Import .cwp (Sonar), .mus (Finale) and other files.
For those of us who already have a sizable body of work composed in other software, the migration to musescore would be much less daunting if those files could be read by musescore. I know there is a path via MIDI files, but it is cumbersome and many features are lost, so is is really a huge deterrent.
Between Finale and Sonar I have the same problem, so perhaps there are legal impediments that I am unaware of. But if possible, the ability to read other formats would make the switch to musescore much more attractive.
Comments
MusicXML is the standard format to interchange sheet music between (notation) software. For Finale, see https://musescore.org/node/14318
In reply to MusicXML is the standard by Thomas
Thank you. Forgive a beginners ignorance...
Yes MusicXML is the way forward.
Unfortunately CWP and MUS files are both proprietary, so consequently the format is not made public.
Without that information it is impossible to write a conversion routine :(
In reply to Yes MusicXML is the way by ChurchOrganist
Very difficult, but not completely impossible...
(and no, I don't volunteer ;-))
From bitter experience, there are some music programs that deliberately don't write MusXML because the vendors want(ed) to stymie migration to a more powerful or standard system, so their file formats are proprietary. This has hit me with a product that has now gone off the market and off support; I even offered the vendor writing a MusXML conversion package to redeem his stranded erstwhile customer base if he'd but let me look at the declarations of file formats, but, no go.
Recovering scores from MIDI is an art. I've gotten better at it. You have to make sure to turn off the "human performance" on MuseScore, you have to "cajole" accidentals a lot and understand the current bugs and features vis-à-vis "concert pitch" vs. "written pitch" modes. Management of note velocities is another art that needs documentation; midi import codes a "user" velocity on each note, which is very difficult to manage. Recovering multiple voices on a staff is near-impossible. Nevertheless, if you have a pdf of the original output, MIDI import takes real work, but can be done efficiently with practice.
In reply to From bitter experience, there by [DELETED] 1831606
I have run into the problem you describe: The sequencer allows giving each note its own velocity, which is faithfully included in the exported MIDI file. Once this MIDI file is imported into notation software, there is no more access to the velocity. Maybe it would make sense to remove all velocity variations (easy to do) before exporting to MIDI format, so as to start with a clean slate in the new environment.
In reply to I have run into the problem by pedrogervai
I remove velocity with the Inspector in a all-notes operation. I have had trouble with the velocity input-box, but others here can't reproduce it.
I suppose in that case there is always the pdf import as well. You should be able to print your files into pdf format with the OS. It's not perfect, but it's better then nothing, and surly better then midi