Best Scanning software

Who has the best scanning software out? I purchased the upgrade to PhotoScore Ultimate in 2019? And it still doesn’t perform very well. Have they ceased to exist?

Thanks,
Dorico 5.1.81
Windows 10 pro

Hi @sttrumpet, see this recent article:

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What kind of problem do you have? I still find it works well, providing the source is workable… (and I purchased Sibelius to send Photoscore’s docs to Sib, because direct xml export is just an utter mess)

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I have been scanning PDFs and exporting the file as an XML file. I have Sibelius 7.5. I haven’t tried sending to Sib and exporting XML from there. I will try that. Thanks Marc!

You would certainly have much better results even with that old version of Sibelius than using their messed up XML output!

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SmartScore 64 Pro. I’ve used it to scan and edit many hundreds of scores (maybe over 1000!)

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IIRC it’s quite similar to the results you get with Photoscore. Both programs can really save you time, provided you know how to use them and with proper sources.

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Sometimes Photoscore’s interpretation is, ehm … disputable :smiley: !
I’ve used it in some Tchaikovsky or Czerny with great success, but with Ravel it was just quicker to copy all the notes!
Still, I use the XML just fine, no need to pass in Sibelius.
Are you noticing errors in parsing or that it improves the imported data?

I have noticed big big problems with
• the instruments (piano never gets recognized, any grand staff instrument)
• 3/4 music or 6/8, many blank bars added with no apparent reason
Those things take time to repair and simply do not exist if I take the Sibelius route!
But good for you if that XML export is somewhat useful for you. I found that any other tool would work better than this embedded xml, but with Sibelius, it turns into a very efficient tool (when you know its limits — I’ve been working with it for ten years now, so I quickly know if it’s worth it or not)
Like you, when I had to work on Ravel’s music, I copied everything manually. Especially une barque sur l’océan with hidden tuplets everywhere and cross-staff music…

Oh well, yes! I had fixed it manually in the app so many times that I forgot even mentioning that.

I’ll gliss on that :smiley:

Wait wait … are you saying that you are not fixing the bloodbath of red errors in Photoscore and straight up export to Sibelius? Then XML to Dorico?
I usually fix everything in Photoscore (as patience allows!) and then export.

No, you always need to fix the rhythmic errors, otherwise Photoscore would not even export anything. I am mentioning unexpected behaviour once everything (that list) is corrected.

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