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.mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:44 am
by scottw
Today I received a file from a party in Europe. I find I cannot open it as it is a .mus file. Does anyone know what might have created the file and what I might use to open it? I would ask the guy who sent it, but he doesn't speak English any better than I speak German.
Thanks!
Scottw

Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:53 am
by Sharp
That's a Finale file. Here's a link to the free version, though it may not open it correctly (it is pretty limited in features):
http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/" target="_blank" target="_blank
If you know someone with the 'full-version' of Finale, you could ask them to save it as a PDF for you.
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:13 pm
by scottw
Sharp7 wrote:That's a Finale file. Here's a link to the free version, though it may not open it correctly (it is pretty limited in features):
http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
If you know someone with the 'full-version' of Finale, you could ask them to save it as a PDF for you.
Thanks, Sharp!
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:14 pm
by Dan Schultz
You can simply ask the sender to provide you with a .pdf file if they have a recent version of Finale. Or... send me the file and I'll send you back a .pdf. My email is in my signature.
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:20 pm
by scottw
TubaTinker wrote:You can simply ask the sender to provide you with a .pdf file if they have a recent version of Finale. Or... send me the file and I'll send you back a .pdf. My email is in my signature.
Thanks, Dan. Once it was identified as a Finale file, I just sent it to one of our players who does a lot of our arrangements and compositions, asking him to convert them. If he is unable to do so, I will take you up on your kind offer.
Thanks!
Scottw
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:32 pm
by MikeW
Just in case...
"Harmony Assistant" from Myriad software also produces .mus files. I don't know if they are compatible with Finale .mus format.
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 4:34 pm
by pgym
MikeW wrote:Just in case...
"Harmony Assistant" from Myriad software also produces .mus files. I don't know if they are compatible with Finale .mus format.
They're not compatible.
I've been using HA since 2007. HA files can be saved with the suffix .mus or .myr, but the file format is identical.
Harmony Assistant will open Finale files, but Finale won't open HA files. If you open a Finale file in HA then save it, Finale will no longer open it, regardless of which suffix you use. The only way to access an HA-formatted file in Finale is to export it to XML or MIDI and import the resultant file in Finale.
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:00 pm
by imperialbari
Sharp7 wrote:That's a Finale file. Here's a link to the free version, though it may not open it correctly (it is pretty limited in features):
http://www.finalemusic.com/products/finale-notepad/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank
If you know someone with the 'full-version' of Finale, you could ask them to save it as a PDF for you.
If Notepad doesn't open Finale files correctly, that would be new to me. Of course Notepad has to be the same version or newer compared to the Finale version that saved the file.
Notepad cannot do very sophisticated work on the file and Notepad has limited sound facilities for playback, but as I got it Notepad will open Finale files for viewing and printing without graphic distortion.
Aside from a few very close project fellows, don't share Finale files, because it is very hard to control where they will surface again. Your name still may be on it even if the music has been changed, or others may claim authorship over your work.'
Finale can produce soundfiles in iTunes format, if sound samples are needed.
Klaus
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 10:34 pm
by imperialbari
Wade, you don't like them, but I find that Garritan sounds for Finale sometimes help in making inner voices more discernible than QuickTime or other generic synthesized sounds. I think I can hear a difference between the iTunes/wav files and the mp3 files. So in some case I make the wav files available despite their size being larger maybe by a factor 20.
Klaus
Re: .mus files?
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:38 am
by scottw
We opened these files in Finale and converted them to pdf's, as suggested. This has worked out well, thanks to all!
