SmartScore 64 Update Released

[Zoots]

I know there are a number of SmartScore users on this forum who might be interested in the latest update.

Version 64 - 11.3.76 (Release date: Nov. 16, 2021)
https://www.musitek.com/updates.html

[miker]

Thanks, Zoots! Do you know if there is a list of fixes? I didn't see one.

[Zoots]

There is a "change history" line in small type under the SmartScore 64 Version 11 line which is a link to: https://www.musitek.com/changelog.html
Fair number of fixes and some new additions.

[miker]

Real fixes, real new features.

If only another product (which shall remain nameless) did the same…

[John Ruggero]

A bit OT. My version of SmartScore X Pro seems to have a problem with tied notes. If the first tied note has an accidental applied to it and the note to which it is tied is in the next measure, the accidental doesn't get applied to the second note. What makes it insidious Is that the accidental applied to the second note doesn't actually appear, but is hidden, so all looks OK until one plays it back. Is this user error or a bug that has been fixed in this later version? I should say that this happens after the file is imported into Finale and played back.

[miker]

John,

I've noticed that, as well, on a few occasions. It's not user error; just one of those things that SS sometimes misses. Have you sent it in to tech support? tech@musitek.com

[motet]

the accidental doesn't get applied to the second note. What makes it insidious Is that the accidental applied to the second note doesn't actually appear, but is hidden, so all looks OK until one plays it back

Rather than a hidden accidental, do you mean there's no cautionary, e.g. a B-flat tied across the barline to B-natural in C major? I think there's a plug-in or two that will find those. JW Accidentals will.

[miker]

No, it’s that the tied note should sound the accidental, but doesn’t.

[motet]

Which accidental? The first note is an accidental, the second is not. The B-flat tied across the barline to B-natural in C major is a common Finale mistake people make.

[motet]

You'd think Utilties/Check/Ties might find this, but it doesn't. I'm not sure what it does. Searching for "Utilities", "Check", and "Ties" in the manual all get zero hits!

[miker]

Which accidental? The first note is an accidental, the second is not. The B-flat tied across the barline to B-natural in C major is a common Finale mistake people make.

In this case, SS does not always pick up the second note of the tied pair as a B flat, across the barline. I'm not sure if the error is in the OCR recognition, the XML export from SmartScore, or the XML import into Finale.

[motet]

Right. But there's no hidden accidental on the tied-to note--it's just not there, right?

Since this is common notation, perhaps it mistakes the tie for a slur? Is it tied when it gets to Finale, or slurred?

[miker]

The Finale tie is there, but it plays the unaccidentaled (?) note.

[motet]

That's Finale's way--it doesn't use the tie to determine whether the tied-to note is flat, sharp, or natural (it does hide the accidental, of course). My guess would be that it's SS's problem rather than Finale's inporting of MusicXML, especially if it only sometimes happens, but if one could find a simple case in which it fails, we could probably look at the MusicXML and figure it out.

[miker]

I'll pay more attention to the scan recognition, and see if I can figure it out.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks, Mike and motet. I sent a problem report to SmartScore.

I am finding this to be a pretty constant problem throughout a large project in which input was entirely through scanning. It's like SmartScore thinks that the tie it is a slur when two consecutive notes in the same position on the staff in two different measures are involved.

[motet]

That was my theory, but does it send Finale a tie or a slur in the MusicXML?

[Gilberto Rey]

A bit OT... but I'll try anyway. To those of you that already have the Pro version: I have a huge analog sheet music library that I have collected through the years (before and parallell with Finale). I would like to scan and make them digital. Mostly piano and guitar scores. (I'll be occupied for years, I guess) My question is this:
Is SmartScore Pro 64 good at it? Generally. I mean, I understand there will be some cleaning up and corrections but will it do the job for me? I plan to import MusicXML into Finale 27.1.
I used some OCR software many years ago and also the bundled Lite version in Finale years back, but always found those more tedious and messy than helpful... have they improved? For a single standard piano piece of one page with fingerings, slurs and dynamics, will I need 1 hour of cleaning up or 5 minutes...?

PS. I also find SmartScore's ordering page for Finale users rather unclear. I want to download it (no shipping). I am considered an intelligent man but I simply don't understand how and what to order if I want to download the Pro version with a Finale discount... Well, I guess I will contact their support instead of asking here but before I do, I would appreciate your input on, if it is "worth" the dollars.
Thank you.
- Gilberto -

[Zoots]

On the Musitek site in the Upgrades section there are instructions how to add a comment requesting to be setup for download. It looks like they want $10 for that perhaps which is usually backwards since most charge more for a DVD!

You are best to try the Demo version on some of your pieces. The copy must be clean, not handwritten even if it is beautiful, and should use the standard music font - by this I mean not something like the Jazz font based on my experience. The Demo won't allow you to save your files so you will not be able to try a XML import into Finale with it but you would see now easy or not easy it is to digitize your scores.

The SmartScore Lite included with Finale was an inferior implementation and did them more harm than good. I think you would find the current version of SmartScore very, very much different. However, the best way to use SS is to learn its editing tools which will allow you to correct scanned scores easier than importing problems into Finale and trying to fix them there. Finale somewhat assumes that everything it sees is based on its entry rules. The SmartScore editing tools are designed to fix scanning problems. The downside is that it will take a bit of learning to use the editing tools proficiently.

While SmartScore does allow you to entry (not scan) a fairly complete score it is mouse-driven and tedious and the program is not really a full-featured music editor like Finale et al. Some people deliberately don't correct lyrics and other text since they find it is easier to enter it once into Finale than fix it in SS. These things can be eliminated in the SmartScore scanning setup so they don't appear in the scan.
I'm sure Miker and others will give their impressions. I have to admit that I'm not a strong Finale user.

[miker]

As Zoots said, a lot depends on the original. But if it's a clean, printed copy, it should work fine. There is a learning curve involved; be prepared. However, once you get over the hump, it's a great product.

If you like, send me one of your scores, and I'll try it out for you.

Send to wawoodman at aol dot com.

[miker]

That was my theory, but does it send Finale a tie or a slur in the MusicXML?

I generally delete slurs while in SSPs editing mode. I've found that they often come through flailing all over the place. (This was on the older version, and I just got used to doing it that way. I probably should try it again.)

Ties are usually correctly copied, except for the issues that we're talking about.

[Gilberto Rey]

Dear Zoots and miker,

Thank you both for your replies. Appreciated. And thank you for your offer for me to send you a score, miker. But I think I will do as Zoots suggested and download the demo. That should give me a fairly good idea how it will work.
Zoot, I still think the Finale ordering page is confusing. I see the $10 for downloading as ‘replacing’ the shipping costs. (I’m in Europe). But if I add SS 64 pro as a download item, I cannot see where to confirm I have Finale… not at checkout nor at the payment page… well, I’ll try the demo first before I bother about that.

[motet]

I tried the tie issue with a simple file, and SS did the right thing, so I wonder if the problem is indeed that it's sometimes mistaking the tie for a slur. Since one would rarely slur two notes of the same pitch, it seems like that would be fixable.

[miker]

It does, occasionally, confuse ties and slurs. This is especially noticeable when the pitches are close: a C natural slurred to a C#, for example, might pick the slur up as a tie.

[motet]

But does it do the opposite, and is that what John is seeing?