Play Score

[chrisgreaves]

A quick Google turned up nothing that leapt out at me.

It seems to me that the time is long past when we should have a program that can read a score and play the tune. Not Beethoven's 6th, mind you, but something as simple as the refrain to psalm 567 which I might have to lead in church next Sunday. Or a stripped-down (piano?) version of James Purdy's "Come Ready and See me".

I can't/won't read sheet music. I can see that the tune goes upwards for four notes, then comes down again, but that is all.

I can remember a tune when once it is played.

I figure that software to interpret (an OCR-like function) the solid and hollow dots on the lines, together with the # and the symbol for a blank at the left hand end ought not be so difficult.

If it does not yet exist, I'll have a shot at a simple Word/VBA project.

[Jezza]

I am like you, can work out what the music is supposed to do but I can't get the fingers do what my eyes want it to do so I use my left brain and remember it.

Have you looked at Sibelius apparently you scan it in and then you can manipulate it it <img src=/S/shrug.gif border=0 alt=shrug width=39 height=15>

[JohnBF]

If the score is in a midi file, Anvil Studio will play it. Haven't played with it to see if Anvil will convert any sound file to midi, but the menus lead me to believe it can import .wav files.

[chrisgreaves]

can I scan and play sheet music?
Thanks Jezza

>I use my left brain and remember it.
I can't remember where I Left mine (grin)

[chrisgreaves]

Thanks, John. I should have been clearer. By 'score' I meant the printed thing, such as is found printed on page 567 of our hymn book. The lotsa-horizontal-lines stuff, with weird symbols, dots, clefs (whatever they are) etc. Jezza hit the plectrum on the banjo.

[johnhutchison]

<hr>Not Beethoven's 6th<hr>

But Sibelius does have the Fifth and the Seventh

[chrisgreaves]

Maybe they had a problem with the Sibilants. grin)

[MarkJ]

There's always the industry-standard tool, Finale. This tool comes with an add-in that scans music (OCR), scores it, and does everything else you can imagine. Many professional musicians, composers, teachers, and performers use this product.

The question is how much do you want to spend... The retail is around $600 with academic/theological discount of $350.

[chrisgreaves]

Thanks for this, Mark, $600 is about six hundred more than i wanted to spend, be it Canadian, US or Australian dollars.
I note the Theological discount - maybe this year is the year I buy a Christmas Prezzie for our oraganist. ("Here's the money, buy yourself anything you want, as long as it is Finale").

Both products mentioned so far seem quite reasonable in price. I guess that professional musicians need/use everything from "ocr scan" to "play MP3", and all points in between. $600 is reasonable.

[StuartR]

Sibelius costs about the same, but has a rather cheaper student edition.

My kids reckon it's usually quicker to re-enter a piece of music manually than to scan it and fix up all the mistakes that the OCR makes, but since I feel the same way about scanning Word documents I guess this is a personal preference issue.

StuartR

[MarkJ]

Back in my music school days, I purchased Finale 2000 and several subsequent upgrades. The initial cost is quite reasonable (especially when you're able to make use of the academic discount) considering the capabilities it offers for most musicians.

<img src=/S/ranton.gif border=0 alt=ranton width=66 height=37>
The only thing that seems to feel a bit expensive is their predictably annual upgrades. They ask about $100 per upgrade and those have occurred annually since 2000. I'm certainly not against software upgrades, but the once-a-year cycle is a bit excessive, especially when they market each upgrade as the best product EVER! One of my former music professors complained that Finale's makers will "'hundred-dollar' you into the poorhouse..."
<img src=/S/rantoff.gif border=0 alt=rantoff width=66 height=37>

[MarkJ]

I have not used Sibelius much, but it was definitely gaining some popularity about the time I started to ease my way out of the music world (2002-ish). Since they have a cheaper student edition, I'm sure that will help it gain more market share...

From my brief use of one of its earlier demos, I noticed that it was quite capable software but seemed to take a decidedly different approach from Finale. Anyone who had become comfortable with Finale would probably hate it, while anyone who was looking for a first-time product would likely prefer it.

I never scanned music much, but I totally agree that it takes a good bit of time to clean and correct any scans (either music or text). If you are able to enter music quickly (which is quite easy with both said products), it may save time to enter from scratch rather than scanning. In which case, a free lite version of Finale is available: Finale Notepad

[StuartR]

I know exactly what you mean, tried Finale once and couldn't work out what on earth it wanted from me!

StuartR

[chrisgreaves]

> They ask about $100 per upgrade a
Interesting topic for the "Copyright and rights of purchaser" forum - What if I bought a current version, then, being a mere amateur, wanted to purchase last years $100 upgrade off you for, say $50. You would then be able to discard your ineffective last-year's upgrade and get this year's current for $100-$50.

I suppose a license says that you are only allowed to use the software on your old 150MHz clunker with 340MB RAM etc.

We would, effectively, be sharing a $100 upgrade, albeit I would be (as usual) at least a year behind the rest of the world.

[liner]

[quote name='chrisgreaves' post='601448' date='25-Sep-2006 14:39']> They ask about $100 per upgrade

Interesting topic for the "Copyright and rights of purchaser" forum - What if I bought a current version, then, being a mere amateur, wanted to purchase last years $100 upgrade off you for, say $50. You would then be able to discard your ineffective last-year's upgrade and get this year's current for $100-$50.

I suppose a license says that you are only allowed to use the software on your old 150MHz clunker with 340MB RAM etc.

We would, effectively, be sharing a $100 upgrade, albeit I would be (as usual) at least a year behind the rest of the world.[/quote]

I have used Finale extensively for a number of years, and finally got the Finale upgrade. The program is complex, but then again it does a lot. If you go to their web site, you will see that they have cheaper programs that (I think) use the basic Finale engine with fewer options.

But to your point: Apparently too many people have been sharing. First--The upgrade MUST be installed over an existing installation. THey have a really annoying activation system for the program, so it is hard to share. They will allow the system to be put on (I think) 2 machines; maybe 3. And they have a method of "moving" the program so you can uninstall it from one registered machine and put it onto another. I will also say that their help staff is responsive and gives real solutions.

Finally, I have tried their scanning program. It demands clean copies, and has proven unreliable even then. Multiple staves (a piano score has the treble and bass clef on it, one for each hand) confuse it. Lyrics seem to confuse it. Handwritten copies cause it to give really, really "interesting" results. That said, I have an older scanner, although it has pretty good resolution. Perhaps one of the newer ones that can scan a really detailed picture would work better.