Klarinet Archive - Posting 000575.txt from 1995/09

From: OLIVER SEELY <oliver@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Music software
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 18:10:05 -0400

Irwin,
I don't know if Midiscan is the only music scanning software
out there, but I DO know that as with any piece of software,
there is a learning curve one has to follow. Fortunately,
Midiscan's is not so steep. One has several options as to
scanners. I don't know about hand-held, maybe those too,
but regular TIF files can be used by Midiscan. The company
which offers Midiscan has several "package" deals including
scanners with the software. I don't have that kind of money
so I bought the program only and I use SCANGAL or PHOTOSHOP
at work to create TIF files which I then convert with
Midiscan at home. I'm interested both in music - x as well
as transposed versions of ensemble music (strings, winds,
whatever) to be played by other instruments (mainly clarinets,
but flute, bassoon, french horn, whoever happens to walk
in the door with an instrument).

Midiscan does a remarkable job of recognizing the notes on
multiple stave scores. It doesn't seem to be able to recognize
dynamics, slurs or stacatto markings.

I normally scan 8.5 x 11" pages with margins of 0". Midiscan
requires that staves terminate right and left, or the program
goes into some kind of infinite loop during the recognition
process. I use 300x300 dpi resolution and compress the TIFF
files for the "smallest" option in PHOTOSHOP. Each page runs
around 60 kBytes. If pages are scanned in sequence, Midiscan
recognizes one after another in a process that requires
5-8 minutes per page, total. The output file is in a format
with extension .MND which can then be converted to .MID files
after going over the results after recognition. Midiscan saves
me time from entering the music on my numeric keypad. If I
were a keyboardist, I don't know. I have a suspicion that
with a little MIDI training I could put stuff in from the
keyboard faster than the time I end up spending cleaning things
up after the scan recognition process.

Finale will read MIDI files and back them up to their music
notation file format, .MUS I'm told there are a few tricks
to maintain high fidelity of the notation one gets, one of
which is note quantization. I'm just learning how to do
that now, so I can't offer very much.

I'm still at the point where I'm VERY enamored with what my
sound board and my music software offer, so I'm not a particularly
good critic at this stage. The other night I was putting
Crusell's Duo #1 in final MIDI form and I assigned a whistle
and blown bottle to parts 1 and 2. It was CHARMING. Then
I went to Mozart's K411 quintet for three clarinets and two
bassett horns, putting clarinets on the first three parts,
a glockenspiel in place of the Eb clarinet and wood block for
the base clarinet and it was very listenable, both on a
comic level AND because the blend wasn't bad.

I'm sorry to say that Midiscan DOES require a clean-up process
which is too tedious in my opinion, but it is perhaps something
that will improve with experience.

Oliver