Originally Posted by Muzic Trax
Originally Posted by Gordon Scott
MusicXML or MIDI. Not PDF to the best of my knowledge. Musescore will convert from PDF, but I've not found that very effectiive.
I think there are probably better PDF convertors, but I have no experience with them.

I’m not familiar with the xml format. Are these popular on the www? I don’t mind paying for them as well. Does BIAB integrate well with the xml format? Thanks.

Trax
I think I need to clarify.

XML is a generic markup language that can be used for lots of different things, but to do that it needs some support files/rules that are normally publicly available on the Internet.

MusicXML is a specific instance of an XML language that is designed and configured to allow it to describe music notation.
So MusicXML is an implementation of XML, but most XML implementations are not MusicXML.

What MusicXML tries to do is include all of the data needed to notate sheet music, together with a MIDI-compatibility layer that gives at least some information about how the music should be played. For example the notation part may befine quarter notes, but the MIDI part will carry some of the expression for those notes.

Combining the two inevitably makes it quite complex. Most of us neither need nor want to know all of the internal details. The complexity also means that many implementations are partially flawed.

Most computer-based software should handle MusicXML to some extent, but there are still exceptions and there are still flaws.

MusicXML has a standard way to handle the chord-names as used in BIAB and other programs. MIDI does not have an official standard for that, however there is an unofficial method, defined I think by Yamaha, that is becoming more widely used.

I would say that, when it works, MusicXML is better than MIDI for transferring music notation. One might have to try both methods to see in any particular case which works best.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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