Is Musescore the best software for splitting Midi files into two clefs?
Hi Everyone,
I am trying to find some user-friendly software that will convert Midi files (single track) into two separate clefts suitable for piano. The files are from EZKeys piano and sound great on that program.
I want to print out a score so I can play them on piano myself.
I have tried every piece of software I can find but none give acceptable results.
Musescore is one of the few that actually splits the file into two clefs, but it makes a terrible mess, filled with 16th note rests and switching clefs every few beats. (see attached screenshot)
If there was a simple way to fix this, then Musescore would be awesome.
Any advice?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Musescore mess.png | 331.42 KB |
Comments
Musescore is not good to reproduce midi files :/
What you are asking for is not really reasonable. It takes much human expertise to figure out how to notate music in a readable fashion. Computers can make an attempt, but there is almost no chance of it just magically working well. It's like asking a computer program to turn a pencil drawing into a photograph.
In reply to What you are asking for is by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
After trying over a dozen programs in the past week, I was starting to think your viewpoint was right, that there must be something intrinsically very difficult about the Midi to notation conversion.
However I just tried Finale Notepad and it did a beautiful job straight away with no editing.
(see attachment)
Since Finale Notepad (free version) did the "Impossible", I'm thinking of buying their full version for $600.
Sibelius which is $850 cannot do what I want (I have asked on their forums).
Midi files contain note pitch and duration, just like scores do. I don't see why MIDI to notation conversion should be so hard, or why this process would be neglected by the software programmers.
In reply to Hi Marc, After trying over a by Muso777
The thing is, it is nowhere near as simple as that. Yes, MIDI files contain pitch and udration information, but not in a form that makes it unambiguous how it should be notated. The pitch, for example, is just a number, and the same number is used for G# and Ab. Notation software has to guess which one might be correct, and no matter which way it guesses, it's likely to be wrong close to half the time. As for duration, it isn't rounded off into neat units like quarter note or eighth note. If the note last for 0.73 beats, then notation software has to decide whether you'd like that notated as a quarter note or a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth rest. Again, depending on context, sometimes one is what was intended, other times the other is. Plus, throw in the fact that music notation can only represent one rhythm on a staff at a time until multiple voices are introduced, but MIDI has no way of representing which note goes into which voice. For a MIDI track representing piano music, it doesn't even have a way of representing which note goes into which of the two staves. Well, this information could theoretically be encoded, but you'd have to do it manually in your MIDI software, and I'm guessing you didn't. For that matter, you say you quantizied your file, but you didn't say if you quantizied both note starts and note stops (eg, durations), or just notes starts (which is probably what most softeware might do by default), or what value you quantized to (nearest 32nd? Nearest 16th)?
Anyhow, the bottom line is, turning MID into notation involves a very long series of guesses and approximations, many of which are likely to be not what you want. On this particular file, Finale happened to do better. On another, Sibelius might. On another still, MuseScore might. It's a crap shoot.
I'm glad Finale did well in this particular case - and it's been aroudn the longest by a big margin, so it makes sense it might - but throw enough stuff at it and you'll quickly learn, MIDI just isn't cut out for this, and you *will* encountere dplenty of cases where the results are ugly. For that matter, I'd call Finale's results on this file pretty poor in terms of things like deciding which notes go on which staves, also in terms of figuring out when to use multiple voicesFor exampe, there is no way both those first two notes of the second measure couple possibly be played in the same hand. Similar examples abound. And it seems clear it avoided use of multiple voices when logic dictates this is what should have been used. It's not even close to being good readable notation, actually.
MuseScore provides a wealth of options to control how the import is performed. Different scores will do best with different combinations of options, depending on the nature of the music itself, how it was qwuantized, and the results you subjectively prefer. I'm guessing you probably didn't spend very long trying to choose optimal options for your file based on these factors. If you post your MIDI file, probably someone can show you how you could get results better thasn Finale's with very little effort - I know the MuseScore algorithm wouldn't make some of the mstakes I see in the Finale example. Probably the full version of Finale provides similar controls, but the point is, don't be misled by one comparison using default settings into thinking Finale always does great and MuseScore always does terribly.
In reply to The thing is, it is nowhere by Marc Sabatella
The midi file is included below.
Both note starts and stops should be quantized to the nearest 16th.
$850 Sibelius cannot do the simple task of importing a single line of midi (as it is produced by the piano on EZKeys) and arranging it on two staves, so I have been informed by people on their forum. So it's not a crap shoot. No file that I make on EZKeys will work in Sibelius.
I know it's not as simple as just note pitch and duration, but this is the primary data that is contained in both formats and presenting that data in a way that is useful for a musician should be the goal of any notation software programmer.
I agree that the programmer has to decide what to do with short periods of rest.
The programmer of Musescore thought we would want to see lots of 16th note rests, but the programmer of Finale didn't. This is going to occur by default with every Midi file I load because it's programmed to occur every time.
I looked through every menu option in Musescore and saw nothing that resembled:
A. Import Midi file
B. Import Midi file as piano score
C. Split Midi file into trebel and bass clef (and keep the clefs consistent)
ie. stop switching clefs every beat or two!!
D. Ignore 16th rests
etc.
If you could enlighten me as to what I should have done, feel free.
I am just astounded that in 2016, there is only one program that is capable of taking a standard Midi File and auto-arranging it in a way that a pianist can play.
And I thought pianos were the primary instrument for most composers...
And aren't most music scores notated for piano first?
Sure, Finale's result is not perfect, but with no tweaking at all, I printed it out and played all 7 pages without much difficulty.
In reply to The midi file is included by Muso777
I think it's possible the people on the Sibelius forum misunderstood your question, or you misunderstood their answer. Sibelius is just as capable of importing a MIDi file and guessing at how to represent pitches, durations, staves, and voices as MuseScore or Finale is. But it's guersses are no more likely guaranteed to be correct than anyone else's. I have a feeling that is what they were trying to convey. Feel free to add a link to the specific thred and I can see if I can explain better.
Anyhow, while many composers do indeed compose at the piano, almost none actually literally play their music into a computer and espect the computer to notate it for them. It just isn't that simple. Computers are better at it in 2016 than they were in 2006, and it was better in 2006 than in 1996, but it is is still, as I have said, a crap shoot. it is far too copmpelx a problem to expect to get actual readable piano music for any but the most simplisitc of cases.
The reason MuseScore is showing rests isn't that the programms thought you wanted to see them - it is that you overalpped your notes making it impossible to represent in a single voice, so it introduce multiple voices, which is correct for what you actually played. But you can tell MuseScore to use fewer voices if you want a less accurate but more simplistic rendition. It's your choice. MuseScore has a large number of MIDI option you should have seen at the bottom of the screne when you opened the file, including options controlling all of the things you mention:
The options you are probably most interested in are the options for max # voices, clef changes, and human performance. Setting max voices to 2, human performance to yes, and clef changes to no gets you a result that is much more like what you actually played than what Finale producesd, which drastically shortened lots of note values to force fit everything into one voice. For instamce, the bass note in the LH was held for several beats, but Finale turned it into a sixteenth note. That's just plain wrong.Similarly with how it shortened all the melody notes. It still won't be readable sheet music, but it's a lot closer to what you actually played.
In reply to I think it's possible the by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc,
I appreciate your efforts here and I hadn't noticed those options.
Yes, changing to two voices and unchecking clef changes made a huge difference.
Musescore has gone up in my opinion now :)
Regards,
In reply to Hi Marc, After trying over a by Muso777
I have been trying to do the same thing out of Reaper. May I ask how you got the program to split the staff?
In reply to I have been trying to do the by Sarah Noll
If your MIDI file specifies that it is for piano, MuseScore will normally split it automatically into two staves on import. If you have some MIDI file where it doesn't, please post it here so we can take a look.
if the MIDI file does *not* make it clear that it is for piano, then it won't be split into two staves by default. But you can force it to do so after import by right clicking the staff and choosing Split Staff, then selecting split point (notes below this note will be moved to a new staff below the selected one).
It sounds to me as though you need to quantise the MIDI file before you import it into MuseScore.
Any MIDI sequencer should be able to do this.
You can find a list here......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_MIDI_editors_and_sequencers
In reply to It sounds to me as though you by ChurchOrganist
Thanks for your interest.
The file I imported to Musescore was already quantized in Reaper (and I tried Cubase also which did the same job).
I think a major problem for Musescore was that it thought I wanted millions of short rests because the note duration didn't continue up to the next note.
Fortunately Finale Notepad was smart enough to know what I wanted (see attachment)
Scorecloud (former scorecleaner) is said to have great midi to score capabilities. But to be able to export your scores to eg. Musicxml you need a pro account (monthly 19€ ) .