they just mentioned Vista and a couple others.... I have all pdf files of most of the Sibelius files - is there anyway I would be able to convert those pdf files to Musescore files? Help! And thanks!
Comments
PDF won't be useful - that's just graphics, with no information about the actual music - but if you borrow a copy of Sibelius 7 that works, you can export you score to MusicXML format, and then load that into MuseScore.
There *are* program than can kind of sort a little bit turn some PDF files into notation, but they work about as well overall as a program that can watch a TV show and re-create the scritp for you.
In reply to PDF won't be useful - that's by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the quick reply. The MusicXML format will work with Windows 7 then? I've googled MusicXML and it looks interesting - hope it's not too far beyond me to learn how to do. I thought, though, there were proprietary issues with Sibelius that would not enable me to do this. You have heard otherwise?
So - to find someone who has Sibelius 7 to borrow, if that is possible...
In reply to MusicXML by kaynebc
It's not a matter of MusicXML working with Windows 7, it comes down to the application you want to use supporting it, both export and import. MuseScore does both, as does Finale, and Sibelius 7 does.
In reply to MusicXML by kaynebc
Exporting MusicXML from Sibelius 7 should simple as going to File->Export (or something like that) and typing a file name. Loading it into MuseScore is as easy as File->Open.
As for the various PDF options, there is absolutely no way it will go anywhere near as smoothly as with MusicXML. There are some scores for which it might go a little faster than re-entering it by hand, others whee it won't. It's more a desperation option for if MusicXML isn't possible. If you only have one score to do, it might turn out to be no more trouble than tracking down a copy of sibelius 7, but if you've got a bunch, then it will absolutely be worth the trouble of getting MusicXML.
In reply to PDF won't be useful - that's by Marc Sabatella
I'm not so sure a PDF is only graphics but it may well matter what program created the PDF file.
PDFtoMusic Pro does a good job in many cases and it is better than the typical interpretation of a graphics file. The free demo version will convert only 1 page at a time but you can loop around it doing all the pages. Since it will say when a font-file is missing in the PDF, I'd say it is not just "scanning" a graphic.
The best solution as described is to borrow a copy of Sibelius 7 and export the scores as MusicXML..
In reply to PDFs by Zoots
Well, a PDF file is text as well as graphics if you want to get technical, but the point is, it contains no *musical* information. Even if a half note is represented as a glyph in a music font rather than a bitmap or vector image, it's still just a symbol as far a music scanning / "OCR" program is concerned. It has no way of knowing that symbol represents a note that is two beats long, or of ascertaining on what beat that note starts, or what the pitch of that note is, except by "looking" at it graphically ("hey, what do you know, that symbol is a hollow oval with a stick coming out of it - must be a half note; now I'll look to see where it is in relation to all the other symbols to see where it starts and what pitch it is"). Whereas a format like MusicXML is all about the musical meaning of the symbols - no interpretation of graphical information required.
It's roughly like the difference between building a house from a set of blueprints versus building a house from a photo of a similar house.
In reply to PDF won't be useful - that's by Marc Sabatella
I have tried doing that but it doesn't seem to have worked! Please help! I use Sibelius 7 Frist and I've tried exporting it as a MusicXML but it hasn't uploaded to MuseScore!
In reply to I have tried doing that but by Drummin' Daniel
Are you aware that you just replied to a 5 years old topic?
Please share the XML file here so we can see where and why it fails to import in MuseScore, also tell us what version of MuseScore you#re usong and on what OS
In reply to Are you aware that you just by Jojo-Schmitz
I don't know how to attach a file as I am new but I am using Windows 7 (on computer). Sorry by the way I don't know how to attach the file.
In reply to I don't know how to attach a by Drummin' Daniel
Use the "File attachments" option at the bottom of the page, just above the Save and Preview buttons when you're typing your post. Click on 'File attachments' it will become browse
to a discussion about scanning PDF into MuseScore.
http://musescore.org/en/node/12750
I have no experience with this, but you may find it helpful.
In reply to Here is a link by xavierjazz
Thanks for all the help. I'm out of town for a few days and will try to work on this when I get back. Can we keep this thread open for quite some time? I'm discussing this with my more techcnically-oriented family members who will be here at Thanksgiving! Will try to work on this starting next week, though, and if you have any other suggestions, I'll be sure to check my email while I'm gone.
In reply to Sibelius 7, pdf files, MusicXML, PDF2MusicPro by kaynebc
You may find some of these articles relevant to your problem.
http://musescore.org/en/node/669
http://musescore.org/en/node/11095
http://musescore.org/en/node/11125
Personally I have had good results with Sharpeye, however using it is always a last resort as there is always cleaning up to do, particularly with scans of old scores such as you get from ISMLP
HTH
Michael
This here does the job:
http://www.makemusic.com/Products/MusicXML.aspx
it's for free but you need to register. I tried it with a melody containing a violin staff and two staffs for Piano (treble and bass clef) and it works perfectly. Takes 2 minutes for about 60 meters but the result was amazingly correct. AND, this is AMAZING!!!! it does batch processing as well. "Translate folder of scores to MusicXML"
It should be mentioned - the filename of the exported xml must be latin. It can contain german umlaut and french accents, but cyrillic (and probably others) are not supported. If the .sib Filename contains non-latin letters yu have to change that to latin letters first or you get tons of error messages and an empty xml file. But that works inside of Sibelius - plugins - music XML.
it's somehow OT but you need your Sibelius for doing this and Sibelius 5.1 and Win7 SP1 64 Bit works... Musescore 1.2 works as well - but there are 2 issues for Sibelius I know and solved for myself: 1) yu must go through the registration process again and 2) there's a dll that must be changed otherwise Sibelius5 crashes when playing the startup sound. The sound-DLL can be obtained from Sibelius website and must be put here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Sibelius Software\Sibelius 5\portaudio_x86.dll
If it's 32 bit forget the (x86).
Can't you download a free trial of Sibelius? Or does it not support export/plugins? I don't know, you understand, just I've seen it advertised but, since I don't use Windows, I haven't tried it.
"Sibelius 7 includes built-in MusicXML export, so no separate purchase is required, and because the
exporter is built directly into Sibelius itself, it is faster and includes more data than a separate plug-in."
In reply to Converting Sibelius or pdf files by underquark
Check also : How to open Sibelius files in MuseScore
In reply to Converting Sibelius or pdf files by underquark
The Sibelius demo disables ave and export. At least, the version I have does.
I'm confused about the reference to a MusicXML convertedr on the MakeMusic site above. I visited the linked page, and saw general information about MusicXML, but not anything you could register for and convert with. Or did you just mean, you can download a plugin if you already own Sibelius (or Finale)? Both programs now come with MusicXML export support built in, but I guess this page allows you to download the plugin for older versions of Sibelius, whereas that used to be an expensive add-on. So that's cool.
In reply to The Sibelius demo disables by Marc Sabatella
Since MakeMusic bought Recordare, the maker of MusicXML, the Dolet plugin is available free of charge (but with this registration process...). The dolet is usable with older version of Sibelius and Finale and often give better MusicXML export than the embed version.
In reply to The Sibelius demo disables by Marc Sabatella
it is located under "plugins - music XML" and NOT in the "save" or "export" menu.
And there's a batch processing for folders, at least that should do something.. So you get rid about a "save disabled" problem in the demo. Or the Sibelius demo refuses to write files completely? I would give the folder-conversion thing a try, at least it must be visible in the "plugin" menu of Sibelius. I cannot believe that Sibeluis disables the plugin menu item...
.