NoteWorthy Composer Forum

Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: SEF MetaData on 2011-09-19 08:40 pm

Title: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: SEF MetaData on 2011-09-19 08:40 pm
I need some help with the MXML2NWCC.EXE file conversion process.  Our accompanist has produced a complex score in Sibelius 6.  I purchased the Dolet 6 plug-in from Recordare specifically so that I can export MusicXML files from Sibelius.  I exported the score, and then tried to use the MXML2NWCC.EXE converter by Nicolas Hatier to translate/transfer that score into Noteworthy Composer v. 2.1.

All looked great.  I displayed all of the layered parts and cleaned up the individual staves for each voice part.  So, the structure works great and is a million times better than trying to use MIDI files.

BUT, the Noteworthy score is missing 90% of the accidentals that are in the Sibelius score.  I saw notes on this forum about using a program named NOTEPAD++ to work with the XML file.  I see that "Accidentals" is marked "no" in the XML file.

I have a call into Recordare to ask for some help with this, but do any of you gurus have some ideas about how to fix my conversion problem?

FYI, I am a long-time basic user of Noteworthy.  I often use SharpEye to get my choir scores from print to Noteworthy.   I am a purchaser of Sibelius, but have not had time to learn how to use this software.  In the past, I have been able to accomplish what was needed to produce rehearsal MIDI files for my choir, but I am starting to operate at a higher level of complexity.
 
Thanks so much for any insights.

SEF
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Bill Denholm on 2011-09-20 06:31 am
SEF:

I have had a very similar experience with XML conversion.  We are preparing for a concert involving 1000 male voices next year, and I was confronted with about 150 pages of pdf scores from the organisers, from which I wanted to generate sectional training aids for our choir.  It turned out to be surprisingly straightforward with the following sequence of operations:
Like you I found that nearly everything worked very nicely, except that one very large nwc score was missing most of its accidentals!  However with the other subsequent 6 scores (with fewer sharps and flats in the key signatures) there was not a single missing accidental.

I know this doesn't help you solve the problem, but now that I've heard of your similar experience I'll look more closely at my XML files and see if I can detect any differences.  If you get any help from Recordare I'd be interested to hear about it.

Cheers,

Bill
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Richard Woodroffe on 2011-09-20 07:20 am
The problem seems to be somewhere with Sibelius / Dolet  and so I can't be of help since I don't have these but I am intruiged to ask Bill a question after his posting.

It is possible to feed pdf files into Photoscore Ultimate and then save directly as xml from there without going through the Sibellius/dolet steps.
Is there a specific reason why it is better/useful/efficient to go through Sibelius?

I can see why the original poster has to do that since the scores were originally Sibelius scores.

I haven't experienced this "missing accidentals" problem using the route     pdf > Photoscore > XML > MXML2NWCC > NWC

 
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: PhilHolmes on 2011-09-20 08:28 am
I can confirm that I have never had a problem with missing accidentals whilst importing MusicXML files to Noteworthy, so I would suspect the Sibelius export.
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Bill Denholm on 2011-09-20 11:45 am
Good points raised.  The reason I went via Sibelius was that the scores had lots of empty staves and I wanted to make more compact scores for the accompanist (to save page-turning) by "saving empty staves" (lots of 'em!).  As far as I'm concerned I see little other incentive to use Sibelius for most jobs.  It just happens that our choir purchased Sibelius because our Music Team members have used it during their music-teaching activities.  I usually prefer to notate straight to nwc using my MIDI keyboard, and this group of scores was a special case. 

I hadn't yet attempted to bypass Sibelius using Photoscore.  In the Photoscore Ultimate package that came with Sibelius 6 there is no obvious provision to Save As XML but I see now that the help file gives a hint that it can be done, so I'll be following it up.  (Cunning blighters obviously aim to discourage saving to other formats). 

Richard, do you own a stand-alone copy of Photoscore that allows exporting to XML?

I'll certainly look into it for future PDF to NWC conversions when there's no advantage in going via Sibelius.

Thanks for the very useful comments.

Bill
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Richard Woodroffe on 2011-09-20 12:16 pm
Richard, do you own a stand-alone copy of Photoscore that allows exporting to XML?

Yes I do.  If I do a "File Save as" then look in the drop down box for type, there is mid,  music xml, niff and wav as well as Sibelius options.

Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Bill Denholm on 2011-09-20 12:23 pm
Richard.  Red face again!

On actually going through the "Save As" motions for an actual Photoscore file I realise that I can save as XML.  I'll see how the resulting conversion to nwc pans out.  I don't expect any trouble.

Thanks again for putting me straight on this.
Cheers,

Bill.
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: melismata on 2011-09-20 02:27 pm
Yes I do.  If I do a "File Save as" then look in the drop down box for type, there is mid,  music xml, niff and wav as well as Sibelius options.



Why do you have to go through MXML2NWCC.EXE at all then (let alone Sibelius or Dolet) ?  Save as mid and import directly to nwc.
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Flurmy on 2011-09-20 02:32 pm
Old story and bad idea: passing through midi you lose by far too many notation items.
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Richard Woodroffe on 2011-09-20 03:40 pm
Old story and bad idea: passing through midi you lose by far too many notation items.

Melismata obviously has not yet appreciated the differences between importing midi and importing mxml.
Given the choice, mxml every time (as long as the mxml has been properly constructed).
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: Lawrie Pardy on 2011-09-20 11:13 pm
Given the choice, mxml every time (as long as the mxml has been properly constructed).
I heartily concur!
Title: Re: Help with MusicXML!
Post by: melismata on 2011-09-21 10:09 pm
Melismata obviously has not yet appreciated the differences between importing midi and importing mxml.
Given the choice, mxml every time (as long as the mxml has been properly constructed).

I must humbly admit that I have no experience at all using mxml.  But I have had experience in importing midi and yes I agree that it is not perfect.  Even so, it is adequate for my needs and I don't mind going over the stuff again correcting what has been missed.