suggestion for going from paper scores to midi

[sunhome]

I am looking for help sharpening this question ...

I have a songbook and a music concept and application book [The Elements of music by Ralph Turek] that I would like to work through either by manually entering the examples so I can learn to transfer scores into midi or scanning (although I am looking to gain a skill over a shortcut).

I use Live, Renoise and Orion which do not have a score feature. I guess I am wondering in the long run how useful is for me to enter scores directly into piano rolls? Would it be wise to get a score software [smartscore perhaps ] to enter my examples or leaning how to mentally translate from paper to a piano roll?

Perhaps if any one has other ideas for getting paper scores into midi files, I would be interested in what you have to say.

Regards, James

[wrench45us]

everyone I know who uses a score program struggles with it at one time or another, but none of them would want to give it up for piano roll editing

mostly because they were trained with staffes and scores

it would all depend on what you're most comfortable with and who you may want to communicate with if at all.
imo, it's never a bad thing to get more familiar with staff notation

some hosts like Sonar have simple staff notation -- I don't know how far it goes

[kbaccki]

For the money ($100 download), Finale PrintMusic is a pretty good deal: http://www.finalemusic.com/PrintMusic/

It includes "SmartScore Lite", which sounds like it should handle sheet music of simple to medium complexity, but to be honest I've never used the scanning feature so I can't vouch for it. I just use PM for turning my chicken scratch sketches into something readable 10 years hence.

Looks like the PM demo is fully functional for 30 days, so maybe worth a go...

[kbaccki]

For that matter, looks like there are a couple of cheap version of SmartScore for scanning: http://www.musitek.com/

Probably more scanning features than what's included in PM, but who knows about score editing features...

[sunhome]

kbaccki - I tested http://www.musitek.com/midiedition.html with good scanning results - and it is affordable. Although I am looking to build that skill, as it seems it would be handy to look at a score and then enter the data right into the piano roll or into staff notation at the computer.

Regards, James

[Sepheritoh]

I recently changed over to Notion http://www.notionmusic.com/

The best investment I have done in a long time. Cross grade from Sonar was just $129.

[sunhome]

wow, notion looks state of the art ... The tutorial videos and the demo will help me test the workflow with my books. Does notion use dongles? Might be a good investment ...

regards, James

[xtp]

Although I use cubase which has score built in, I have this on my "tobuy" list.

http://www.arpegemusic.com/

I Demoed it a while back and liked it.

[sunhome]

Yep, Pizzicato Light seems like it would work as I don't need to print scores, rather just transcribe them from paper. Two aspects seem to be emerging ....

1. benefit to staff notation over piano roll
2. staff notation software to choose from (notion, smartscore, Pizzicato, etc)

Regards, James

[Sepheritoh]

wow, notion looks state of the art ... The tutorial videos and the demo will help me test the workflow with my books. Does notion use dongles? Might be a good investment ...

regards, James

No dongles. Some computer component specific C/R registration system.

[johnjaypl]

I use LilyPond to produce music scores and midi output. There's also a LilyPond Openoffice extension so you can write complex documents with music scores in them.

LilyPond is very powerful. I imagine it could handle any music score situation and it produces nice results but it's not the easiest tool to use.

LilyPond and Openoffice are free.

John

[sunhome]

I use LilyPond to produce music scores and midi output. There's also a LilyPond Openoffice extension so you can write complex documents with music scores in them.

LilyPond is very powerful. I imagine it could handle any music score situation and it produces nice results but it's not the easiest tool to use.

LilyPond and Openoffice are free.

John

http://lilypond.org/switch/howto - kinda looks like renoise I might be able to handle that ... Is it just a text file and lilypond as the syntax looks nice... What is hard about lilypond, if I might ask? I see that the one staff examples are easy but in the manual some of the ready made templates look like a lot of work.


I think having to write the names of the notes will be useful for learning, much better than placing the notes on a graphical ledger. I really like renoise for entering notes as it's always clear what my notes are, same thing here ... good tip

Regards, James

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.12/Documenta ... /index#Top looks like a great resource for learning lilypond.

[johnjaypl]

I use LilyPond to produce music scores and midi output. There's also a LilyPond Openoffice extension so you can write complex documents with music scores in them.

LilyPond is very powerful. I imagine it could handle any music score situation and it produces nice results but it's not the easiest tool to use.

LilyPond and Openoffice are free.

John

http://lilypond.org/switch/howto - kinda looks like renoise I might be able to handle that ... Is it just a text file and lilypond as the syntax looks nice... What is hard about lilypond, if I might ask? I think having to write the names of the notes will be useful for learning, much better than placing the notes on a graphical ledger. I really like renoise for entering notes as it's always clear what my notes are, same thing here ... good tip

Regards, James

I don't know anything about renoise but I don't think that LilyPond is like that.

Yes, it's a text file that is the "code" for your score. Then LilyPond compiles the text file and out pops a PDF of your score and a midi file if you want. Perhaps you can get other things too, I don't know about that.

I think I find it hard because it's essentially a programming language. That's also what makes it so powerful but it takes a bit of effort to learn the language. When I want to learn how to do something new it usually means a bit of a struggle till I get the concept of how to do what I want. Also, it has a mind of it's own. It has a certain way of engraving music. I'm sure you can override it's rules and make your score look exactly like you want but you may search a bit for the magic words to make it happen.

I really like using it standalone best. I just drop my text file on the LilyPond icon and out comes my score, midi, and log of how things went.

I like it less when using it as an extension in openoffice- lots of strange things happen there but I imagine it's because I'm just not skilled enough at using it in openoffice.

Overall, it's a keeper. And the price is right.

John

[sunhome]

I use LilyPond to produce music scores and midi output.
LilyPond is very powerful.
John

Lilypond was just what I was looking for I appreciate the input.

Connecting staff notation to the piano roll has just become doable using lilypond and my host of the hour (Live, Renoise, and/or Orion).

I haven't figured out the piano roll relationships to the aspects of notation. I can now run aspects of notation through lilypond and see what the result looks like in a piano roll

Regards, James

[johnjaypl]

Lilypond was just what I was looking for I appreciate the input.

Great! I'm glad I could help.

John