Hey guys, super new to working with DAWs. I am wondering if it is possible to take compositions notated in, say, Sibelius or Musescore, convert them into MIDI files, upload them into Cubase, and then modify the instrumentation; for example, working on the MIDI file within the context of a specific music library, or possibly changing the native instrumentation of the notated MIDI score? Greatly appreciate any feedback!
HI sure you can! I use Dorico 5 as a notation program. just export your score as a midifile and import into Cubase… obviously for each track you will have to assign a vst instrument to make the midi “play” to a virtual instrument
You can also export XML.
I usually do ‘both’. I’ll set up ‘performance tracks’ using the MIDI, and if I want a score layout in Cubase I might ALSO import an XML to a set of tracks for display purposes (don’t even need to be hooked to instruments).
XML imports will usually be perfectly quantized and such, which is good for scores. Many of the symbols and such might be included as well, but Cubase might not have a clue as to what they mean interpretation wise unless you go through the score and ‘replace’ various marks and instructions with the proper Cubase variants. I.E. A ff (fortissimo) marking from an imported XML score might ‘show’ in the Cubase score editor, but it doesn’t ‘do anything’ unless you ‘replace it’ with an ff marking from the Cubase tool box, and have set the playback/expression map options to translate for your instrument’s needs.
MIDI tracks will turn out exactly as Sibelius ‘interprets’ the file and plays it back. This usually includes the tempo track as well.