Midi Sight Reader on Musescore 2

• Apr 12, 2015 - 12:20

Hello everyone,

I have just discovered Musescore and would like to use it as a training aid for sight reading, connecting my MIDI keyboard. Midi Sight Reader plugin seems to do just that. But I cannot get it to work with Musescore 2. Can you help me please ?


Comments

I'll have a look and see if my plugin still works with MuseScore 2.0.

I have to warn you that the setup is very fiddly as the plugin is pushing the boundaries of what is possible with MuseScore.

In reply to by DonH

I see..its a major disappointment...

And what about using an old version of Musescore that we still can download from soundforge.net (1.3, 1.2, etc).? Would that work with any of the plugin versions (1.01 or 1.5.2) ?
Also, on the instructions pdf file of the 1.5.2 version you mention "The plugin works with nightly builds of MuseScore from build MuseScoreNightly-2012-08-10-c65f00f.7z (approx 12 August 2012)". Any chance of getting one of those older nightly versions ? The nightly versions on http://prereleases.musescore.org/windows/nightly/are all post 2.0 !

In reply to by domcas

Definitely worth trying with MuseScore 1.3
I will update the plugin for MuseScore 2 when the required features are added back in.

Apologies for the hard sell, but if you really can't wait, I have something similar for Android tablets:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.donaldhorrell.score…

If you decide to try it, plugging hardware into your tablet is done at your own risk! PLEASE USE A POWERED USB HUB between your Midi keyboard and the Android tablet.

I think you have to buy the app to use the sight reading bit, but you can try a few notes out without paying, so please test it on the free version first.

So now as i have Musescore 2, how can i know what was this plugin for sight reading like? I am curious about this? Are there any screenshots or video demonstrating it?

In reply to by heuchi

MuseScore 2.0.1 - The plugin can now save the current score as a MIDI file, so that's one step forwards.
The other parts of the MIDI Sight Reader work fine individually with 2.0.1, but I have not got everything working together yet.

Specifically, the QML needs to start a Java process (I am running 32-bit Windows Vista). I have not got this to work yet - Even if I just try to start a DOS batch file it does not work yet. I am following the example in run.qml.

I now have a version of the plugin that works with MuseScore 2.0.1.
I will update the docs and upload the zip file over the weekend.

Once that is done, please send me any comments. One I had from a couple of years back was to take the notes as correct if they contained AT LEAST the required notes instead of the EXACTLY the required notes. I guess this would make legato playing easier.

In reply to by DonH

Hello, DonH!

thank you very much for putting your time to creatie this plugin!

Unfortunatelly, I can't get it to work in musescore 2.1.0 :(. I don't know, what am I doing wrong here... Can it run on the latest java? I have read your instruction carefouly and I think, I got it well.

But to exclude my faults: the name of my MIDI keyboard is LPK25. Therefore in MIDISightReader.properties I have to type this:

MuseScoreOSCPort = 5282
_MIDIOut = Midilink
MIDIOut = LPK25
Timeout_s = 60
UseLocalGui = true

Is it correct? I would appreciate any respond, I love your plugin and I'd like to use it...

In reply to by Mar Tin 4

Hello Mar Tin.

I installed the plugin when I had MuseScore 2.0.1. Now that I have upgraded to MuseScore 2.1.0, it still works (Windows Vista 32 bit, not sure what version of Java) - it did not work the first time I tried it, but after restarting everything, it was OK.

The only thing I had to change was in the Preferences dialog (Edit menu, then Preferences...). On the General tab, I ticked the OSC Remote Control checkbox and restarted MuseScore. REMEMBER to unplug your MIDI keyboard before starting MuseScore.

Your properties look OK.

Some questions for you:
- What operating system are you using?
- 32-bit or 64-bit?
- Do you get a startup copyright message?
- Do you get an error message like "Invalid MIDI device[...]. Please check MIDISightReader.properties."
- After a minute or so, do you get a message "The MIDISightReader plugin has timed out. Please start it again."?

If you use a simple score like a C major scale, start the MIDISightReader plugin, wait a bit, then carefully play C major (making sure you leave a gap between each note), do you get a message "You have finished the tune..."?

In the plugin folder (...\Documents\MuseScore2\Plugins\MIDISightReader) there is a file MIDISightReader.log. Are there any clues in that?

Cheers
Don.

In reply to by DonH

Hello DonH,

I've got it working with my "you rock guitar II" too :- )
It took some time as I've never even worked with any plugin on Musescore. Installed the SightReader Plugin in Documents\MuseScore2\Plug-Ins\MIDISightReader. Just hat to change "plugin" to "Plug-ins" somewhere.

However, now notes turn green as I play the right note. It would be great if the Clock could be heared so get a feeling on the speed I'd have to play. I once tried Piano Marvel which seems to work very well but since I'm curious in SW development I wonder if I could help in pushing this PlugIn towards a real working thing??

Do you see an option here?

BR, Karsten

In reply to by DonH

Hello DonH, thank you for your respond!

My OSC setting is turned on too.

So now the answers to your questions: I have Windows 8.1, 32-bit.
I don't get any startup copyright message of your plugin. (The plugin is allowed and appears in the Plugins bar.)

I don't get any error message. When I start MuseScore set it all by your manual and with unpluged MIDI keybord, after pluging it (when MuseScore is ready), it won't recognize it...

After a minute, I don't get any message.
When I try to start your plugin MIDISightReader, nothing happens...

And I can't see any .log file, there are only theese:
javaosc.jar
MIDISightReader.bash
MIDISightReader.bat
MIDISightReader.jar
MIDISightReader.properties

In reply to by Mar Tin 4

Hi Mar Tin 4 (hope it's ok for DonH that I try to reply here).
I've got the MidiSightReader working on Win7 64bit with Java 1.8.0_121.
However, while trying to make it work, I've recognized that there are two ways installing plugin's and making MuseScore aware that there is a plugin.
1. You can go to Program Files (x86) (on my machine it is called: "C:\Program Files (x86)" while the Explorer displays C:\Programme (x86) since I have a German version of Win7 installed... So always use the path that is shown under DOS Cmd-Window.
So you can install plugin's in e.g.: C:\Program Files (x86)\MuseScore 2\plugins

2. you can install Plugin's under: C:\Users\myusername\Documents\MuseScore2\Plug-Ins

I was successfull with the second approach as Applications have read/write access to the document folder but not necessary to the "Program Files" folder.
So you may check where you've installed the plugin and make sure all applications (including java) has read write access to that location.

in the file "" if edited the line:
MIDIOut = iii You Rock Guitar V1.50
to match exactly what the windows control panel shows under "Devices and Printers". This string will be recognized including spaces and Capital/Small letters.

I've changed the file "MIDISightReader.bat" where I've found something like:
%HOMEPATH%/Documents/MuseScore2/plugins/MIDISightReader/

I've changed this to:
%HOMEPATH%/Documents/MuseScore2/Plug-Ins/MIDISightReader/

->take care you change all occurrences of "plugins" to "Plug-Ins" or what ever is your System looking like.
Especially ensure that MuseScore and Java is allowed to write/read to:
%HOMEPATH%/AppData/Local/Temp/MIDI_Sight_Reader.mid

Whatever score you want to use for sight reading, you shall find it's midi version in that temp file. Under Windows you may double click on it and Win-Media player shall play the melody it contains for you.

I've created a very simple test score with just 4 bars only 1/4 notes for my first successful try.
Hope this helps, Karsten

In reply to by musikus70

Jahre später sehe ich deinen Eintrag, sorry. Ich hatte mit dem Forschen für dieses Plugin aufgehört, da ich das nicht so hinbekommen habe wie ich es benötige. Mittlerweile glaube ich, es ist besser mit einfachen Noten zu starten und dann langsam zu steigern. Irgendwann muss man dann auf richtige Lieder umsteigen.
Es ist auch gar nicht so schlimm wenn die SW nicht gleich "hört" und bewertet was man wie gespielt hat. Wenn dann müsste das schon perfekt funktionieren und das scheint schwierig zu sein.
Ich habe daher ein Plugin für mich (und für alle die es mögen) geschrieben:
https://musescore.org/en/project/sight-reading-trainer

Du kannst damit sehr einfache Noten generieren. Sobald es zu kompliziert wird, scheint das Plugin nicht richtig zu formatieren (Siehe Kommentar von Marc). Aber bis zu einem gewissen Grad geht es gut. Du musst dir dann selbst zuhören und merken wenn du richtig / falsch gespielt hast. Kannst Musescore die Noten vorspielen lassen.

Hoffe das hilft auch.

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