Musicator File Import

• Sep 1, 2020 - 15:39

Hi all,

First posting here so please forgive me if some of this has been covered off elsewhere.

After a 10 or so year break from the Music scene I am starting to get back into the odd bit of writing / arranging. My previous application used was Musicator on an old Windows XP Laptop, however the world has changed and I am now Windows 10. Unfortunately, the Musicator I have (version 3!) does not run on Windows 10 as it is a 16-bit application which is no longer supported in Windows.

I have a "workaround" process which is to export the files in MIDI format from Musicator (still got the laptop!) and then import them back into Musescore, however that does give me a little work to do and also shows a slight problem which I will come to later.

Ideally, I would want to just take the old Musicator files and import them straight into Musescore and all is fine, but there doesn't seem to be a direct import filter for them. Is anyone aware of a way that this can be achieved without the Midi export first as that does lose all dynamics and markings that are on the native score?

If not, I shall persevere with the MIDI export / import, however there is then a problem that I need to understand.

I have done a few brass band compositions in the past which use Bb pitch and Eb pitch instruments. In Musicator I would set the staff up accordingly and then tell the stave to be played -2, for example, to get the Bb pitch to come from the music as entered. When the MIDI file is imported, the key signature comes across correctly, however the notation is all shifted back up 2 levels to what it would natively be, if that makes sense (so if I had something in the key of C as displayed in Musicator, when imported as a MIDI file, it puts the key signature to C as it should be, but all notes are displayed in an alternate key to compensate for the -2 I was putting in to Musicator).

How can I make it so that I can leave the key signature as required and then shift the notes down en-masse so that they appear at the correct place on the stave, but still have the sound at the adjusted level (hope that makes sense!)?

Thanks in advance to all.

Regards

TMW

Comments

• Sep 1, 2020 - 15:49

If Musicator can't export to MusicXML, then MIDI seems the only way. MuseScore won't be able to implement and support a closed source propitiatory formats

Reply

• Sep 1, 2020 - 15:54

MuseScore is a powerful tool for notating music and it will get even better in version 4. Most things you want to do have a solution that does not require a note by note rewrite of the score but what you are asking is not likely be a single button press to fix either.

Now for some specifics. From what I read Musicator does not support Musicxml so midi is your best bet at getting scores into MuseScore.

I do advise that you read https://musescore.org/en/handbook/midi-import to see what MuseScore can do to help make the import process easier.

As for the specific question about transposition. The answer is likely to lie in the Transpose tool found in the Tools menu and described at https://musescore.org/en/handbook/transposition#automatic-transpose

One final thing that might affect what you are doing is the concert pitch button. When it is pressed, you are looking at the score in concert pitch. When it is not pressed you will be seeing the transposed score for instruments that transpose. As you click the button you will see the key signatures for the clarinets and so forth change.

If you still have specific questions, attaching a sample score and explaining what the goal is will help you to get better answers.

Reply

• Sep 1, 2020 - 15:58

Hi mike320,

Thanks for that - some useful info there - the Concert Pitch part especially.

Will play some more tonight / tomorrow and see what I find and, as you suggest, upload a sample score to hopefully clarify what I am referring to if I get nowhere.

Regards

TMW

Reply

• Nov 25, 2020 - 23:33

I have the same situation - an old laptop with Windows Vista and Musicator 3.09. There were later upgrades, but I tried them and found them needlessly complicated; 3.09 had everything I needed.

What I do, in addition to creating multi-track midi files, is print the score and parts to PDF files so I can always print the arrangements or refer to the details of my notation in the event I need to recreate the arrangement on another tool when my laptop craps out. But I have no immediate plans to change tools.

A funny thing... You referred to the ability output midi parts for instruments whose notation wasn't in concert pitch. I rarely needed it as most of what I did was written for "concert pitch" instruments. But I've used Musicator for 25 years without ever realizing that capability existed! So I just went to my laptop and, there it was on the Overview window!

Reply

• Dec 8, 2020 - 15:08

Dear TMW.
I am in a bit of the same situation as you.
I recently found some music I made in Musicator when I was a kid, 25 years ago or so.
I have searched the net though (even the not so legal sites) to find an old Musicator version and some Windows 95/XP emulators, so that I would be able to export some of my old compositions to MIDI. Unfortunately all my tries have failed though.
Can I ask you a huge favor (and I would gladly pay you for it), to see if you can import a couple of the files to MIDI format? That way I can import them in a newer music program and recreate exactly how I made them back then.
I really hope you can help me. It would mean so much to me, to hear what I made as a kid.
Kind regards, Christian.

Reply

• Dec 8, 2020 - 20:05

Hi Christian,

I may be able to help you better than that and get you a working version of Musicator 6 :-)

There's a demo version I found on-line after much searching which gives 14 days of use. It's the full version with no application restrictions at all.

You can get it from...

http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/Musicator

Scroll down and there's a link to the version 6 download.

It will open the old Musicator files and you can then save as Midi - it's a slightly different interface to version 3 (which I really liked) but it's all there. Saving as Midi is as simple as file - save and then naming the file with a .mid extension (I think - the help file will tell you for definite - I'm not at my pc at the moment).

But the best bit - it runs on Windows 10!

As I said, it's only a 14 day demo and you can't reinstall it again after that time to get more out of it (believe me, I tried scanning for file changes, registry changes, everything - couldn't find where it stores the time key anywhere).

(But, potentially, if you could find an application that let's you trick the date on the machine before you run it you could revert the date on the system to a couple of days after you installed it and then the date would revert back to current after, say, 30 seconds so it thinks it's actually running in the demo time still. Ahem...)

Good luck - let me know how it goes. If you don't get anywhere I will see what I can do for you.

Regards

TMW

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.