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Anyone have any experience with these? Can I put sheet music into BIAB this way? Is there a cheap(ish) solution?
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post a list of songs. Lots of people waste hours trying to do this.
Norton has fake books with chords and styles you can download, I bought one, early rock and roll, downloaded the chords, and Amazon delivered the music book less than 1/2 day later, to my door, at 20 bucks less than the local music store who wanted 3 weeks to get it in.
And there are thousands of songs in biab format floating around, so if you really need Stairway to Heaven it's kicking around.
John Conley
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was thinking solo transcriptions....
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Yes, you could enter notation into BIAB directly from your sheet music. Some of the chords that it picks might be a little off. You can save just the melody as a midi file from what you entered. I use Sibelius to input notation, save as a midi file, and import into biab. YMMV
Stan
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If you're REALLY lazy (as am I) Musitek's SmartScore SongBook Edition let's you scan in the sheet music and then convert it into a midi file for importing. I find the recognition is excellent with a cheapo Epson scanner.
my main problem is the latest upgrade is compiled with a different C compiler and it crashes on my old P4 home-made PC. I just run a previous version.
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Quote:
If you're REALLY lazy (as am I) Musitek's SmartScore SongBook Edition let's you scan in the sheet music and then convert it into a midi file for importing. I find the recognition is excellent with a cheapo Epson scanner.
my main problem is the latest upgrade is compiled with a different C compiler and it crashes on my old P4 home-made PC. I just run a previous version.
I bought Photoscore Pro with Sibelius. I can input the notes manually about 3 times as fast as it takes me to edit the lousy scan. I may try the one you recommend or at least look into it. Maybe the manual input has caused me to learn more though.
stan
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John has the right idea here. You can find almost anything on the internet. With a little patience you find a midi or Biab file of the song(s) you want including the solo. After you download it, open it up and see what track the solo is on. You can then copy the solo track straight into Biab and print it out.
I've got a special directory of midi files that have killer solo's. Some of the files are not that good as far as the overall arrangement is concerned but if the solo track is good I'll save it and study it.
Bob
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I find myself in disagreement with most of you. Princeplanet asked a question, and (except for chappyware), no one is answering him but giving him suggestions to solve a problem he does not have. There are many midi and biab files out there, but there are also real arrangements written by real arrangers, and sometimes any old midi or biab arrangement just won't do. I (and I suspect many of you) have toiled to input real arrangements from sheet music. I remember many years ago spending a week inputting a marvelous and complex Fats Waller arrangement. I assure that nothing like it can be found on the net. To be able to scan and get a good rendering of sheet music from software is terrific.... then off to midi, then to biab if you like. Let's answer the question. OK, I feel better.
kelso
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I dunno 'bout "cheap" but there are at least 2 well regarded products: SharpEye2 - http://www.visiv.co.uk/and Photoscore 5 - http://www.neuratron.com/photoscore.htmCheck the release levels (Ultimate vs lite etc.) as not all will output as MIDI The Photoscore product uses 2 recognition engines; The "Omniscore Photoscore" engine AND the "Lizst music scanning engine" which is used by SharEye. Best of both worlds maybe? I have used SharpEye2 to great effect, but I've not looked at Photoscore. With SharpEye2 I found the best technique was to fix any scanning errors PRIOR to export. This is obvious if you want to import MIDI to BIAB, but I was exporting to MusicXML for import to Noteworthy Composer 2 (there is a user tool to do the import) and in this case I could have done corrections in NWC. I just found it was somewhat easier to correct in SharpEye first. Some things to remember: - The better the original the better the scan result.
- DON'T scan in colour - Monochrome (1 bit) is best, greyscale if you must.
- Don't go overboard on resolution - around 200 dpi usually works well - higher resolutions like 1200 dpi are just a waste of disk space and you end up with lots of extraneous dots that need to be interpreted - experiment to find your best settings.
- Printed scores work better than handwritten scores.
- Sometimes it's faster to simply enter it manually.
--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya  --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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Great information, thanks a bunch! So, some of you seem to be saying that I might find something like Charlie Parker solos already written as midi or BIAB files. Is there a resource to search for this stuff? BTW, I don't mean the chord chrts, but the solos and heads themselves.
cheers,
pp
Last edited by princeplanet; 07/02/09 03:08 AM.
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I tried 3 products, and none worked.
Anything modern I seem to be able to find elsewhere, for free, without the hand wringing. Not that I did not try.
I have lots of music that dates to 1800. i would like to input that, but it is time consuming, and I often have but one line, no chords or harmonies.
One of those books dates to 1802 and there are 2 versions with words to what is now commonly known as the American National Anthem.
John Conley
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The only problem I would have with sheet music to MIDI conversions would be the same problem I have with step-entering or quantizing to the grid. It will sound stiff, robotic and completely void of human phrasing when you play it back.
Of course, if you like that, it's fine.
Notes
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--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya --=--You're only paranoid if you're wrong!
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It's just a great way to learn the notes. Phrasing comes later by playing with the recordings. Where can I find Bird solos in midi format?
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I'm sure you can get close using Parker as the solist in band in a box.
Google works pretty good at finding solos..
John Conley
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I'm thinking princeplanet wants to study Bird et.al solos. If you have recordings, you can listen to that, but hard to copy or study. If you have it on sheet music but you are not a strong reader, or there are multiple parts going on at the same time, you can study the music better. But there is nothing better than hearing and seeing (weather seeing notation, animated keyboard, chords, etc.), so getting it into midi is the way to go. And having the chords right there, you can study how the soloist weaves the jam through the changes (of course this means real study). Then you can simplify or otherwise alter the midi music to make more suitable for your needs and abilities. We're talking using midi as a learning tool.
I'd say weather or not it sounds stiff is of no importance unless you are going to play it for someone. And I would hesitate to say that the solos of biab would be a good sub for a Bird, Bill Evans, etc. masterworks - give me a break.
kelso
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More positively, here is a link to Jamey Aebersold's Jazz page that has transcriptions for sax solos. At least one is for Parker. This site has a lot of interesting info and music stuff - so look around.
Last edited by kelso; 07/02/09 10:15 AM.
kelso
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Already have the sheet music (Omnibook), wanna get it into BIAB. Any ideas?
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Whether not weather.
1. Get a notation software program. There are free ones--maybe Noteworthy? I use Sibelius and there is also Finale. A shorter and cheaper version is PrintMusic ($49?). You can transpose and print from these pgms.
2. Enter the notes. You can choose which ever instrument you want.
3. Save/Export the file as a midi file.
4. Open midi file in BIAB
5. Quantize, using melody drop down menu in BIAB, as you choose.
Sounds simple but it will take you a little time to learn. The time is well-spent, IMHO. You can also enter notation directly into BIAB, but I can't tell you how to do that. Hope this helps....well some anyway..........
Stan
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Nice, thanks. Hadn't really considered a notation program as an option, it will certainly beat editing on BIAB, that's just archaic! It may even end up as quick as print to midi conversion, it seems many peeps report much anguish with accuracy and time needed to edit, perhaps to the point where they wonder if it's all worth it?
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