Hi - I am making the transition to Dorico from Finale. Unfortunately, my computer had to be wiped a few weeks ago and while I still have all my old Finale .mus and .musx files, I no longer have Finale software on my computer. I tried re-installing it from a flash drive with my old serial number, but because the software won’t work unregistered, I was only able to use it for a short time. Now it no longer opens.
Is there a way I can convert files from .mus or .musx to .xml WITHOUT Finale software? Or will I have to load all my files onto a flash drive and find someone with a running copy of Finale to do a batch conversion? None of the articles I’ve seen in this help suggest that it’s possible to convert a file without the Finale software.
Thank you - It took a couple of tries but it eventually worked. I didn’t know that I had a new Finale registration from when I upgraded to Dorico - it worked (my older authorization did not).
Thanks - I did this; almost all the search hits said you needed an installed copy of Finale to do this, but your wording (wording seems to be everything in a Google search!) did point to an online tool someone has developed. I might use this again if Finale stops working (at some point all software dies). So thanks for your help.
MuseScore won’t open .mus or .musx files. Finale files are proprietary data. They haven’t released the source code or publicly documented the format.
Only MakeMusic knows what the data means and the data is just input for Finale’s notation engine. To quote Michael Good (inventor of MusicXML who works at MakeMusic), “Much of how Finale displays music is computed in the program, not stored in the file.”
The only software that could read and display the notation would essentially be … Finale.
There seem to be web-based conversion tools that claim to convert them, but they don’t work.
If you do not have a Finale license.
.musx (not .mus) to musicxml
This converter currently supports only basic notations and does not guarantee the exact preservation of bar positions, note placements, and other advanced notations. It is still a work in progress.
