How best to get my sheet music into print music

[anniep]

I am trying to enter the digital sheet music age. I just bought PrintMusic 2011, MusicReader PDF, and a new scanner. I have tried scanning my sheet music with the scanner program of all 3 products. And I am extremely frustrated. I can't even tell now what problems I have had with which product - yikes! I long for the days when the complexity was in playing the music at my piano.

What is the best way to get sheet music into PrintMusic so I can make changes to it before getting it into MusicReader (I will use MusicReader instead of lugging all my sheet music around with me.) I am new to all of this so detailed step-by-step would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[miker]

Annie,
Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you've got quite a job ahead of you!

First issue, scanning. Some people have great success, some have very little. I didn't use scanning for many years, but just recently gave it another try, and was generally pleased with the results. Every piece needed some correction, some, more than others. However, keep in mind that I am using the full Finale, and that I have years of experience. I know pretty quickly what the problems are, and if they can be easily fixed, or if a measure or a section, or the entire piece, should be entered from scratch. Also, with the full Finale, I have more editing options than you do, in PM.

I don't mean to be discouraging, but really, you will just have to try it out and see how it works for you.

Remember, a clean, clear print copy is a must. Scan B&W, about 300 DPI, save as TIFF. If the piece is crooked, try to get it as straight as possible. Erase any pencil marks, if you can. If the piece you have is a PDF PRODUCED DIRECTLY FROM A MUSIC PROGRAM, you might look into PDF to Music, which can convert that to an XML, which you can then import into PM.

Of course, if you don't have to make changes in a piece, just scan it, save as a PDF, and send it to MusicReader. (I use ForScore, myself, but MR is a good program, too.

I really suggest that you spend time getting up to speed with PrintMusic, first. It will save a lot of frustration down the line, as you try to make corrections.

Good luck!

[anniep]

I appreciate your response. If better software exists, I am open to acquiring it (them). I found a program called PowerMusic4 that looks pretty good and would be used instead of MusidReader. It looks user friendly allowing libraries to better organize your music (which I like because I have a lot) plus you can "overlay" annotations to what you scanned in. I frequently like to make changes to the original sheet music - PowerMusic does not change the music itself but overlays what is there.

Here's what I want to do:
1) Scan sheet music.
2) Be able to make changes to what I've scanned in (PowerMusic4 kind of allows that but not to the degree PrintMusic does).
3) Play using the digital music.

If you were starting today, what software would you use? Thanks again

[miker]

Again, you have two issues here. Scanning the music, and getting a playable music file out of it.

ForScore allows you to import a PDF, and annotate the file. You can also link an MP3 to that file. I imagine PowerMusic does the same.

Scanning a score and saving as a PDF is no problem, obviously. Scanning and converting to music is hit-and-miss, no matter what program you use. It will need correcting. SmartScore Pro is pretty powerful, but it's $400. Then, you can export your corrected score into PM. That might not even be necessary. SSP may be able to export as an MP3.

You might consider an alternative, which I've used many times. Do you really need the full musical score? If this is for your own practice purposes, why not use PM to generate a simpler file of your part along with chords, or another voice part, or whatever you might need? You will still be able to listen, and have the music in front of you.

[anniep]

When I scan a multi-page piece, the first page is fine but the subsequent pages do now have the staves for treble and bass bracketed together. I found another forum question with the same problem and it was suggested to create new staves using the staff menu. When I click on the staff icon (treble clef sign) nothing happens. I think I should get a drop down or something with options to select from. Do you have any idea what I am doing wrong?

[miker]

Clicking on the tool icon adds a Staff menu to the menu bar. Also, with the staff tool selected, you can right-click on the score, and THEN you will get a drop-down contextual menu.

Please, learn the basics of the program by doing the tutorials and watching the videos, before you dive into the deep end of correcting scans. You'll be a lot happier for it!