Finale Forum

Hello,

I have scanned and imported some choral arrangements. The soprano and alto parts are on one staff and the tenor and bass parts on another staff. I would like to separate the parts so I have each on a separate staff. I believe the "explode" function is not available in PrintMusic. The only way I have found to do this by copying the staves and then manually deleting top or bottom notes respectively. This will be a long and tedious process. Part of the issue is that PrintMusic generally (but not always) sees the two parts as a chord and to delete one note I have to double click the chord and then use the arrows to select the right note to delete. Even if this wasn't the case, it will still be a tedious process. Is there a better way to do it ? And if I upgrade to SmartScore x2 Pro will it make a difference ?

Thanks.

Not much better, but with the Simple Edit eraser you can click carefully on the notehead you want to delete instead of selecting the whole chord and using arrow keys. There might be a better way, though.

You have a couple of choices, but both will cost money.

You could upgrade to Finale. This will give you the ability to Explode, as well as the ability to use a plugin. Jari's JW Staff Polyphony makes this task pretty straightforward.

You could go with one of the full SmartScore versions. The difference between them is how many staves they will handle. Any of them will give you the ability to edit the recognized score before you import it into Finale. This will let you deal with the layers more easily than in Finale. Then, you can put the properly layered score into PrintMusic, and split the parts up with a combination of View Active Layer Only, and copy/paste/delete.
(Remember that as a Finale owner, you can purchase SSP for half price. I THINK they also extend that to PM users, and only on the SmartScore Pro, but you should contact them to check.)

In either case, you have some learning ahead of you, but in the end, the results will be worth it. If you plan on doing a lot of this, grit your teeth, and spend the money!

Thanks Mike. It appears that SSP may be the better way to go for what I'm trying to do. My prime objective is to be able to separate the voices from scanned scores. It's probably also the most cost effective option (yes, SSP for half price does extend to PM users).

Fine. Just remember, there IS a learning curve!

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