abc converter - musicXML input

Subject: abc converter - musicXML input
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Apr 11 - 02:58 PM

I've added Nils Liberg's xml2abc.py to the abc converter at folkinfo.org. This is experimental and the conversion does not support lyrics (w:) at the moment but the converter should now accept musicXML as input as well as abc. The converter should (I hope) know if musicXML rather than abc has been entered and perform the =>abc conversion when needed.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: Artful Codger
Date: 01 Apr 11 - 06:12 PM

Too cool! It might be useful to note which musicXML inputs the converter is known to handle well, since the various music tools which output musicXML often use features or extensions that other programs can't handle. For instance, when I tried to import musicXML output from Finale some time ago, the converter I was using croaked. And I was only dealing with simple melodies, no polyphonic or expressive content that would even require ABC 1.7 or 2.0 extensions.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Apr 11 - 08:21 PM

I'd hope to get some feedback on what is found to work or otherwise...

Nils' tested his python script using largely using files produced by Sibelius. It seems to handle most simple/folk melodies well but becomes less predictable (although I've had some successes) with multi part tunes.

musicXML actually has two formats, partwise and timewise. His script supports the partwise format. Recodare however provide an xslt file for converting the XML from one to the other and (using the php xsl module) the folkinfo converter converts timewise to partwise before passing the output to Nil's script - so we should be able to handle both OK.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 02 Apr 11 - 09:10 PM

Nils has sent me an update. It now supports lyrics for the first voice.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: IvanB
Date: 02 Apr 11 - 09:37 PM

Jon, I tried it with a practice file I'd made for "The Month of January," with four staffs: melody, harmony, arpeggiated guitar and a drumbeat staff for count-in to the music, blank otherwise. This file was produced in NWC, exported to midi, opened in Finale and exported to xml before submitting it to the script. The score output looked essentially correct and the midi playback was what I expected other than changes in instrumentation, which I find pretty common when passing midi files back and forth between programs.

All in all, pretty good. I'll see what I have in more complex Finale files to try.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 05:47 PM

Thanks Ivan. I#ll be interested to know how you got on.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 06:33 PM

I send my Finale Notepad notation files as .MUS and .XML to a person who uses Sibelius and they have no difficulty handling my files and getting them ready for publication.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 06:35 PM

Oops, nowt to do with converters, sorry! :-(

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: IvanB
Date: 03 Apr 11 - 11:16 PM

I rendered Byrd's "In Winter Cold" in three parts. When I used the xml output by Photoscore (music scanning program preferred by Sibelius), the converter seemed to be working, but output nothing, three times. I then exported the xml into NWC, using mxml2nwcc and edited it some. I saved it as nwctxt and parsed it through http://nwc2musicxml.appspot.com/ back to xml. That file worked fine in the converter.

Not too pertinent to this discussion, but Sibelius recommends Photoscore for scanning music while Finale touts Smartscore. I have full versions of both scanning programs and find that Finale accepts the xml files from Photoscore with far fewer errors than those from Smartscore. Go figure.

Subject: RE: abc converter - musicXML input
From: pavane
Date: 04 Apr 11 - 02:06 PM

My program HARMONY does have an XML export, but experimental at present. I can't remember exactly what it handles.