Music scanning/transposing program needed

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DonShirer
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Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by DonShirer »

     A friend who is a very accomplished trumpeter recently sent me a query about a music scanning program:
"I have been playing with a symphony orchestra and have to transpose trumpet parts from Bb to C, D, A and F. Transposition is not one of my strong skills, so my question is,
Is there a program for the Apple that I could scan a Bb part and have that program print out a transposed copy?"

     I have Sibelius (but no scanner) and know that PhotoScore from Neuratron is supposed to scan printed music and feed it into Sibelius, but that combination is rather expensive and I think he is looking for a simpler solution. Do any of you know of other scanning/transposing programs or combinations of programs which would do the job?
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thevillagetuba
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by thevillagetuba »

There is no good program that I know of to accurately scan music into Sibelius. I have tried PhotoScore multiple times and have always spent about as much time fixing errors as I would have to input the music myself (I will admit that I am quite fast, probably faster than most, at this input but I think my point still stands).

Others might have had better experiences, but none of the people I know that have used a music scanning program to import the music to Sibelius or Finale have been happy with the result. My best advice is some coffee/beer/beverage of choice, some good music, and a little time in front of a computer.
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Dan Schultz
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by Dan Schultz »

I scan parts into Finale and transpose them but the latest version of Finale does not support scanning. The key to getting good recognition is having a very good part to scan. It's never perfect and there is always a little clean-up work to correct missed key signatures, times, etc.
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opus37
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by opus37 »

I've been using an older finale program which came with a scanner option. I've found it more accurate to just directly enter the notes into the program. Yes, it takes time, but finding all the corrections takes time too, and it is less frustrating.
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swillafew
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by swillafew »

I was very humbled watching some hobby trumpet players transposing and doing it very well in uncommon keys. I am not at their level, but I am getting better all the time by doing it in different settings.

As of now I can play 3 keys of tuba, and between knowing those and some other clef training, I can make decent showing.

I also use notation programs and have yet to save any time scanning a document.
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DonShirer
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by DonShirer »

     I found several possible scanning programs:
SmartScore X2 (Win/Mac)
PhotoScore (Win/Mac)
SilverFast (Win/Mac)
Crescendo (Mac)
SharpEye (Win)
Audiveris (?)
Capella (Win)
     Comments seem to point to PhotoScore as being most accurate, but as you have pointed out, it cannot convert everything. I tend to agree with those who say just enter the notes by hand, but my friend is going to try a free demo version of Crescendo before making a firm decision. Thanks for your help.
Don Shirer
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GC
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by GC »

With the older Finale, I got a bit more accuracy with scans by bumping up the dpi in the scans a level or two. I tended to get my best results at 300-600 dpi. At 150 and below errors began to increase. It might help here.
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by Dan Schultz »

I forgot to mention in my earlier post regarding the recognition accuracy of the scanning technology...

if you ever try to process anything written in an open key signature... Finale will simply throw a fit!
Dan Schultz
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Re: Music scanning/transposing program needed

Post by Sous-Chef-Phone »

If you want free / open source stuff, I would recommend MuseScore for transposing, since there's a simple command to transpose everything.

As far as scanning, I don't have firsthand experience with any options, but this forum post I just looked up recommends something called Audiveris that can read from a pdf?
https://musescore.org/en/node/7006" target="_blank
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