Midi Composer is way ahead on midi transcription

I am a proud new owner of MidiNotate Composer...
I have faithfully used Capella (German software I think) (http://www.software-partners.co.uk) This program however costs £84 (about $150) and is hopeless at converting Midi to Notation - I did not realize how hopeless until I got MidiNotate-Composer. Capella asks for 4 different pages of imformation about the midi-file, the shortest note, does it contain triplets, does it contain lyrics etc. etc. and after all that it makes a complete hash of it - often getting one track out of sync with the other.
I like MidiNotate Composer mainly because it just gets on with it. I use it to create backing tracks to play along with on the violin, which I am learning (again!) The program is very flexible and so easy to manipulate. A good example is the 'track setup' window - All the info's there and it's easy to edit. Entering notes manually is easier as well - I especially like the Sequencial Note Entry - Simple but clever.
Thanks for a great program.

Graham.

Hello Graham,

Thanks for the enthusiastic comments about MidiNotate Composer. And welcome to the forum.

Your use of MidiNotate Composer to prepare accompaniments for you violin practice is an excellent way to take advantage of the software. I wish you pleasurable success to returning to your violin.

Cheers
-- Mark (developer of MidiNotate)

P.S. I included your remarks on the web site's Testimonials page. Every once in a while I copy a forum posting like yours to that page.

The solution to my problem was right under my nose all along.I always knew MidiNotate,and then Composer was very good at midi notation. When playing out,I may use some midifiles saved in Composer.I play them off my laptop with melody muted.

The problem has been storing sheet music for songs played totally from my Technics kn7000. I scanned about 800 lead sheets of various sizes and quality.To get the whole sheet,many times meant reducing the note size too small to read.To scan two halves,too cumbersome.

Solution:
I record the song off the sheet music into my keyboard at one pass.
I save the song to disk in midi format. I put the floppy into the laptop,and the most beautiful transcription appears. I convert this to lead sheet ,and I can have a stationary,or paginating score.

So simple,yet I missed it.

Howdy Bernie,

I'm glad to hear that you found The Solution

I've recommended your method to friends who play well from sheet music, so that they can also make lead sheets as you mention. Good tip!

ttfn,
Sherry

Just some thoughts on a cold October day.

I'm digging out some music that I haven't looked at in 10 years and retranscribing the .mid files for a Christmas production. Once again, I am bowled over by the transcription engine that Mark has created for his Midinotate products. It has to be the best and most accurate midi-to-notation transcription around at any price.

I have a colleague who uses Sibelius, which is about as top-end as you can get, and comparison of the printed results shows that Composer, at about one-eighth of the price, is at least as good. Having seen my chum work in Sibelius, Composer is head-and-shoulders ahead on ease of use and user friendliness.

The vocal and instrumental parts for this production will all be created in Composer and I have no doubt that they will look professional.

David

Hi David,

Wow, Composer feels flattered to be compared against such a good music program as Sibelius. I've admired Sibelius since I first saw it at its debut at the National Assoc of Music Merchants show many years ago. I was already well into the development of MidiNotate and could see a lot of work ahead to compete with the strengths of Sibelius. MidiNotate's development started with the integration of MIDI and notation at its very core, including MIDI-to-notation transcription. This architecture is important, in my opinion, for a music application which purpose is not only to publish the printed score but also to provide the composer and arranger a natural way to get musical ideas from the head down on (virtual) paper. MidiNotate Composer hopes to make composing and arranging easier, less tedious, more productive, and more fun. It also hopes to make preparing sheet music easier, less tedious, more productive, and more fun. Both are equally important purposes of MidiNotate Composer. The first purpose-- to help the composer and arranger during the moments of creating the music-- is one that is more difficult to demonstrate to folk. You have to create the music yourself, using MidiNotate Composer, to know what it feels like. David, you know. I'm pleased that Composer helps you as a composer.

Cheers
-- Mark

Mark,

I wholehearted agree with David, you deserve the complements for 200%. Keep up the excellent work

Cheers, Jaap

Hi Mark,
I agree with the others in their praise of Composer.

Before Composer I struggled with a lot of other programs, and was pleased when Mark's Composer had the promise of scoring music so easily. And he has realised that promise.

I was in one of our software stores the other day and noticed that 'Finale' have a cheap version of a scoring program ($134 Aus). What I noticed that they offered in with the product was two things:
(a) A scanning program that converts to score, and
(b) A melody audio recognition system.

So Mark, it looks like the 10-11 years to get Composer to this stage is only the beginning - there are many more wonderful challenges and new ground to break.

But based on your success of the past with Composer, I'm sure we will see new inovations in Composer that leave the others behind.

Cheers ... Clyde

Hello Jaap and Clyde,

Thanks for your compliments on Composer.

Clyde, I have no ambition to develop sheet music scanning myself. It's a big development task, that a few other developers have already done well. Instead, I intend to add MusicXML support to MidiNotate, which will enable the importing of notation prepared by the top music scanning programs by Musitek and SharpEye. (Finale licenses their music scanning program from Musitek.) I've admittedly let the schedule for MusicXML support slip, as I only occasionally hear requests for it. If you want MusicXML support, such as to import notation prepared by a sheet music scanner, please lobby for it in the Features Request section of the forum. MusicXML also holds the promise for passing notation files between notation programs of different companies. I'm not sure how much that is being done.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the feedback.
I personally have no need for the scanning software, and hence have not asked for it.

Cheers ... Clyde

Mark,

first of all I fully support all compliments re. composer and once in a while I advertise your wonderful software in a German musicians forum, because I love this piece of software so much and wish it all possible success.

With respect to notation scanning, I am very much interested in a good link of scanning software to composer. However, I am wondering what the advantage of Music XML support is. The scanning software normally is able to save midi files. Isn't this enough to import it into composer?

I wish you all the best!

Jörg

Hello Jörg,

Thanks for your support for MidiNotate Composer, and for telling your musician forum friends about it in Germany.

If you transfer the music from a scanning program to a notation program using MusicXML rather than MIDI, then you will be able to transfer not only the notes but also music annotations such as dynamic marks, phrase marks (slurs), accent marks, tempo marks, etc.

That said, scanning and transferring the notes is, by far, the most important task. If the scanning program does a good job identifying the notes, then MidiNotate will do a good job automatically formatting the score. Then, in MidiNotate, it is easy to manually add the music annotations (dynamic marks, phrase marks (slurs), accent marks, tempo marks, etc.). In fact, this might be the easiest, quickest way to copy printed sheet music into a notation program, since the scanning technology is fairly error-prone for some music annotations.

Cheers
-- Mark

Howdy,

Mark said:
If the scanning program does a good job identifying the notes, then MidiNotate will do a good job automatically formatting the score. Then, in MidiNotate, it is easy to manually add the music annotations (dynamic marks, phrase marks (slurs), accent marks, tempo marks, etc.). In fact, this might be the easiest, quickest way to copy printed sheet music into a notation program, since the scanning technology is fairly error-prone for some music annotations.

Sherry replies:
This is exactly the method that I use!

I have a really old hymnal that I wanted to do some arrangements from, and couldn't find any MIDIs for them on the internet. I happened across a special deal that Neuratron was running (apparently they occasionally do this on their website, but don't advertise or announce it) where they offered pretty much just the bare-bones scanner-conversion-to-midi package. It cost me $24.99, and it scans sheet music (or bmp files) and allows you to make corrections. The gui for the correction part is quite good, too. Then it exports a simple MIDI file, which I then open in Composer for excellent sheet music, as well as all the arranging things I can do. It is an excellent solution, and I've used it quite frequently in that capacity.

It's also nice if I have sheet music for a song that I'd like to do at church, but don't have the instrumentalists to perform it. I can scan it, save the midi, import that into Composer, and make an arrangement that I can record on to CD for accompaniment. This works well too

ttfn,
Sherry

Hello,

I agree with Sherry and Mark.
Often the simple scanning & midi output tool can do a reasonable job, according to Sherry's experience.

If you need more functionality, then Musitek's Smartscore 3.x
at a higher price delivers you more, I have done some work with it. http://www.musitek.com/

But your paper music must be of high quality (contrast and no damages)

Cheers Jaap

Hello Sherry and Jaap,

Thanks for your tips about third party sheet music scanning software.

I have now added a new section on Sheet Music Scanning Software under the Third Party Music Software Tools section of this forum. I encourage you to start threads on Neuratron and Musitek. If you have tried more than one sheet music scanning program, please consider writing up a comparison between them.

Cheers
-- Mark