Guide To Using Audiveris
I've tried Audiveris a few times over the years but never get very far with it as it is missing a simple down-to-earth guide. The Handbook is good as far as it goes but doesn't give any helpful hints or tips. My most recent attempt to use the program was with the 4.1 beta release. It's a big improvement in terms of installing (for Windows it is anyway) but still doesn't work for me "out of the box".
The main problem I find is that it will simply not handle the majority of the sheet music I try even though it is very good quality originals I'm using. I usually get a message that no systems were found or something similar and consequently it doesn't try to "read" the score at all - it's as if it just hasn't recognised it as music.
Anyway, I'm hoping that some people here use it and can give me some simple pointers on which settings to tweak - I'm quite happy to go through the "teaching" process but I can't even get started if it doesn't recognise a score to start with.
If you're wondering why I haven't posted this on an Audiveris forum it's because their forums look more technically oriented and don't seem to be very active either
Comments
Audiveris handbook was updated just a couple of weeks ago. Are you talking of this version http://audiveris.kenai.com/docs/manual/handbook.html ? If so, could you elaborate on the missing information?
A new Windows release should be out in the coming days, with the integration of the new OCR Tesseract software. Switching from old Tesseract 2.04 to new 3.02 has been a challenge, because the Tesseract C++ API is now significantly different and there was simply no Java interfacing available on Windows.
I plan to keep the same release number (4.1), dropping the "beta" annotation, and focus on these "show-stopping" errors.
Could you do me the favor of posting concrete examples on the Audiveris forum, because this is the only way to reproduce the error. Keep in mind that even nice looking scores for human eyes may exhibit defects for a software program. So the need for concrete images that we could work upon with the latest Audiveris software.
Don't be afraid by some technical messages of the Audiveris forum... This forum is yours after all! :-)
Help me!
/Hervé (Audiveris owner)
Hervé,
Thank you for the reply. It's gratifying to know you frequent this forum.
Yes, that is the handbook I was referring to. As I said, it's very informative but doesn't help me with the errors I'm getting. Here's and example I've copied from Audiveris :
INFO - Loading C:\Documents and Settings\Steve Hall\My Documents\My Scans\scan0021.jpg ...
INFO - Loaded image #1 (2292 x 3312)
INFO - scan0021 scheduling [SCALE, GRID, SPLIT, MEASURES, STICKS, SYMBOLS, PAGES, SCORE]
INFO - [scan0021] {Scale line:(3,4,6) interline:(19,21,24) beam:12}
INFO - [scan0021] Global slope: 0.0012965135
INFO - [scan0021] Retrieved line clusters: 5 of size: 5 with interline: 21
WARNING - [scan0021] BarsRetriever cannot retrieveSystems [java.lang.NullPointerException]
INFO - [scan0021] Parts top staff ids: [1, 2, 3, 4, 4]
INFO - [scan0021] no part found, no system found
INFO - [scan0021] 0 raw measure: []
WARNING - Error in performing [SCALE, GRID, SPLIT, MEASURES, STICKS, SYMBOLS, PAGES, SCORE] [java.lang.NullPointerException]
I assume the message on line 7 is the key - if it can't retrieve systems it doesn't really stand much chance of doing any further processing. I also assume that the values Audiveris is using as shown in lines 4 - 6 are the reason it isn't detecting the systems. So, presumably I might get better results if I "tweak" these settings. However, I don't see anything in the manual that helps me. Or maybe I'm just being lazy!
Anyway, as you say the Audiveris forum is the place to pursue this - I'd love to help. Would this be the appropriate place?
http://kenai.com/projects/help/forums/help-wanted
In reply to Hervé, Thank you by fatwarry
The URL you mentioned seems to point to a general forum of Kenai, a forum where the Kenai hosting environment is discussed.
The specific home page for Audiveris is http://kenai.com/projects/audiveris which already lists the most active forums.
To get to all Audiveris forums, use the "Message Forum" link in the left column of the home page, or go directly to http://kenai.com/projects/audiveris/forums/message-forum
Post your message there, if possible with a link to the image you were trying to transcribe.
Your first reading of Audiveris log was correct: things began to turn wrong with line #7:
WARNING - [scan0021] BarsRetriever cannot retrieveSystems [java.lang.NullPointerException]
And if we cannot retrieve systems, we are indeed in bad shape for the page transcription :-)
So please provide (a link to) your image so that I can investigate the case further.
I may also use the case to update the handbook if so needed
Thanks for your contribution
/Hervé
In reply to Reporting Audiveris cases by hbitteur
Hervé,
Thanks for pointing me at the right forum. Perhaps that's why I thought they all looked a bit technical. It's also a case in point about the manual. It didn't provide any clues as to how to get support. Neither does the Audiveris website as far as I can see. A nice, big button labelled "Support Forum" or something similar, like those provided for "Snapshots", "Installation" etc would be ideal. Having said that I'm perfectly happy to accept that I'm a bit thick or didn't try hard enough.
I'll post something on the appropriate forum later when I have access to my main PC
Thanks for your help
In reply to Hervé, Thanks for by fatwarry
Thank you hbitteur
I have been using Audiveris for several weeks now often getting good results, mostly with PDF's. I have a great deal of music in PDF's to work on. This alone has help me.and I am most grateful to you.
Some of the work that I have been able to edit after scanning with Audiveris.
I find it a most amazing program.
..
I have not had good results from my own scans I have kept to your instructions of keeping to 300 dpi but that has no cusses ether, I have also attempted at scanning directly into PDF without any successes. .
Wena D. Parry,
South Wales, U.K. .
In reply to Thank you hbitteur by Wena D Parry
Thank you for your kind words Wena!
I'm right now in Vienna writing some hack with the MuseScore folks, the goal is to come up with a kind of "OMR as a service" demo by the end of the week-end.
And yes, I confirm that good PDFs are the target of current Audiveris version (4.2).
My task for this new year is to make Audiveris work equally well on less-than-good quality scans.
Stay tuned, but be patient, a year is made of 12 months :-)
/Hervé
In reply to Thank you for your kind words by hbitteur
hbitteur, I am most grateful to you and the developers of Musescrit for your hard work.Any development will make my putting together of Welsh hymns that have been lost to our nation.
A member of this forum has also been developing a system to convert from So Fa to notation, at present it seems to have some problems.
Wena D. Parry