XML import not correct at all

Dorico
,
1

wasser-scrambled3.xml (982.5 KB)
wasser-scrambled3.dorico (643.3 KB)
Finale-Import.pdf (629.7 KB)
I have a very weird xml import from a score created in bach.score (library for max). The music gets imported correct in Finale but not in Dorico.
What could cause the problem? O attached a pdf of the finale import as well as the Dorcio import and the xml file (in order to be able to upload the .musicxml file I had to rename its extension to .xml - import result is the same)

2

For easier comparison, after importing into Dorico, put barlines in the same place as in the Finale version.

3

I dinā€™t change anything either in Dorico or in Finale. The problem is obvious: Dorico is creating rests and after a few bars almost everything ends up in one voice. The original xml and the finale import has no rests at all.

4

Your xml file is malformed, but Finaleā€™s xml interpreter is more forgiving than Doricoā€™s (or MuseScoreā€™s). MuseScore reports a dozen errors in the file and then refuses to load anything. Dorico gets as far as it can with each part, then abandons them if it gets stuck.

The problem is almost always the conversion of tuplets.

What happens if you export your Finale version to xml and try to import that to Dorico?

5

I though about going through finale but than I loose the quarter tone accidentals. Iā€™ll try deal with the export in a different way.

Thanks for the help!

6

I have occasionally experienced similar problems with xml files exported from Sibelius when they have contained tuplets of various sorts.

7

You can identify where Dorico starts to have a problem (where it create rests). Go back to your original and just delete the notes where the first rests appear (add a text note there to remind yourself what youā€™ve done). Try the xml export/import again and see if Dorico has more luck this time? (This is a strategy Iā€™ve used with success on similar difficult xml files)

8

I solved the problem. It was a bad file I exported from Bach.score
I found a way to generate a proper one and now the import is fine.

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9

What is ā€œBach.scoreā€?

10

Itā€˜s a score editor for Max (a programing environment)
https://www.bachproject.net

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11

I had enormous trouble with xml created by Reaper ( version 5.9.something). Although reading one back into Reaper to check I donā€™t think Reaper is above suspicion. It would give up and fill the tail end of the Dorico score with rests; sometimes shift a part a few beats out of sync and so on so I export a midi file now. I wonā€™t say no problems but very few. A little more work but better than the frustrations and hours wasted over xml.
(I use Dorico for editing and engraving, not composing.)

12

It seems to me the problem is twofold:

  1. The XML standard is ambiguous enough that different vendors think their interpretation is the correct one, yet without consensus, this is mostly a mess when working cross-product. When working within a single product (exporting/importing to/from the same nameplate albeit different releases) MusicXML generally works very well. But that kind-of misses the point.
  2. While users highly value (the ideals of) this feature, no vendors really see an advantage in supporting it very well, especially when that enables content to LEAVE their product. That is to say, import may be seen as more important than export.

Iā€™m not picking on any particular vendor. This thought process seems to be throughout the industry and it is a shame because this really is something that users wish would live up to its promise.

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