Importing Sibelius musicxml files into Dorico creates challenges

Dorico
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my arrangement of an orchestral work for windband was polished by our musical director in Sibelius. I’ve had returned a PDF file and musicxml file which I’ve imported back into Dorico Pro 3.5 . They’re both taken from the same Sibelius file. Interestingly the musicXML file shows the initial tempo at 120 whereas the PDF shows tempo at 152. And there are other differences as one plays progressively through the piece. Any idea why that could be the case before I dive down rabbit holes. Could it depend on Sibelius version or ? I’ve read other posts but couldn’t find any immediate answer

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XML Import/Export between different apps is bound to create some errors due to different architecture. Dorico 5 added some more functionality for XML import/export but you will not get around double checking everything for possible errors. Also, any engraving details and polishes will most likely get lost.

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Thank you Robin, I can understand some of that but also recognize that Citrix and VM Ware can ease migrations between apps. Looks like it has to be double checking throughout - thanks

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In preferences/musicxml import it’s best to uncheck all the boxes. That often takes care of a lot of problems (although maybe not all) and might be worth checking (unchecking) and redoing the import.
I can’t recall if D5 defaults to checked or unchecked.

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Thanks Lafin, I’ll try and find my way around that

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Thanks all, I’ve tried both methods above to no avail, so it has to be manual interventions.

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Sorry it’s still not working out. Consider getting the free Musescore and import and export. Musescore is considered to have very good XML features.

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Thanks Lafin, I’d be most reticent to use yet another music notation software without a compelling reason. I did take a look and attempted to download but my security software blocked it so I think I’ll stay clear for now.

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Of course, Musescore cannot be trusted :stuck_out_tongue:

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Sadly MusicXML is not the perfect panacea people imagined at the outset, unlike PDF, say. It’s just never caught on properly for a host of reasons. You are going to have to do manual work on an import for the foreseeable future, between any two music apps A and B in either direction.

I believe there is partially an economic reason at work here. It does not benefit the developer of an engraving program to make its files transparently import into another competing program. It’s a nice sort of feature, but think about it for a while, should it be a development priority? Not really.

1 Like
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Makes a complete sense unless it would have been mandated by “interoperability” regulation. that’s what I thought - it’ll have to be manual work to correct.

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My understanding is that the problem is in part the fact that MusicXML is designed to be a very flexible format, meaning there are many different ways to structure MusicXML that are all considered “correct” according to the specification but each software program uses its own preferred structure. That’s why sometimes importing into something like MuseScore and then exporting from there can help to solve certain problems, as its preferred structure is likely to be different than the preferred structure of the initial program that generated the MusicXML and may be more compatible with what Dorico expects.

Daniel did say at some point that he hopes to improve Dorico’s XML compatibility regarding XML output from other notation programs that are structured in certain ways that gives Dorico difficulties.

Sibelius also has two ways of exporting MusicXML - there is the built in export and there is the free “Dolet” addon. They will give different results - Dolet supports the newer XML standards and encodes things differently than the built in export. If the file you received is done with a regular MusicXML export, you might have better luck with a Dolet export.

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Thanks - looks like there’s no standard or body that enforces standards

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Not enforcement, but the W3C Music notation Group defines the standards.

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But they are not fully implemented by all vendors. There’s obviously no enforcement possible. W3C is advisory only. Of note is that that group handles SMuFL as well.

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