Score scanning software

[Dave2002]

After looking at posts on another thread I wondered if there are any viable web based score scanning services. Obviously if there are any, these should not be used to scan copyrighted material, but much older music is now in the public domain.

A search suggested PlayScore - and the demos I looked at (iOS on iPad Pro) seem good/entertaining. However I think these are apps which work either on iOS or Android and might be self contained (not necessarily a bad thing ...).

What experiences do people round here have with score scanning software? I’d like to try, but don’t want to spend a fortune, or have to buy more kit (e.g. Win PC ... grrrrr) to get software which works.

Looking at PlayScore suggests that although it may not be completely free, a one year subscription might be affordable - but would it output files which could be read by other programs - for example midi or Musicxml files? Programs like this might still lock one into a closed system, and not really work with other software.

Are there any other good cheap programs or apps? Free ones which work well enough?

Recommendations - or suggestions of what to avoid!

[Dave2002]

Just had a very modest “success” with the free version of PlayScore. Not at all sure if this could be useful.

I entered PlayScore on my iPad Pro, then selected the camera. Attempts to show it scores with more than 2 instrumental lines/stave failed - it detects that, and begs for money to allow larger scores. However, it also “kinda” works with handwritten scores - a slight surprise.

I thought to buy a one month subscription to overcome the stave limitation, but that didn’t work (hopefully didn’t - now), so gave up on that.

Finally found a printed page of the Schubert D571 piece I’d worked on, and scanned that. Yes!!

It works - sort of. The issue now is whether it’s more effective to use this kind of tool, and then to correct the mistakes, assuming the digital representation is good enough to permit that with software tools available, or not bother.

Reminds me of the earlier days of OCR text scanning. It was quicker to scan in the text, then do OCR than raw typing - but the time savings were very small when one also considered the additional time to edit/correct the text to get a reasonably accurate result.

In another context ...

Johnson: "Sir, XXXXXX is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

Boswell: Life

Substitute “scanning music” for the XXXXXXX

[Dave2002]

I did try to investigate ScanScore - there is a trial version, but seems to be only for Win PCs at present, so no use to me at the moment.

https://scan-score.com/en/

I keep being bombarded by "Simon" at ScanScore telling me that my trial is about to run out. I suspect it's "his" computer, really.

It may actually be quite good - but I have no way of knowing right now, thogh I might watch out for a Mac version if it is marketed.

[Dave2002]

A success - sort of! Playscore 2

I did eventually decide to try a subscription to the iOS app Playscore - one month for £4.99.

I have had some very odd results with it, perhaps on occasion worthy of John Cage, or other composers who use/have used kit such as radios to make up performances.

Using scanned in music didn't seem ultra reliable, so I tried to figure out ways of getting the app to work with PDFs. I have always disliked the iPad "approach" to file storage - which is either rudimentary or non existant, depending on your point of view. I wonder if it's really geared up to data stored in a cloud - which has potential advantages, but also some very significant downsides. In the current context this means that getting data into the app and results out might be rather hard, particularly if one doesn't subscribe or use one or other of the many cloud storage systems, such as Dropbox, Box etc.

I looked for scores in IMSLP, and eventually selected a piece by Chaminade - her piano sonata. With some effort I managed to download that, and then email it to myself, so that I could use it in the iPad app. Finally I managed to process it - or at least "play" it within the app. I was surprised that it managed at all - it seemed a very crude rendition, but looked/sounded at first sight as though it was a an approximation to the written notes. Then I tried to export the result, both as a Midi file and as a Music XML file - again by email.

Although files were generated, these did seem to cause problems with applications - I couldn't get any of the applications I tried to read and process these files, so I have no way of knowing how accurately it actually did the score reading.

I will terminate my subscription before the end of the month, as I doubt that this software is really going to be of any serious use - though it is a surprise that it works at all.

I did also try listening to the Chaminade piece via YouTube. "Real" human performances seem much better - and I am amazed at the technical skill of those who can play pieces like this.

I have never heard the Chaminade in any form before this morning, nor seen the score previously.

Score scanning software probably still has a long way to go if this trial is in any way representative.

[Dave2002]

I did try to investigate ScanScore - there is a trial version, but seems to be only for Win PCs at present, so no use to me at the moment.

https://scan-score.com/en/

I keep being bombarded by "Simon" at ScanScore telling me that my trial is about to run out. I suspect it's "his" computer, really.

It may actually be quite good - but I have no way of knowing right now, thogh I might watch out for a Mac version if it is marketed.

Update on ScanScore: now had a reply. There is no Mac version right now, but one may be in development. Also a suggestion that the Win software works quite well with virtual machine environments, such as Parallels running Windows on a Mac, though relatively few people would have such a system. The cost of Parallels plus the Windows licence, added to the faff of getting it all to work would present significant adverse factors for most people. Of course if this approach satisfied a strong need, and gave good results, it could be justified.

[Dave2002]

Just noticed that there is an option in MuseScore to Scan PDF files. If this option is selected it leads to https://musescore.com/import and an experimental on-line service (free) is invoked. The selected PDF file is queued for processing, and a notification returned by email (though I've not checked) and after a while the result appears as a download link on the same page. I didn't have to wait long for results.

I did two tests. One was of music for an instrumental quartet which I've been transcribing. I changed the file name in case the online system used any hints from the name - though I didn't think it would. What came back isn't too bad. The title hasn't been picked up, and the instruments are missing. The resulting .mcsz file does play - but probably substitutes a sort of pipe organ sound for what was written. So - yes - it works, on simple pieces.

I then tried the Schubert D571 sonata fragment which has been discussed before. I downloaded the PDF score again - and then submitted it to the service. On return it is loaded back into MuseScore and the score inspected, and also "played". The results bear some resemblance to the piece I worked on earlier, but some of the harmonies and rhythms go completely astray. It does play back as a piano piece.

Yes - the result is recognisable - just, but there are many errors. Whether this is something which can be really useful or not I don't know yet. If the errors can be corrected reasonably quickly it may be a workable approach.

I'd like to do a few more tests to see if this tool can cope with hand written scores.

In the meantime I've been struggling with Midi interfaces, but managed to get something to work, though probably not the optimum way. At least I can now input music via an electronic keyboard into several programs - including MuseScore. Apple have made software called Audio Midi Setup which apparently allows one to connect different Midi devices, but it's not really that easy, and individual device manufacturers seem to have different settings and switches, all of which presumably have to be "correct" in order to get any results. i have succeed in getting input with my Roland interface - with one of the switch settings, but so far failed with a Yamaha Bluetooth interface. I don't think I've ever managed to get any output from the computer to an external player to date.

https://amazon.co.uk/Roland-UM-ONE-m...s%2C159&sr=8-2 Roland interface

https://amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01A...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Yamaha interface

PS: just had the result back from a scan of hand written music - "Unsuccessful". I did try another tool not long back, which did produce a result, though it wasn't very good. I could try just submitting parts of the file, to see if this service can do any of these hand written scores, but it's not looking good so far.

[Dave2002]

I thought I'd inadvertently let my one month subscription to PlayScore 2 (iPad - iOS) run on, but checked earlier on today, and I've still got about a week to cancel before it automatically renews. I tried one or two new pieces, which seemed to work better, but I'm still not sure if it's worth the bother. The main issue is whether post scan corrections would typically be minor, hence not so time consuming and hence perhaps justify a one year's subscription, or major, in which case it wouldn't.

I also found an interesting comparison site for a whole bunch of scanning software. I'll post the link to that later. One recommended one was MidiIllustrator, but this is a PC program only right now. However, the support people mentioned that it works quite well with Wine on Macs.

I also revisitied the scanning site accessible via MuseScore. This is frustrating, as it gets bits of things right, then goes completely amok - though it's not the only software to do that. It looks as though this kind of software is still not really good enough - but it's tantalising nevertheless.

[Antinus]

PlayScore 2

Have you seen the review of PlayScore 2 in BBC Music Magazine? They give it 9 out of 10. But you are right, the better the image or PDF the better the result.

QUOTE=Dave2002;772136]After looking at posts on another thread I wondered if there are any viable web based score scanning services. Obviously if there are any, these should not be used to scan copyrighted material, but much older music is now in the public domain.

A search suggested PlayScore - and the demos I looked at (iOS on iPad Pro) seem good/entertaining. However I think these are apps which work either on iOS or Android and might be self contained (not necessarily a bad thing ...).

What experiences do people round here have with score scanning software? I’d like to try, but don’t want to spend a fortune, or have to buy more kit (e.g. Win PC ... grrrrr) to get software which works.

Looking at PlayScore suggests that although it may not be completely free, a one year subscription might be affordable - but would it output files which could be read by other programs - for example midi or Musicxml files? Programs like this might still lock one into a closed system, and not really work with other software.

Are there any other good cheap programs or apps? Free ones which work well enough?

Recommendations - or suggestions of what to avoid!

[MrGongGong]

My mate Daz made this score scanner which we used to play the organ (and yes, I did try putting a couple of pages of Volumina through it )

[matthewfox]

Scan Score seems to work the best out of all of them for me, but you still have to do alot of editing. I started using it recently when a friend wanted to send me some sheet music in that file format, for some editing changes. It's easy to learn