Cross-staff disabled dorico file: how to fix it?

Dorico
1

Cross-staffed Dorico file: how to fix it?

Dear advanced user,
I have imported an xml file that was converted to xml from a PDF using Photoscore.
Strangely, the Crossstaff menu is disabled in this file. How can I fix it?

Thanks in advance!
IMSLP00410-Schumann_-.dorico (1.3 MB)

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It’s imported as two separate instruments held by two separate players.
Create a new grand staff instrument (piano?) and copy and paste the material from the existing two instruments to the new piano instrument. Then delete the existing players and their music from the left panel of Setup mode.

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Oh, thank you! I was stupid…

However, copying the second instrument to the lower staff of the piano does not work. Dorico pastes the notes to the upper staff of the piano, and pressing m moves the notes to the lower staff, but all the voices are merged into one voice. Is there a way to paste the notes to the lower staff and keep the voices?

4

Yeah, I suspect the MusicXML’s a bit of a mess. I’ll play with it for a few minutes and see if I can wrangle it into a single instrument.

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Here you go.
IMSLP00410-Schumann_-LN.dorico (1.4 MB)

I performed a Change Instrument on the “2” instrument, changing it to a piano.
I then selected the first bar of its material, used Edit > Select to End of Flow, Cut, invoked the caret, arrowed down to the lower staff and Pasted.
I then selected the first bar of the “1” instrument, selected to end of flow, cut, invoked the caret, arrowed to the top staff of the new piano, then pasted.
Then I deleted the errant bass clef from the start of the top staff of the piano, and deleted the redundant imported players from Setup mode.

It’s a bit of a mess beyond the first few pages - looks like some triplets have tripped things up in the import process. I don’t know which app you’ve used to scan the original, but it might be worth importing the original MusicXML into MuseScore and then exporting to MusicXML again, and then importing that into Dorico. MuseScore’s a really useful (free) intermediary step when it comes to MusicXML - it seems to be very forgiving at the import stage, and translate into more reliable MusicXML on export.

Beyond that it’s probably a lot of fiddling with Insert mode in Dorico, plus deleting and retyping the bits that stray too far from the source material.

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Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to help me!

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I find Photoscore Ultimate absolutely incapable of working directly with Dorico. I used Finale’s death to get Sibelius perpetual at a decent price (it hurt me…) because it’s the only way PS U does work correctly. I also have given up on hopes of a new update (ladt one was early 2020🤷) and don’t want to invest in any other OMR software until it is really worth it.

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Finale 2014 was the last version to support OMR and I think it is better than PhotoScore Ultimate. I also regret having bought PS U.

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I mostly agree with this, but still find PhotoScore very usable within its limitations.

  1. We know about the 2 piano problem, so don’t expect any cross-stave notation to work (edit in PS to put the cross-stave notes back on the other staff)
  2. I don’t ask PS to read any text - I’m only interested in getting the notes right. Annotations are easy to put back in Dorico.
  3. PS is hit and miss on hairpins, slurs and ties - and you may end up with a lot of LV slurs (which are easy to filter out in Dorico)
  4. Be very careful about tuplets. PS can do a very good job, but sometimes a small error will cause Dorico to choke.
  5. PS uses the double-flat token. Dorico only accepts flat-flat (run the xml through a text editor to find/replace)
  6. multi-rests from PS are not recognised by Dorico (I manually add text on multi-rests eg. “6-bars!”. Dorico’s insert mode is great for fixing this!)

Here’s my rough import of the 1st movement of your Schumann (there are doubtless still errors and some missing notes!)
schumann-sonata3.dorico (1.3 MB)
Hopefully it will save you some time.

4 Likes
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Very good list!

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Thank you very much for the dorico file and the list!!