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Topic: Can I scan sheet music ? (Read 3069 times) previous topic - next topic

Can I scan sheet music ?

I have a catalogue with 800 or so 8 measure long notated different classical pieces. I would love to find a software
that will allow me to scan these bits of sheet music and then play them back and turn them into MP3 or other files that I could post on a website. Does anyone know of such a thing ?

Thanks in advance for any help

Steve

Re: Can I scan sheet music ?

Reply #1 –
Sharpeye does a pretty good job of music ocr, depending upon the quality of the printed score.

After scanning (and typically some corrections), you can convert to a midi or niff file. One can then record into a wave or mp3 file.

Re: Can I scan sheet music ?

Reply #2 –
I've used Sharpeye too. I think it was (largely) unrestricted freeware, although I had also to use a freeware 'Lime' viewer in order to generate the MIDI file I needed. I used a NIFF file format to interface Sharpeye to the Lime viewer.

My limited experience of Sharpeye showed me it was generally quicker to enter the music via my piano keyboard into Noteworthy, rather than scan it into Sharpeye, check it and make the inevitable corrections. These tests were with scores directly printed from Noteworthy, so the text print quality was excellent.

And I'm not a concert pianist either (but also not a beginner). Others might be quicker or slower than me in entering correctly the music via the piano keyboard. Another contribution to the overall time was the speed of my scanner - not too quick if you want good resolution.

I believe some notation packages (e.g. Sibelius) have an embedded score-scanning system. If you can afford the million pounds needed to purchase it, that should do you very well (have I got that price quite right?).

Re: Can I scan sheet music ?

Reply #3 –
Perhaps I should add to the above that the music I scanned was very simple - just notes, staves, etc. No slurs, expression marks or other items not input-able via the piano keyboard.

I can see that a fully annotated score, with all sorts of trills and other fancy marks would take a lot longer via keyboard + editting the NWC file created.

Re: Can I scan sheet music ?

Reply #4 –
If you've got money, try Sibelius Neuratron Photoscore.
 

Re: Can I scan sheet music ?

Reply #5 –
Short answer: The more you pay, the better the results. There are already products on the market, and no reason for NWC to enter there.