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Can BIAB import sheet/pdf or other type of sheet music? Thanks,
Trax
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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.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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Gordon is correct. Although I only use Music XML, I am aware that BIAB had in the past a green SEQ button that helps get the imported MIDI channels separated correctly (MIDI Type 1 file). It may still be there.
And yes, there are several programs I use to convert PDF to music. They each have strengths and weaknesses, and no matter which you use, some manual correction will be needed. I can give you more on this if you like.
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I've tried many pdf to music converters, and the only one that shows me to save some time is this one: https://myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusic.htmIt works pretty well, but it only processes PDF files that have been exported from a score editor software (it won't work at all with scanned pdfs)
Latest BIAB version, latest build.
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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
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PDF to Music is indeed very good when it works. For a hokey website, it is surprisingly powerful. I have PDF to Music Pro; it's expensive, but when it works it's the best. Often though, as mentioned, it won't work AT ALL.
In those cases, I get the best results from Scan Score 3 Pro.
Is Music XML popular on the Internet? Perhaps not as a format for files already packaged, but it's a standard used by increasingly more programs. The point is, can you export something to Music XML, or import Music XML. For example, when I scan a file using one of the two programs I mentioned, I save the result to Music XML. My notation program opens that. So does BIAB. Are the results always accurate? No, but they are close (and much better than MIDI). Music XML is a standard and various software implements that standard slightly differently. It's still better than whatever is in second place.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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So, BIAB WILL open xml files? I’m looking for the basic chords for a song. The time and bpm meter are what I’m looking for.
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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.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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In my experience, BIAB support of MusicXML is rather poor. I tried it when it was introduced and couldn't get usable results, but maybe they have improved it in recent years.
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In my experience, BIAB support of MusicXML is rather poor. I tried it when it was introduced and couldn't get usable results, but maybe they have improved it in recent years. Thank you for the detailed explanation. I can’t read sheet music and tell you the key, notes or chords of a song. However, if I can enter the correct chords into BIAB , I can usually pick a style that will sound closer to the original song. I can usually also fumble around on a midi keyboard to figure out the melody. I need the BPM, Key and chords *if* I even want to attempt to try to replicate the song. I appreciate your time to explain how xml and BIAB works together. Trax
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I’ll have to try Soundslice. I agree with the article that some good strides have been made in the last few years. It’s almost always better than keying in a score manually.
I also agree with Cerio that I have difficulty using Music XML with BIAB.
I write for small jazz groups, big band jazz groups, and a 13-piece chamber orchestra. I use these tools almost daily.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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–I know most of the products, many of the people behind those products and Michael Good, the inventor of MusicXML.
As to what to use, when and how, it’s dependent on your source material, your target (BIAB in this case) and your willingness to roll up your sleeves and make it work. There are many times when I’ve gone through all the steps to realize at the end it would have been faster just to enter everything by hand while other times scanners/readers can save a tremendous amount of time.
That you don’t read music puts you at a disadvantage, no matter what you use. As you have already read, nothing just “does the job” without editing or tweaking in some fashion.
MusicXML is a toolkit, not an application. How well it works depends on how well it was implemented by an app’s development team (PG Music in this case) and which tools are being used. Although the protocols are now up to version 4.0, I don’t know of any scan/conversion tool using it beyond 3.0 which means there’s a lot of functionality that it just does not support. People who use MuseScore, for some reason, can’t stay away from dotted slurs but xml 3.0 can’t handle them—the result is a mess and I might as well enter everything by hand..
Case in point. Encore 5, an old notation app that some of us know, supports MusicXML version 1.1 (Win) or 1.3 (Mac) — it exports a few text elements but no lyrics or expressions. If the file was exported to pdf, PDFtoMusic Pro can read the font info and export as .xml 3.0 including expressions and lyrics. I can open that file in Finale and don’t need to do much tweaking.
Most products have a 30 day eval. PDFtoMusic Pro Has a different limitation—it doesn’t time out but you can only export one page per session without paying. Many have user boards etc. so check them out.
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Thank you everyone for your time and advice. I am actually learning a songs key signature and getting more familiar with the note lines, note positions and note duration thanks to Biab’s notation feature.
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