It's been awhile since we discussed this.

I am trying out the expensive product, Dorico by Steinberg. It's written by the folks who were let go at Sibelius. Version 1.2 added chord symbols and 1.3 added other features so I decided it was time to try the 30-day demo. BIAB files transfer VERY NICELY into Dorico.

I was wondering if anyone else is interested in doing this, with Dorico or other notation software. Yes, I know about MuseScore reading BIAB native files, but the results are oddly formatted when complex jazz chords are involved. Dorico, on the other hand, makes these look gorgeous. It's a tremendously powerful program that will be difficult to learn, so if anyone has a better system to get BIAB leadsheets into a notation program, I'm listening.

Encore, for example, doesn't read the chord symbol info from a BIAB Music XML chord. I know the info is there; Encore just doesn't interpret it. I even tried taking Music XML out from Dorico into Encore; no good.

Have you tried Sibelius too? I have both Sibelius and Dorico but I must confess that I am very familiar with Sibelius but not really with Dorico at this time. If you wanted me to try importing an xml file into Sibelius I could do that for testing and comparing to Dorico.

Gee, I just tried saving a bunch of RB songs as XML to see how they would import into Guitar Pro6. I ticked off all the options and not a single note was imported with the XML file :-(

I tried the Musicxml import/export feature when it was introduced, but I quickly gave up, since nothing worked as expected (it seemed to me like an experimental feature).

In my tests, opening mgu files directly with Musescore worked much better than BIAB -> Musicxml file -> Musescore.

That was sometime ago, maybe the musicxml import / export feature works better now in BIAB, I haven't tried since then.

I had similar results but I didn’t know at what step the problem occurred. Now I do. It’s not a problem coming out of BIAB, based on the fact it works exporting Music XML into Dorico. Good news indeed.

Hence my post. Where are we now with other notation programs (in my search to find a good one that’s user-friendly and reads BIAB successfully)?

If I have time this evening, I'll play with this a little bit. I have a number of notation programs and can import a MusicXML in and record the results. Matt, if you have a particular BIAB file you are using to test with, if you could PM it to me, we could test apples to apples.

I have Finale, Notion, Forte, and an older version of Sibelius (but I don't think the underlying engine has changed much).

I would have loved to get Dorico (and followed the development, and even already have a Steinberg dongle), but it's a little too pricey for me (especially since I'm not really lacking in notation capability).

Matt, I got the files. Thanks; I'll take a look.

As stated, I would love to get Dorico (it comes across as very elegant), but it's $560 (and even the cross-grade from Finale or Sibelius is $280).

keep an eye out on the Steinberg.net site, they have occasional offers, mostly lasting a week or so, as i got Wavalab 9.0 at 50% off last year accidentally coming across it offered there in spring. - F

Oh - good tip.

As it stands, Dorico appears to be not quite complete, but it's making great progress quickly.

what fiddler said and get on their mailing list!

like right now (but ends tomorrow) HALION6 is on sale 50% off (so cost is $175) uses soft eLicensier (similar to soft version of iLOk) goy an email a week or so ago about it (posted info in off topic thread)

Larry