I received a transcription created in Finale and exported as a MusicXML file. When I imported the XML file into Dorico 2, I found some errors, mostly important text missing, but some notes were written incorrectly as well (e.g. two 1/4 notes tied together instead of a single 1/2 note). It did a mostly good job but the missing items are kinda important!
See attached images. I have verified that the missing text does exist in the XML file.
Thanks,
D
Tied notes over the halfway point in the bar will depend on your settings in Notation Options > Note Groupings. You can also set options in Dorico’s Application Preferences for how XML is treated, and when it should preserve note durations and other things.
I have noticed a few glitches when importing XML from Finale: lyric word extensions sometimes don’t go to the last tied note; ties can be inconsistently positioned. Possibly a few other things. I find that deleting those problem elements and re-entering them fixes it. (E.g. double-click on the lyric, press space to the last note. For ties, delete the notes and re-enter.
Dorico does indeed not yet import all arbitrary text elements (normally encoded as “words”) in MusicXML. Text is not encoded semantically in MusicXML, which means that Dorico has to try it on for size as e.g. rehearsal marks, tempos, dynamics, titles, etc., and in order to avoid importing it twice, it doesn’t bring it in as just plain old text. This is something we do plan to improve in the future.
Dorico really has to give up on the idea that it must understand all text or delete it. Deleting it is really not a viable option. Sorry to be a stuck record on this, but try debugging a few really large imported scores with many thousands of elements and then see how you feel about whether it’s ok to delete random stuff.
Have you been able to import articulations correctly? I am importing MusicXML generated by Logic and only get Staccato correctly imported. All other articulations in the Logic Score become "natural " in Dorico.
Nope — gave up on Dorico years ago…
What a helpful reply, @gigperformer!
Welcome to the forum, @mavros. Can you attach a small MusicXML file exported from Logic so we can take a look and see what’s actually encoded in there?
You are obviously welcome to delete my comments if you don’t like them - it’s your forum!
Even after numerous comments from people for years, checking for updates from 3.5 still takes you to a page that refers to 3.1
3.Despite having reported this years ago, importing an XML document from Sibelius still leaves out key information that is in the XML file( I checked)
Here’s the top of the first page of a Sibelius score that I just received a few days ago
Here’s the bottom of the first page of a Sibelius score
and here’s the bottom of that same page imported into Dorico
Yes, it’s just blank!
I’ve faithfully bought/upgraded every version up until 3.5 (with no way to know whether there’s a newer version - see item 2 above) and while I would expect these kinds of issues to occur with a 1.0 version, one would expect such basic stuff to have be fixed by the time one got to 3.5 - hence my “gave up” comment
Sample of Dorico.txt.zip (33.7 KB)
Thank you for the very fast response. Dorico is impressive on the score side but with the interaction with Logic I am battling a bit.
Attached my small test MusicXML. 4 string instruments from BBCSO each with a different articulation. V1 Long CS, V2 Long Flautando, VA Spiccato, VC Staccato and BS Pizzicato. The same articulation for the whole track entered directly in the plugin and additionally on the track using an articulation set with identical key-switches as BBCSO uses. After import only the Celli show the Staccato.
Dorico Test.xml (141.8 KB)
It is true that work needs to be done in this area. All I will add is that issues can stem from the source as much as Dorico’s own interpretation engine. That is to say, the program generating the xml may not be doing so in an optimal way—which, it’s entirely possible—would also result in rendering issues in other programs too. But point taken, certainly, and this has been an acknowledged weakness for a while.
Edit: to quote daniel later in this very thread (as mere support of the fact that we can’t pin it all on Dorico):
Sure — except that the program in question is Sibelius - a product with which one would expect the Dorico developers to be very familiar!
Right. As I acknowledged, work does need to be done in this area. I’m just saying that it’s also possible that Sibelius isn’t exporting some of that data well, or perhaps at all. Dorico (as you know) is big on semantics in a way that Sibelius isn’t, so perhaps some of those items were exported by Sibelius as plain text items, in which case it is difficult for Dorico to parse them out. Again, I’m not exonerating Dorico here; no doubt their algorithm can be improved. I just don’t know that we can assume its a one-sided issue. And while the dev. team is indeed familiar with the Sibelius code, they also have not been its custodians for 6(?) years now. I don’t think we can reasonably expect anyone 6 years out from a project to remember (let alone definitively know) intricate details of its code implementation.
That Dorico has more success importing Finale’s XML(3) code suggests that Sibelius’s implementation is less carefully defined. So I agree that until Sibelius upgrades its game, Dorico has fewer (already available) hooks to latch onto semantically.
Nearly 10 years now. Avid fired the Sibelius team in 2012.
I think your problem rests with Logic. Dorico has correctly interpreted all the articulations that are present in your xml file.
I pray God no one holds me to account for my successors’ actions 10 years from now. lol
I’m afraid that’s because only the cello part defines any articulations. I can’t speak to what Logic may or may not be doing here, but what I can say is that staccato articulations can only be found on notes in the cello part, and hence Dorico can only import those articulations, since nothing else is present in the MusicXML file.
@Gigperformer, I’m sorry that we’ve not managed to sort out the problem with the “check for updates” page. The issue, as I’m sure you know, is that the redirection URL is baked into the software itself, and both Dorico 3.1 and Dorico 3.5 have the same redirection ID. It’s therefore not straightforward to fix this as it means we would have to update either or both Dorico 3.1 or Dorico 3.5, neither of which we have any current plans to do.
As for the MusicXML import issues you describe, you’re right that as yet Dorico does not import the full set of credit-words elements from MusicXML files. This is something we haven’t got around to yet, and remains on our backlog along with a number of other MusicXML import (and indeed export) improvements that we would like to make.
As I mentioned earlier, the information IS in the XML file (I looked). For example, here are the credits in the XML that are not getting printed
<credit page="1">
<credit-words default-x="645" default-y="175" font-family="Gotham" font-style="normal" font-size="19.4328" font-weight="bold" justify="center" valign="middle">Aja</credit-words>
</credit>
<credit page="1">
<credit-words default-x="645" default-y="123" font-family="Gotham" font-style="normal" font-size="10.2202" font-weight="normal" justify="center" valign="middle">Steely Dan</credit-words>
</credit>
<credit page="1">
<credit-words default-x="1205" default-y="318" font-family="Gotham" font-style="normal" font-size="10.2202" font-weight="normal" justify="right" valign="middle">Transcribed by
Sabas YagĂĽe
mysheetmusictranscriptions.com</credit-words>
</credit>
<credit page="1">
<credit-words default-x="645" default-y="43" font-family="Gotham" font-style="normal" font-size="9.3565" font-weight="normal" justify="center" valign="middle">© 2021 - Transcription by My Sheet Music Transcriptions
This score is intended for private non-commercial use. Please do not resell, distribute or publish without consent.</credit-words>
</credit>
Sure – but, as I noted, one can look in the plain-text XML and see the tags and the content.
I repeat — the tags are there — so for the example above, whether credit is an official Music-XML thing or not, Dorico could still “see” those tags and handle them.
To verify if it is not an Music XML limit I just did an MusicXML export from Dorico.
It might well be that these detailed articulations can not be coded in MusicXML. I found this link Google MusicXML and articulations which only shows limited options for articulations.
I used the same score and added all articulations as mentioned before in the score in Dorico. Dorico with the BBCSO instruments connected plays all articulations flawlessly. I exported this score to MusicXML in Dorico and then imported this file back into Dorico. So no Logic involved at all.
None of the articulations I added are recognized in the new score generated in Dorico. All is just standard Legato respectively Natural in Dorico default.
If you open the Dorico generated xml with a text editor you will again only find the reference to “Staccato”. It is specified as Staccatissimo in the XML and no reference is made to any of the others.