Finale Forum

As we know, MakeMusic has decided to withdraw scan & pdf import from v. 25.
Musitek (no advertising intended, just info) offers a solution (99 $) : Smartscore Music-to-XML. It imports scans, pdf and tif files directly into Finale via MusicXML conversion.
Philip Rothman wrote a detailed review in his blog : http://www.sibeliusblog.com/news/musite ... converter/.

Given that there is no editing function, it seems to me that someone who wants to scan should go an additional $100 for the full SmartScore Pro. The list price is $400, but they offer a discount to Finale owners.

In my experience, the inevitable errors in the scan recognition are often more easily corrected BEFORE going to XML and Finale.

Yep.

No editing and limited functionality for $100 or full editing and functionality for $200.

While I grant that either is far better than SmartScore Lite, what's your time worth? OK, in my case, I spent the two bills in 2012 when there was no $99.95 option. Reading through that review, I would do the same.

Here's where all Finale owners can buy SmartScore X2 Pro for $199.95. Same price as the upgrade price from SS Lite without the upgrade hassle.
https://store.makemusic.com/Store/defau ... edproducts

Here's an older comparison chart that does not include the App Store product:
http://www.musitek.com/SSLiteUpgrade.html

Mike and all...

Does it Smartscore X2 Pro work?

For my needs we use a service that provides a "PDF" lead sheet that I can download. In many cases, That works fine except for numerous times we need to change the order of a chorus or rework the end of a lead sheet to fit our needs for an arrangement.

Or the obvious, Add some harmony parts for singers without transcribing the whole thing over into Finale.

I also own 2004, 2006 and as well as 2014 so I'm not sure if this is something those versions would do. ( I've used Finale on a very limited basis i must confess )

Will Smartscore X2 PRO do what I need to do? I'd hate to spend 200 Bucks and realize I just flushed it down the tubes on something that I hoped would work.

*** Will I have to re-scan the the PDF or can it import an actual PDF file? ***

I'm using Finale more than i ever have in the past in the last month or so. Image my shock when I just went to the original link for the "MM" forums and discovered it was gone.. or shall I say, replaced.

Thanks for any input on what I will need to do.

Wayne

Best thing is to try a demo version which does not allow you to save files to see how well it works for your particular use.

http://www.musitek.com/demos.html

You don't have to scan a PDF file, SS will open it and then treat it as an image.

You can enter notation into the SS file but it is done by selecting the note duration and then clicking on the staff for the desired pitch. Can be tedious. The SS user-interface is optimized for scan correction, not for entering from scratch and it works quite well but it is something else to learn.

SSP will turn the original PDF into an editable file. You can then correct any scanning-introduced errors, and export the file as xml. Import the file into Finale, and do the heavy lifting.

As Zoots said, although you can do this in SSP, that's not what it's designed for. The better you know both Finale and SSP, the more useful you will find them working together.

You might also look at PDF to Music Pro, from Myriad http://www.myriad-online.com/en/product ... sicpro.htm. This program is designed to examine a PDF file that is directly created from a music publishing program, that is, not a scan, and export as XML. Again, you go back to Finale for your changes. I use this, as well.

It's good to have many tools in your toolbox. Although you can drive a screw with a butter knife, and pound in a nail with a rock, a screwdriver and hammer make the job a lot easier!

Perfect, thank you for the help. Bringing into finale so I have my native file format and any future edits is what I intended.

Great.. like they say.. "Hand me a bigger hammer"!

thanks for keeping the Forum Alive!

Wayne

PDF to Music Pro sounds like a copyright-holder's bane, frankly. I'm sure there are legitimate uses, but for someone sending out a PDF they don't want pirated it seems like a good idea to make an image first and make the PDF from that.

Just another bump in the road. With the right tools, or enough time to do it the old fashioned way, nothing is safe.

True enough.

PDF to Music Pro would have been more worthy of MM's shunning than SmartScore or whatever it's called, since the former's targert--a PDF produced by Finale or similar--is much more likely to be someone's intellectual property (if not, the creator would likely supply the Finale file or MusicXML). It's kind of like selling hacking software or lock picks.

motet wrote:True enough.

PDF to Music Pro would have been more worthy of MM's shunning than SmartScore or whatever it's called, since the former's targert--a PDF produced by Finale or similar--is much more likely to be someone's intellectual property (if not, the creator would likely supply the Finale file or MusicXML). It's kind of like selling hacking software or lock picks.

Huh?

PDFtoMusicPro is shareware that only works with .pdf files that have been created by a notation program. I agree that anyone who posts a copyrighted work that PDFtoMusicPro can reverse engineer did not take proper security measures. It's really not germane to this thread.
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/product ... sicpro.htm

Smartscore's pdf-to-XML converter for Win or Macs is the piece that was to be included in Finale 25. It is available through either of the links at the bottom of the page.
http://www.sibeliusblog.com/news/musite ... converter/

Now Musitec is in bed with MM at some point and has an engine that can output scanned images to MusicXML. Both SmartScore and Finale are commercial applications and have Mac and Win versions. While I understand the copyright issues (being it's how I make a living), that genie was let out of the bottle over a decade ago and no one will be able to put it back.