Hi Group,

You guys are probably lightyears ahead of me on this!

I have a free trial version of software PDFtoMusic that will play PDF score files. The full version is abt $200.00.

The interesting thing abt this is I found that this software will read and play files from wikifonia.com. You can save the files as MIDI, MP3, Wav, even in the trial version.

My question is, what program do you recommend for this purpos.

It will not read scanned PDF music, just PDF scores. Maybe someone can explain what that is??

This could be very useful to me cause I learn songs by listening. I can read lead sheets, one note at a time, and I still have to count lines and spaces! LOL

Thanks for your help.
Don P

Hi Don,
is this the program you're refferring to?
http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusicpro.htm

Haven't tried it, but the way it reads to me is,

if you scan a piece of sheet music & saved it as a pdf file, it won't work. The music has had to be originally created in score editing software ie you may have an old score editing program that no longer works in win7 computers ( I've got a couple of programs that won't load)) provided you had been able to save them as a pdf file, you can now use this program to make them compatible with one of the new score editing programs.

I don't think this is really going to help you all that much.

I use Band in a Box to audition melodies with styles. Unfortunately it requires me to type the lead & chords in, but for me it's worth it. I'm a bit slow with learning some pieces. haahaa helps if I can hear how it's supposed to sound.

There was another program I used to use called "busker", had a couple of problems with win7, though. Screen size didn't suit. Used to work well in XP. Again just type in chords & melody from lead sheet.

Hi Rikki,

The Myriad link is correct. As I said the trial version works great for what it is, but it will only deal with a single sheet; it will not read the second page of a score. Naturally, they're trying to get you to buy the full-blown version.

Most of the leadsheets I've obtained from wikifonia.com are single sheets. So from the Myriad program I simply export them as midi or *.kar files and then play them back in PowerTracks Pro. They only play the melody, not chords.

The trial version allows you to export files in several formats MIDI, *.mxl, *.Kar and a couple more!

I guess my question really is what software does PDF scores?

Don P

Hi Don,
came across this. It saves as pdf, but doesn't appear to load pdf.
So may not be much use. It's free though.
I'm finding it quite interesting, as it loads BIAB song files. The score i think may be better than biab scores
Anyway, I'm going to fiddle round with it a bit.
http://musescore.org/

Hi Don,
played around with Musescore for a while. About the only use I may find for it, is saving
some of the Wikifonia lead sheets as pdf files and saving the scores I generate from band in a box as pdf files.

I saved a couple of the wikifonia lead sheets as midifiles & loaded it into band in a box & power tracks pro.
Unfortunately one of the songs I downloaded (Love Letters in the Sand) has a 2 note lead in.
Neither powertracks pro ,xgworks or band in a box , handled it well.

As anyone tried to load MUSICREADER on thier PC, I did and it messed up my sreen drivers could only use low res, had to load all my screen drivers back on and take off MUSICREADER.

Tony

MusicReader is a great way to diplay pdf files that you can then easily put in different playlists.

On my desktop PC I create pdfs of Sibelius sheet music by using the musicreader print driver. Then sync it to my iPad. The quality is outstanding. I also create talking points and message outlines in Word and then save as a pdf into the MusicReader folder on my PC. Then when you open MusicReader it automatically adds the files to the library.

Great solution, well worth looking into.

Bought a Acer Iconia and use Adobe reader, turns pages, you just need to get the tablet closer to your face to read the music, perhaps this is the simple way of doing things.

Waiting for the proper music stand from Thomann (Jasper)

Tony

I just bought MusicReader and it installed with no problems on my Win7 laptop.

It has a handy cropping function and any zoom you want, unlike my MPP. All of my MPP files are stored in PDF as well as Freehand. It says you can import Freehand, but don't see any dropdown choice for that. Maybe it does the same conversion, anyway, to my PDF's.

I like my old MPP but now there is one less piece to carry, as I take my laptop for other programs anyway.

Thanks Graham.

Bernie

Good that Bernie,

When I load the Musicreader onto my home pc it trys to load on the a screen rotate which hell you don't need that on a static PC and it doesn't give you the option to not load that bit on, I hate software that does not give you a choice, it completely messed up my PC and only allowed me 800x600 res. I had to take it off and reload all my screen drivers back on. I think I can work with the tablet and Adobe. There will be a lot of MPP for sale, there is no more R&D going on with that product, going downhill now, if I was them I would just develop the software for W7 and to hell with the hardware, they haven't got a clue what the market wants, its too heavy,thick, battery crap etc etc.... they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, heads in the clouds. Ah well life moves on.

Good luck with your Bernie