Music Notation Software

[Bill]

Hi All

I'm interested in finding some software that can help me to edit scores.
I have tried many, however I'm becoming increasing confused.

I have many books that I have converted into digital copies, but a lot more that are still to be transferred over (primarily because the centre margins of book is very small. This would make it impossible to rebind them after cutting off the binding)

I can scan the pages using the IPAD and get some programs to flatten the image.  This can produce a reasonable PDF.

However if I want to edit the score what next.
I may want to delete excess staves, duplicate section to eliminate excessive repeats, or just change the key.
Several programs allow me to do this BUT only in correct format (which obviously is NOT PDF)

When I try to convert one of my PDF to XML it converts that score OK but removes the Text and Chord symbals. I know I could re-insert them manually but it is a real pain.

I have also tried the import PDF's feature in MuseScore but it's more of a miss than a hit.


Is there anything I'm missing or is there ONE program that will do everything in one go.  I'm prepared to spend some money but not the ridiculous sums of money some firms charge, especially to find out after purchase it only does 80% of what I want..

Your help, feedback, suggestions would be really welcome.

Bill

[Graham UK]

Bill I'm on the same page as you regarding scores.
MuseScore does a reasonable PDF to MXL job but not always and deletes all chords.
I have tried a few PDF Editors but I have failed with these.
I used to make all my lead sheets from Midi for years which worked very well with Notation Compose until a Bill Gates Win10 update stop these working as they should.
Be interested in replies you receive.

[Stijn]

Me too! I'm also interested in the replies.

In the past I got a reasonable result using OneNote (part of MS Office) to copy parts of the sheet and then paste them into Powerpoint. That way I could get rid of the excess staves.
Now I use FastStone Capture instead of OneNote. It has more editing and cleaning tools and it can send the parts to Powerpoint.
FastStone Capture is shareware; http://www.faststone.org/download.htm

To get the best result I reconstruct the sheet manually in MuseScore. It also allows me to change the key and to eliminate excessive repeats.
The downside is that it takes a lot of time.

Stijn

[pmahl]

Hi
I'm using Notation Composer 3 with Windows 11. For me it works great.
Peter

[Divemaster]

Hello Bill, Graham and stijn.

I use Scan Score. It's a paid programme for Windows and Mac, and in the time I've been using it, it has been, without doubt, the best programme of this nature thar I've used. I compose a fair bit of music, and I like to be able to see parts of the score as I play, and Scan-score allows this. It will even play the score to you if you want to do that. You can also export your score to some of the more well known programs like Sibelius. You can buy the program to suit the number of instruments you want to work with.

It also allows you to transpose a score from one key to another, which I find very handy. Just scan the sheet, press on the key you want to transpose to and it will print off the new copy instantly.

Working on a budget, the bigger and more well known programs are just so hugely expensive, and far more involved than I need or want to pay for,  and that's how I came to find this program. It's written by a German team, and you may find that it fits your needs.
I've had it for about 4 years now, and I think it's excellent.

Hope that helps you. 
Keith.

https://www.scan-score.com

[Stijn]

Thank you Peter and Keith.
This is very useful information.

Stijn