Apps to read/annotate music

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nastroichik

Apps to read/annotate music

Post by nastroichik »

Hello everybody.

I'm a pianist and I'm looking for an IPad Android app to read and annotate music. It's for professional use, something that is usable on stage and for teaching, to replace paper music.

I know there are apps like forscore or tonara but i'd like to have your opinion. What about the size, the access to good publishers? Ipad, android?

Have you discovered something good enough to replace paper music?

Thank you for your answers!

Nastroichik
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fredbucket
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by fredbucket »

nastroichik wrote:I'm a pianist and I'm looking for an IPad Android app to read and annotate music. It's for professional use, something that is usable on stage and for teaching, to replace paper music.
My iPad doesn't run Android :-)
nastroichik wrote:I know there are apps like forscore or tonara but i'd like to have your opinion. What about the size, the access to good publishers?
I use ForScore, and its annotation features are quite extensive. My main issue with tablets overall is the screen size, which is too small for my eyesight. I will be interested in the rumoured 12.9" iPad when and if it comes out.

No app has 'access' to publishers, you load a PDF score into the tablet and then open it in ForScore. For access to high quality scores, a certain pianophiliac website does come to mind...

Regards
Fred
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by Timtin »

Dear Fred,
I hope this isn't a stupid question, but does ForScore
let the user transcribe a pdf? For example, I'd very much
like to produce a 2H piano version of Mozart's Great Mass
in C minor. If I could do this by suitably doctoring the VS
already available as a pdf, it would save a huge amount
of work. Doing the same thing in Paint would be a nighmare,
and starting from scratch with MuseScore would take forever.
Regards, Tim.
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by fredbucket »

Timtin wrote:Dear Fred,
I hope this isn't a stupid question,
It's not...
Timtin wrote: but does ForScore let the user transcribe a pdf? For example, I'd very much like to produce a 2H piano version of Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. If I could do this by suitably doctoring the VS already available as a pdf, it would save a huge amount of work. Doing the same thing in Paint would be a nighmare, and starting from scratch with MuseScore would take forever.
No, it doesn't. ForScore is only a PDF viewer, albeit with features that mimic as far as possible annotating a 'physical' score much as pianists and so on are wont to do. It has no musical 'intelligence' in the way you envisage.

The process for you from a PDF score would be:
1) do a musical OCR on the score such as Sharpeye (which I still use) or SmartScore, or whatever.
2) correct the score (no OCR programme is 100% correct, no matter what their publicity says)
3) export the score into a notation programme such as Finale via, say, a MusicXML format.
4) Finale, fo example, has a feature where you can 'collapse' staves into a single stave.
5) fiddle with the final result until you are happy with it.

In the case of the Mozart, you may be able to find a MIDI file of it, in which case Finale will directly import the MIDI file. Then start from 4)

Regards
Fred
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by Timtin »

Dear Fred,
Thank you for your expertise and guidance on this question.
There are obviously quite a few new things I must learn before
being able to make any progress. It was only last week that I
got to grips with MuseScore, having been completely defeated
by Lilypond.
I'll try Audioveris as it's free. Sharpeye v.2 is £143, and I don't
want break the habit of a lifetime by paying for software.
Regards, Tim.
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by fredbucket »

Timtin wrote:Thank you for your expertise and guidance on this question. There are obviously quite a few new things I must learn before being able to make any progress. It was only last week that I got to grips with MuseScore, having been completely defeated by Lilypond. I'll try Audioveris as it's free. Sharpeye v.2 is £143, and I don't want break the habit of a lifetime by paying for software.
Sharpeye hasn't been updated for almost 10 years now - the author sold the rights to another company. Undoubtedly things have improved since that time. Let us know how it goes. Lilypond was one of the first notation systems, and produces very good quality scores, but as you imply, is not easy to learn.

Regards
Fred
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by Timtin »

Just an update to the above discussion.
Firstly, the Audioveris site seems to want to mess with ones
browser before it cooperates, so I didn't proceed with it.
Then I noticed that PDFs can be converted on-line into XML
files. But they don't work on MuseScore, because they aren't
the right sort of XML files for MuseScore to import and edit.
Then I noticed that MuseScore has a button for loading PDFs.
Bingo! But there's a catch. Firstly one must register with the
site, which is no problem. Then one submits a PDF to them
for appropriate conversion. It takes a few minutes, and the
conversion is done by ... Audioveris! Unfortunately, none of
the Haydn String Quartets I submitted were successfully
converted, nor a Stanford VS, but a Beethoven VS was done
as requested, note-perfect, so watch this space for some 2H
arrangements in future.
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Re: Apps to read/annotate music

Post by fredbucket »

Timtin wrote:Just an update to the above discussion.
Scanning results depend upon the quality of the original score. I can scan, note perfect, a printed score from Finale, as you would expect. But I have never, even with a good PDF, had a note perfect OCR. There are too many variables, imperfections etc for any programme to interpret properly.

Note entry into Finale or Sibelius is actually quite efficient and overall I prefer it to scanning. I find I spend just as much time correcting OCR than I do notating.

And then, there are many scores which just are too messy for any OCR.

Have fun though, Tim. You'll learn a lot.

Regards
Fred
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