Ability to import MusicXML and/or ABC

[mswlogo]

People get confused on the purpose and needs of Notation Composer for different users.

It's not to just SEE the notes and print them. It's to PLAY along AND SEE the notes at the same time.

There are dozens of apps (some free) that can convert ABC to Notation or to MusicXML or MusicXML to notation and print the score.

Many of them stop there.

A few allow to play it. But many play them poorly compared to Notation Composer. Many don't allow controlling which staffs play and which are visible (That's huge).

The only software I have seen that does it all is Finale ($600.00) and I still think Notation Composer does it better.

One thing that many of the ABC to MIDI converters do (like the one built into http://abcnotation.com) is generate a bass clef staff of chords from the chord names in the ABC (a seperate MIDI Track/Instrument?). Most tools that import ABC directly don't do this. This is huge. Because it allows a user to control the viewing and listening of chords with Notation Composer.

As I get better I shut the melody off and let the chords play while my eyes still follow the score of just the melody.

Also the request is not for the purpose of editing or Composing ABC or MusicXML. It's just to get that information contained in the ABC or MusicXML into a great tool called Notation Composer. Once there I don't care what format it is in.

There are also plenty of tools that convert ABC to MIDI. But they lose structure of the tune. Repeats, Chords, alternate endings and Measure alignment (all in my tutorial of how to restore it all).

[NotationUser]

I am not quite sure what confusion you are about. I guess every user has different imaginations on what a program should do - it's not the program that decides what people need - does it?

Well, you and me too would like to import music XML and probably other formats into Notation - without loss and the need reconstructing data that was there before. Better access to more content is for sure always desirable. I am sure improvements will be done, maybe not instantly.

Notation has a well balanced feature set for creating score, playing along, learning, editing midi and some other useful purposes. I think this mix makes it so interesting.

Free tools often focus on certain aspects only (because making software is more work than some might imagine) and you have to combine many of them to get what you want. It's often too much compromising either. If we turn to shareware, some bucks here and there can easily turn out to a higher expense for a less functional set of stuff as you can get with a solution like Composer. In this regard I agree as well.

However, if you set other price levels you can get more for more, like Notion 3 which is a kind of reference to me when it comes to the combination of score, performance and production. There are similar functions to mute or display selections of staffs, there is a full audio mixing console and it comes with built in orchestra samples from London Symphony Orchestra which surpasses almost any free SF2 based sound system I have tried - not to mention the default synth in windows... If you want all that the price of Notion 3 is a no brainer too...

Finally everyone has to find out which product suits his needs best.

I have decided for myself too that Notation Composer does enough of what I want and need. One thing I like is the integration of editing midi without going into the hex code aspect, event lists and the like... I also like playing along or recording my improvisation performance into Composer for practice and see the score showing up so close to what I imagined.

I think the charming aspect of Notation Software is it does not try to go into extremes - focusing on features that helps most musicians to a reasonable extent in a well balanced mixture.

But finally you can't discuss taste - from my experience that never worked...

not to weigh in on what a program should and should not do, but i would love to be able to open abc files with out having to export to midi first. i would love to be able to open the music xml files that come from some of the people i play with.
I am a big fan of http://www.thesession.org which posts music in abc format. i would love to copy and paste the text from the browser window straight into an abc window in notation. one less step one less file to clean up ....one less thing .