Avid Sibelius 4 User Manual

Sibelius

Reference

Edition 4.1 November 2005

Reference written by Michael Eastwood, Daniel Spreadbury and Ben & Jonathan Finn.

See the

About Sibelius dialog for a full list of the software development team and other credits.

We would like to thank all those (too numerous to list) who have provided helpful comments and suggestions for Sibelius and its documentation.

Please email any suggestions for improvements to this Reference to

docs@sibelius.com (but

please do not use this address for suggestions or queries about the Sibelius program itself – see the separate

Latest information & technical help sheet for the correct address for your country).

Sibelius copyright © Sibelius Software Ltd and its licensors 1987–2005 Sibelius Reference copyright © Sibelius Software Ltd 1992–2005 Published by Sibelius Software Ltd, The Old Toy Factory, 20–22 City North, Fonthill Road, London N4 3HF, UK

recording, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise – in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. Although every care has

been taken in the preparation of this Reference, neither the publisher nor the authors can take responsibility for any loss or damage arising from any

errors or omissions it may contain.

Sibelius, the Sibelius logo, Scorch, Flexi-time, Espressivo, Rubato, Rhythmic feel, Arrange, ManuScript, Virtual Manuscript Paper, House Style,

SoundStage, Opus, Inkpen2, Helsinki, magnetic, multicopy, Optical, Dynamic parts, the blue notes and double helix logos, SibeliusMusic.com, Sibe-

liusEducation.com, ‘The fastest, smartest, easiest way to write music’ and ‘99% inspiration, 1% perspiration’ are all trademarks or registered trade-

marks of Sibelius Software Ltd in the USA, UK and other countries. All other trademarks are acknowledged as the property of their respective

owners.

Contents

About this Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1 Inputting 7

1.1 Note input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

1.2 Keypad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

1.3 Flexi-time™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

1.4 Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

1.5 Guitar tab input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

1.6 Selections and passages . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2 Notations 51

2.1 Accidentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

2.2 Articulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

2.3 Barlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

2.4 Bars and bar rests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

2.5 Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

2.6 Brackets and braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

2.7 Chord diagrams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

2.8 Clefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

2.9 Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

2.10 Free rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

2.11 Grace notes and cue notes . . . . . . . . . 93

2.12 Guitar notation and tab . . . . . . . . . . .97

2.13 Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

2.14 Key signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112

2.15 Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

2.16 Lute tablature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

2.17 Manuscript paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

2.18 Multirests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124

2.19 Noteheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128

2.20 Percussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131

2.21 Slurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

2.22 Staves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

2.23 Stems and leger lines . . . . . . . . . . . . .146

2.24 Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148

2.25 Ties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152

2.26 Time signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

2.27 Tremolos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158

2.28 Triplets and other tuplets . . . . . . . . .160

2.29 Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164

3 Text 169

3.1 Working with text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

3.2 Lyrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186

3.3 Chord symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195

3.4 Bar numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199

3.5 Page numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

3.6 Rehearsal marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

3.7 Edit Text Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

4 Playback & video 211

4.1 Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

4.2 Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

4.3 Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

4.4 Repeats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

4.5 Live Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

4.6 Playback dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

4.7 Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

4.8 Timecode and hit points . . . . . . . . . . 251

4.9 Kontakt Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

4.10 Playback and input devices . . . . . . . 264

4.11 MIDI for beginners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

4.12 MIDI messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

4.13 Edit Sound Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

5 Power tools 285

5.1 Arrange™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

5.2 Edit Arrange Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

5.3 Display settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

5.4 Dynamic parts™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

5.5 Filters and Find . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

5.6 Focus on Staves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

5.7 Grove Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

5.8 Hiding objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

5.9 Highlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

5.10 Menus and shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

5.11 Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

5.12 Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

5.13 Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

5.14 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

5.15 SibeliusEducation.com . . . . . . . . . . . 397

5.16 SibeliusMusic.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

5.17 Transposing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

5.18 Undo and Redo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

5.19 View menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

5.20 Window menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

5.21 Worksheet Creator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

5.22 Adding your own worksheets . . . . . 419

6 Layout & engraving 425

6.1 Layout and formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

6.2 Music engraving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Contents

6.3 Auto Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

6.4 Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

6.5 Document Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

6.6 Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

6.7 House Style™ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

6.8 Note spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

6.9 Staff spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

6.10 Music fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

6.11 Default Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

6.12 Edit Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

6.13 Edit Noteheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

6.14 Edit Staff Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

6.15 Edit Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

6.16 Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

7 Files 477

7.1 Working with files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

7.2 Opening MIDI files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .488

7.3 Importing graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .492

7.4 Opening MusicXML files . . . . . . . . . .494

7.5 Opening Finale 98-2003 files . . . . . . .498

7.6 Opening SCORE files . . . . . . . . . . . . . .503

7.7 Opening Acorn Sibelius files . . . . . . .506

7.8 Exporting graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .508

7.9 Exporting MIDI files . . . . . . . . . . . . . .515

7.10 Exporting audio files . . . . . . . . . . . . .517

7.11 Exporting Scorch web pages . . . . . .519

7.12 ASCII tab files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .524

Glossary 527 Index 539

License Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .562

About this Reference

This Reference is a comprehensive guide to all of Sibelius’s features. For explanations of Sibelius’s more basic features, and when familiarizing yourself with the program, you will probably find it easier to refer to your Handbook, or your Upgrading to Sibelius 4 booklet if you have upgraded from a previous version of Sibelius.

The Reference comes both on-screen, and as an optional printed book, which you can buy from Sibelius Software or your country’s distributor ( erence are identical.

Chapters and topics

Sibelius’s Reference is divided into seven chapters containing smaller topics. You will find a list of all these topics in the Contents, however you will probably find the Index even more useful for finding information on specific areas of the program. The cal terms.

On-screen reference

To start the on-screen Reference, click the toolbar button shown on the right, or choose

Help > Sibelius Reference (shortcut F1 or X?).

On Windows, you will see a message telling you that the on-screen help uses a Java applet, and that this may be blocked by default in some web browsers.

www.sibelius.com/buy). Both forms of the Ref-

Glossary explains musical and techni-

If you use Internet Explorer on Windows XP Service Pack 2, the yellow information bar will appear at the top of the browser window. Click it and choose appears. A security warning will then appear, asking you if you’re sure: click

Allow Blocked Content from the menu that

Yes. The on-screen

Reference will then appear.

To prevent these warnings from appearing in future:

* In Internet Explorer, choose Tools > Internet Options * Choose the Advanced tab * Scroll down to the section called Security

Switch on Allow active content to run in files on My Computer

* Click OK, then close the Internet Options window.

There are four easy ways to find information in Reference, that you can access by clicking the

Contents, Index, Search or Favorites tabs to the left: * Contents: click the small + or book icon to list topics within a chapter or headings within a

topic. Then click on a topic or heading to read it.

* Index: double-click on the index entry in the list. (If letters A-Z are listed at the top, click on one

of those followed by the index entry.)

* Search: type a word or words to search for into the box at the top, then click Go to get a list of

topics

* Favorites: this is a list of bookmarks to your favorite Reference topics. To bookmark the current

topic, click

Add. To display a bookmarked topic, select it from the list at the top and click

Reference

Display (or just double-click it in the list). Click Remove to remove a selected bookmark. (Note

that Favorites only appears if your browser is set to run active Java content.)

You can also do things such as move to the next/previous topic, or print the current topic, using the buttons at the top of the right-hand frame:

Show current topic

in Contents

Next topic

Previous topic

Print topic

If you forget what a button does, hover your mouse pointer over it for a few seconds to reveal a tool tip.

Cross-references

b 2.5 Beams means “see the Beams topic” within chapter 2 of Reference. v Starting a new score means “choose Help> Tutorial Videos and watch the Starting a new

score

video.”

Refer to the separate

Handbook for details of other typography and terminology used.

1. Inputting

Inputting

1. Inputting

1.1 Note input

b 1.3 Flexi-time™, 1.5 Guitar tab input, 2.1 Accidentals, 2.2 Articulations, 2.5 Beams,

2.11 Grace notes and cue notes, 2.19 Noteheads, 2.23 Stems and leger lines,

2.27 Tr emolos, 2.28 Triplets and other tuplets, 2.29 Voices, 6.8 Note spacing. v Note input, Finding your way around.

There are five ways of creating and editing notes, chords and rests:

* Mouse input – see below

* Alphabetic and step-time input – see below * Flexi-time input – b 1.3 Flexi-time™

Importing files from other music programs (e.g. MIDI files, Finale and SCORE files, etc.) –

b 7.2 Opening MIDI files, 7.4 Opening MusicXML files, 7.5 Opening Finale 982003 files files

Scanning printed music – b 1.4 Scanning.

Most of these are introduced in the time and alphabetic input.

Alphabetic and step-time input

Alphabetic (computer keyboard) and step-time (MIDI keyboard) input are perhaps the most efficient ways of writing your music in Sibelius, because you can create other objects (such as time signatures, key changes and text) as you go along.

, 7.6 Opening SCORE files, 7.7 Opening Acorn Sibelius files, 7.1 2 AS CII tab

Handbook. This topic is a detailed summary of mouse, step-

Inputting

To start off alphabetic or step-time input:

* Select a rest (you can also select anything else, such as a text object or a line, which will start

writing notes at that point)

* Choose Notes > Input Notes (shortcut N). This makes the caret (a vertical line, colored accord-

ing to the voice in which you’re inputting) appear.

* Choose a note value from the Keypad (unless the note value you want is already selected)

* If you like, choose other markings on the Keypad:

% Accidentals from the first/fifth layout (not required for step-time input)

% Articulations from the first/fourth layout

% Ties and rhythm dots from the first/second layout (double dots are on the second layout)

% Grace notes and cue notes from the second layout

% Tremolos and beaming from the third layout

* All of these buttons stay pressed down for successive notes until you re-choose them, with the

exception of the accidentals on the first and fifth Keypad layouts. This means you can (say) input several notes with the same articulation.

* You can choose buttons from more than one layout at once – they’ll all be applied to the note/

chord when you input it. (Cycle through the different Keypad layouts using the Windows and

– on Mac returns you to the first layout.)

+ key; F8 on

1. Inputting

* Then input the note by:

% typing A–G or R (which repeats the previous note/chord, with any alterations made on the

Keypad); or

% playing a note/chord on your MIDI keyboard

* To input a rest of the selected note value, simply hit 0 on the F8 Keypad layout. (To continue cre-

ating rests of the same note value, keep hitting

* To input a complete bar rest, hit 0 on the F9 Keypad layout.

* Go back to the first step to input the next note/chord.

0.)

There are some things you can do to the note you have just input and before you create the next, which are:

* To correct a mistake, you can adjust the pitch of a note you have input afterwards with 3 or 2;

hold down

* To build up a chord using alphabetic input, input one note of the chord, then add further note-

Ctrl or X to change the pitch by an octave

heads using one of these methods:

% hold down Shift and type the letter-name of the pitch you want to add above, so to add a G#,

first type

% type a number 1–9 (from the main keyboard, not the keypad) to add a note of that interval

above the current note, so to add a note a sixth above, type current note, so

8 on the first Keypad layout to select the sharp, then type Shift-G to add the note; or

6; Shift-1–9 adds notes below the

Shift-4 adds a note a fourth below the current note. (Usefully, this also works

for selected passages, e.g. to create octaves); or

% choose the appropriate option from the Notes > Add Pitch or Notes> Add Interval sub-

menus, although it’s much quicker to use the keyboard shortcuts described above

* To add a tie, hit Enter on the numeric keypad after inputting the note * To cre a t e a tup l et, t ype Ctrl+2–9 or X2–9 (or choose Create > Tuplet) after inputting the first

note of the tuplet

* To respell a note enharmonically (e.g. from a MIDI keyboard), choose Notes> Respell Acciden-

(shortcut Return on the main keyboard) after inputting it.

tal

Useful keys

A number of other useful keypresses are at your fingertips when creating notes:

* If you make a mistake, hit Delete or Backspace, which deletes the note and selects the preced-

ing one.

(What exactly happens when you delete a note is subtly different depending on the context of your music: if you delete a note, it is converted to a rest of identical duration; if you delete a rest or a bar rest, the caret moves past it, leaving it unchanged; if you delete all the notes of a tuplet, the tuplet bracket/number is selected – delete that, and it is replaced with a rest of the duration of the entire tuplet.)

* You c an a ls o u se 0/1 to move between notes and rests

* You can swap the selected note(s) into another voice by typing Alt+1/2/3/4 or z1/2/3/4; so you

could select one note of a chord in voice 1 and, say, type

Alt+2 or z2 to move it into voice 2,

merging it with any notes that may already be in that voice

1.1 Note input

* To add a time signature in the course of creating notes, type T and choose it from the dialog, then

hit

Return or click OK to create it at the beginning of the next bar

* To add a key change, type K and choose the required key signature from the dialog, then hit

Return or click OK to create it in your score directly after the current note

* To add text, type the usual shortcut (e.g. Ctrl+E or XE for Expression text), then type the

required text; type

Esc to go back to creating notes. Text is created at its default position above or

below the staff, at the same horizontal position as the note that was selected before creating it.

* You can also add any other object from the Create menu during note input. Symbols and chord

diagrams, for example, all appear at their default position above or below the staff at the same horizontal position as the selected note.

For lines (especially slurs and hairpins), it’s only practical to input ones lasting for two notes without stopping note input temporarily; this is because the right-hand end of the line needs a note to attach to, and you typically won’t have entered that note yet. Hence it’s usually easiest to go back and add lines after inputting a phrase or so of notes.

* Esc terminates note input (the caret disappears).

Mouse input

Mouse input is essentially the same as step-time and alphabetic input, except that there should be nothing selected before you start (hit

* Choose Notes > Input Notes (shortcut N); the mouse pointer changes color (typically it goes

Esc to deselect):

dark blue, to denote voice 1)

* Choose a note value from the first Keypad layout; you can also choose accidentals, articulations

etc. from other Keypad layouts (see above). To create a rest, choose the rest button from the first layout.

* As you move the pointer over the score, a gray shadow note appears, to show where the note will

be created when you click. As you move the pointer vertically over the staff, leger lines are drawn as necessary; as you move horizontally through the bar, the shadow note snaps to the different beats of the bar (this behavior is configurable – see

Note input options below). Usefully, the

shadow note also shows the notehead type of the note you’re about to create.

* To input the note, simply click where you want to create it

* A caret (a vertical line) appears in the score to the right of the note you just created – if you like,

you could now start creating notes in step-time or using alphabetic input, but to continue adding notes with the mouse, simply continue clicking in the score to create more notes, changing the note value and other properties of the note on the Keypad when necessary. To build up a chord, simply click above or below the note you just created. If you create a note elsewhere in the bar, then go back and click above or below an existing note to try and make a chord, Sibelius will delete whatever was there before and create a new note at that position.

* If you input a long note at the start of a bar, and then add a note later in the bar, before the end of

the long note at the start of the bar, Sibelius will shorten the first note by default, but can alternatively create the new note in voice 2 if you prefer – switch on

on the Mouse page of File > Preferences (in the Sibelius menu on Mac)

flict

* To input a rest, click the rest button (or type 0) on the first Keypad layout, then click in the score

Use voice 2 when rhythms con-

Inputting

1. Inputting

* You don’t have to input strictly from left to right with mouse input – you can hop about the score

and click to input notes anywhere.

Re-inputting pitches

It’s often very useful to be able to change the pitches of a sequence of notes/chords without re-creating their rhythm. The main use of this is where you’re writing for several instruments that have the same rhythm but different pitches – you can just copy one instrument’s music across, and then re-input the pitches. You can change the pitch of individual notes using the mouse or the

keys, or letters A-G, or by playing a note on your MIDI keyboard, but if you want to re-input a

whole passage:

* Select a note from which you want to start re-inputting pitches (either with the mouse, or by

reaching it with the arrow keys)

* Choose Notes> Re-input Pitches (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I or xXI)

* A dotted caret appears (rather than the normal solid line), which tells you that Sibelius will over-

write the existing pitches, but not their rhythms

* Ty pe A–G, or play the new note (or chord) on your MIDI keyboard

* Sibelius changes the pitch of the first note, then selects the next note (skipping over any rests and

grace notes that may precede it) so you can change its pitch right away

* If you need to change the enharmonic spelling of a note after you have changed its pitch, just

choose

Notes > Respell Accidental (shortcut Return on the main keyboard) to respell it

* When re-inputting pitches using the computer keyboard you must type any accidentals and

articulations after the note-name, not before (unlike when inputting notes or editing individual notes)

* If you don’t want to change a particular note, hit 0 on the keypad to move onto the next one * To turn an existing note into a rest, hit 1 to select it without changing its pitch, then hit 0 on the

first Keypad layout (shortcut

* To turn an existing rest into a note, use 0/1 to move onto the rest, then input the pitch you want

* When you have finished, choose Notes > Re-input Pitches again, or hit Esc to return to editing

your music, or type

N to start inputting more notes.

F8)

3/2

While re-inputting pitches you can also build chords from existing notes in just the same way as when inputting notes: select a note and either type main keyboard – see

Alphabetic and step-time input above.

Shift-A–G, or type 1–9 or Shift-1–9 on the

Editing note values, accidentals, articulations, etc.

* Select a note, chord or rest (either with the mouse, or by reaching it with the arrow keys)

* To change the note value, just choose the new note value on the first or second Keypad layout.

If the new note value is longer than the old one, subsequent notes will be replaced by appropriate rests; if the new note value is shorter than the old one, rests are created to pad out the original note value.

* To change other note properties, such as accidentals or articulations, just choose the appropriate

Keypad button, and it will instantly edit the note (e.g. click

# or type 8 to make a note sharp).

1.1 Note input

Notes > Respell Accidental (shortcut Return on the main keyboard) respells an accidental – only

normally required after step-time/Flexi-time input or when editing a MIDI file you’ve imported.

Note input options

Note Input page of the File > Preferences dialog (in the Sibelius menu on Mac) has various

The note input options:

* Step-time Chords: this setting is for step-time input, especially via MIDI guitar, and deter-

mines how quickly or slowly you have to strum in order for Sibelius to interpret the notes you play as a chord rather than a series of individual notes. By default the slider is set quite a long way towards

Tight, which is an appropriate setting for inputting via MIDI keyboard (where typi-

cally chords are not particularly spread), so if you use a MIDI guitar, you should try setting the slider further towards

* T ransposing Staves: when using MIDI to play in music written at transposed pitch, it’s useful to

set this option to

Input sounding pitches – see Transposing instruments on page 109

* Percussion Staves: you can input notes onto drum staves with your MIDI keyboard using

Loose to find the optimal position for your playing style.

Input written pitches so you won’t have to transpose at sight; the default is

either the actual keys on your keyboard that produce the correct sound, or using the pitches defined in the staff type of the chosen staff –

For details of the guitar tab fingering options, b 1.5 Guitar tab input.

b 2.20 Percussion

Inputting

Hiding notes

You may want to hide notes that nonetheless play back, e.g. a realization of an ornament. Select the note(s) you want to hide and choose

xXH). Any accidental, articulation, stem or beam associated with that note is also automatically

hidden. For more information on hiding notes,

Edit > Hide or Show > Hide (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H or

b 5.8 Hiding objects.

Turning into rests

To turn a note, chord or passage into rests, simply hit

0) on the first Keypad layout.

Delete, or choose the rest button (shortcut

1. Inputting

The subtle difference between

Delete and 0 is that when turning a passage into rests, Delete con-

solidates the rests (i.e. groups them into conveniently-sized larger rests or bar rests), whereas just turns each note into an individual rest (which is less useful). For more information on bar rests,

b 2.4 Bars and bar rests.

If you end up with one or more bars that contain only rests of various denominations, you can turn them back into a bar rest by selecting the bar or passage (so it is enclosed in a light blue box) and hitting

Delete.

Moving rests

You can move rests up/down with the mouse or arrow keys, just like notes.

For music in one voice you shouldn’t have to adjust the vertical position of rests, as the position Sibelius uses is absolutely standard. However, in multiple voices you should adjust the vertical position as necessary to allow room for the other voice(s). Sibelius automatically displaces rests up or down a bit when in multiple voices, but feel free to adjust this.

Hidden rests

If you hit music in other staves in the system is aligned as if the rest is still there. If

Delete when a rest is selected, it becomes hidden; the gap it occupied remains, and the

View > Hidden Objects

is switched on (shortcut Ctrl+Alt+H or zXH), the rest will be visible on the screen in light gray.

You can actually delete a rest altogether, by selecting a hidden rest and hitting

Delete again, but

there is usually no good reason to do this.

You shouldn’t hide rests without a good reason, because it makes the length of the bar look incorrect, which can be confusing if you are careless. However, two good reasons for hiding a rest are:

* To make a voice disappear before the end of a bar or appear after the start. If you hide unwanted

rests in (say) voice 2, the music will revert to being in one voice (with stems both up and down) –

b 2.29 Voices.

* In order to replace it with a symbol or a line representing some effect that can’t be indicated with

notes. For instance, you could notate taped sound-effects in a modern score by hiding a rest of the required length and putting a wiggly line in its place.

1.2 Keypad

b 1.1 Note input, 2.29 Voices, 5.14 Properties.

The Keypad mirrors on the screen the arrangement of keys on your computer’s numeric keypad. It shows and lets you edit the characteristics of the selected note(s), chord(s) or rest(s), or of the note you are about to create if you are using alphabetic or step-time input.

To hide or show the Keypad, choose

Keypad layouts

The Keypad has five layouts (see below), which you can switch between as follows:

* click on the tabs at the top of the Keypad; or

* click on the Keypad to cycle through the layouts in order (shortcut +), and click to return

to the first Keypad layout (shortcut

* type F8–F12 to view the five Keypad layouts.

You’ll spend most of your time working with the first Keypad layout, which contains the common note values and accidentals, but here are all five layouts, for reference:

Window> Keypad (shortcut Ctrl+Alt+K or zXK).

F8, also Shift-+ on Windows 2000/XP or – on Mac); or

Inputting

Common notes (F8)More notes (F9)Beams/tremolos (F10) Articulation (F11) Accidentals (F12)

* The first two Keypad layouts are concerned with inputting and editing notes; ties (not slurs) are

created using the

Enter key on the F8 layout; cue notes are created using the Enter key on the F9

layout. Note that the dot on the * key (/ on Mac) is a staccato articulation, and the dot on the .

(decimal point) key is a rhythm dot.

* Very short and very long note values, and double and triple rhythm dots, are created on the F9

layout – b 1.1 Note input

The third Keypad layout (shortcut F10) concerns itself with editing beams (b 2.5 Beams) and

creating tremolos and buzz rolls (

* The fourth Keypad layout (shortcut F11) is for adding articulations; notice the three blank

b 2.27 Tremolos)

spaces at the top of the layout, to which you can assign your own on stem articulations –

b 2.2 Articulations

The fifth Keypad layout (shortcut F12) is for adding myriad accidentals – b 2.1 Accidentals.

1. Inputting

The

0 key is appropriately used for “non-things” – either rests or for removing all articulations/

accidentals.

Viewing and editing note characteristics

When you select a note, the Keypad shows you the characteristics of the selection. E.g. when you select a quarter note (crotchet) in your score, the quarter note button on the first Keypad layout lights up. Likewise, selecting a dotted quarter note rest will make the quarter note, rest and rhythm dot buttons on the Keypad light up.

To switch a particular Keypad characteristic on or off for the selected object, you can either:

* click the icon with the mouse; or

* hit the corresponding key on your numeric keypad.

If you are, say, looking at the first Keypad layout, and want to change the selected note into a half note (minim), you could simply type

5 on the numeric keypad. To add a tie, you could hit Enter on

the numeric keypad, and so on. Similarly, to remove a tie, select the note on which the tie begins and hit

Enter. You can add and remove characteristics from any of the Keypad layouts in this way –

so if you wanted to add a fermata (pause) to your half note (minim), you could simply hit reach the fourth Keypad layout), then hit

1 on the numeric keypad to add the fermata.

If a note has characteristics that are not on the currently selected Keypad layout, the tabs for the relevant Keypad layouts will also be illuminated in blue to show you. For example, if you are looking at the first Keypad layout and select a quarter note that has a quarter-flat and a fermata (pause), the fourth and fifth Keypad layout tabs will also be illuminated.

F11 (to

Voices

The row of buttons at the bottom of the Keypad is for specifying the voice of notes and staffattached text and lines –

b 2.29 Voices.

Extra shortcuts for Keypad functions

Though there is a simple and obvious correlation between the items on the on-screen Keypad and the numeric keypad on your computer keyboard, you can also assign additional keyboard shortcuts to specific items on the Keypad. For example, if you wanted to assign a specific shortcut to the fermata (pause) on the fourth Keypad layout – so that you do not have to hit appropriate layout) followed by

1 on the numeric keypad (to add the fermata), but can instead type

F11 (to switch to the

a single shortcut regardless of the current Keypad layout – you can do so, as follows:

* Choose File > Preferences (in the Sibelius menu on Mac) and go to the Menus and Shortcuts

page

* Having chosen your own feature set in which to create your new shortcut, choose Keypa d ( F 11

articulations)

* In the Feature list, choose Fermata (pause), then click Add to add your own keyboard short-

from the Menu or Category list

cut.

For further help with defining your own keyboard shortcuts,

b 5.10 Menus and shortcuts.

1.2 Keypad

Accessing numeric keypad functions on a notebook (laptop)

Most notebook (laptop) computers do not have separate numeric keypads. Keypad functions can be accessed on many notebooks by holding down a key marked

Fn together with other keys on the

keyboard. This will work, but Sibelius also has some alternative shortcuts built in, which differ on Windows and Mac

Windows

: use the supplied Notebook (laptop) feature set. Instead of using the numbers on the

keypad, you can use the standard numbers on the main keyboard which will correspond to the same numbers on the keypad. When this feature set is in use, use vals above a note –

b 5.10 Menus and shortcuts.

Shift-1 to Shift-9 to enter inter-

Mac: hold down z in conjunction with the keys shown in the diagram on the left to

produce the corresponding keypad keypresses. Not all Keypad buttons have alternative shortcuts; for those you will need to use the

Fn key (if available), or click the Keypad on

the screen using your mouse.

Using the Keypad on Mac OS X 10.3 or later

By default, Mac OS X 10.3 (or later) assigns the keys additionally

F12 to the Dashboard feature in Mac OS X 10.4, which means that you may get unex-

F9, F10 and F11 to the Exposé feature, and

pected results when using these shortcuts to change between different Keypad layouts in Sibelius.

* Mac OS X 10.3: use the Exposé pane in System Preferences to reassign the Exposé shortcuts to

other function keys (e.g.

* Mac OS X 10.4: use the Dashboard and Exposé pane in System Preferences to reassign the

Exposé and Dashboard shortcuts to other function keys (e.g.

F2, F3 and F4).

F2, F3, F4 and F5).

Inputting

1. Inputting

1.3 Flexi-time™

b 1.1 Note input. v Note input.

Flexi-time is Sibelius’s unique intelligent real-time MIDI input system.

Real-time input

Real-time input on other computer programs is when the program tries to work out both the pitch and the rhythm of music played on a MIDI keyboard, and turn it into clean notation.

The big problem is rhythm: people never play rhythms quite as notated because of unconscious rubato (variation in speed), so real-time input can easily end up with notes tied to extra 64th-notes (hemidemisemiquavers) and other ridiculous things.

A standard improvement is produced by quantization: this is where you tell a program to round all note values to the nearest sixteenth-note (semiquaver), or whatever unit you specify. The trouble is that this only improves the situation for relatively simple music – and if you speed up or slow down as you play, the computer will get out of time with you in any case and produce garbage.

With Flexi-time, however, Sibelius detects if you’re doing rubato and compensates accordingly. It quantizes automatically – there’s no need to specify a quantization unit – and uses a smart algorithm that varies the quantization according to context. For instance, when you play short notes, Sibelius will quantize with a shorter unit than when you play long notes.

Even more usefully, thanks to its Live Playback feature, Sibelius separates the printed notation from the nuances of your recorded performance. This means that playback of music you have entered in Flexi-time can precisely match what you played – right down to the tiny variations in the length and dynamic of each note – while the notation will be clear and uncluttered.

Recording with Flexi-time

* Although you can change the time signature after inputting music, we recommend

that you put the correct time signature in first, so that the metronome click indicates beats correctly

* Click a bar, note or rest from which to start recording, or:

% If you want to record into two adjacent staves (e.g. a piano), select both staves using click then

Shift-click

% If you’re just recording from the start of a score for one instrument, you don’t need to select

anything first as it’s obvious where you’re recording from

* Click the red record button on the Playback window, or choose Notes > Flexi-time (shortcut

Ctrl+Shift+F or xXF)

* Sibelius will start ticking a metronome to count you in. It gives you one full bar of clicks (by

default) – wait for this before you start playing!

* You can adjust the recording speed by dragging the tempo slider; the tempo readout on the tool-

bar changes as you drag the slider. (If you want to record more slowly, start recording, adjust the

1.3 Flexi-time™

tempo slider to the desired point, then hit Space to stop, and start recording again – Sibelius

will remember the tempo you set.)

* Start playing at the keyboard, following the click (at least approximately). As you play, the music

you’re playing will appear in notation on the screen.

If you speed up or slow down, the metronome speeds up or slows down to follow you, as long as you’re not too violent with the tempo.

* When you’ve finished recording, hit Space to stop.

If you add more music with Flexi-time on a different staff or staves, Sibelius plays back the existing music as you record (“overdubbing”).

Overdub and Replace

When adding more music to the staff or staves you have previously recorded into, you can choose whether to replace the existing music, or add the new notes to the existing ones to make chords. Set this option by choosing

Options

dialog (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O or xXO).

Replace or Overdub on the Flexi-time tab of the Notes > Flexi-time

If you want to add another melody to the same staff, you can record into one of the other voices – see

Voices below.

Click settings

The settings for the metronome click you hear during Flexi-time recording are controlled via the

Window > Mixer window (shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M or M on Mac), or you can access some of them

from the

xXO).

Click button on the Notes > Flexi-time Options dialog (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O or

Inputting

By default, the click marks the first beat of the bar with a high woodblock sound, and then subsequent beats with a low woodblock. In compound time signatures such as 6/8, it also subdivides the beat into eighth notes (quavers). For complex time signatures such as 7/8, the default behavior is to emphasize the beginning of each beat group.

For more information on these settings,

b 4.2 Mixer.

Hints

* Listen to Sibelius’s countdown beats, and start in time with them! If you start too soon, or at a

different tempo from the countdown, Sibelius will not understand what you’re up to.

* If you have difficulty recording two staves of music at once, try recording them one at a time.

* Play legato (smoothly).

* If you want music to be notated with staccatos, make sure the Staccato option is switched on in

Notes > Flexi-Time Options. If this option is switched off then playing staccato will produce

short note values with rests.

* People are often sloppy about placing notes simultaneously when playing a chord. If you spread

chords significantly, Sibelius will write out what you played literally rather than (say) adding a vertical wiggly line.

1. Inputting

* Sibelius can pick up changes of tempo extremely quickly – one beat faster than a human can, in

fact! However, if you make too violent a change of tempo Sibelius won’t understand what you mean. So avoid making sudden tempo changes during recording.

If Sibelius’s beat gets out with you as you’re playing, stop and go back to the point where it got out. If you just blunder on regardless, Sibelius may well get back in time again, but correcting the rhythm will take far longer than just playing it in again.

Inputting into two instruments

You can input into two staves of different instruments if you like – such as Flute and Bassoon – so long as they’re adjacent (and there are no staves in between that have merely been hidden from the system in question). Just like inputting into a piano, click the upper staff, then

Shift-click the lower

staff so both are selected, and start recording as normal.

Recording other MIDI data

When recording via Flexi-time, Sibelius records MIDI controller data along with the notes. For example, if you use a sustain pedal when inputting via Flexi-time, Sibelius will notate the appropriate MIDI messages and automatically hide them in the score. Other MIDI controller data that can be recorded include pitch bend, modulation, volume, etc.

If you would prefer these MIDI messages not to be recorded when using Flexi-time input, switch off the appropriate options on the

Flexi-time options below.

Notation page of the Notes> Flexi-time Options dialog – see

Live Playback

By default, Sibelius plays back music you have inputted using Flexi-time using Live Playback, which retains the nuances of your recording (specifically, the precise dynamic and timing of each note). You can also edit this performance in complete detail. If you want to hear the music exactly as it is notated instead, switch off

For more information,

b 4.5 Live Playback.

Play > Live Playback (shortcut Shift-L).

1.3 Flexi-time™

Flexi-time options

To chan g e the vario u s Fle x i-time options, choose

Ctrl+Shift+O or xXO):

On the

Flexi-time tab are the following options:

* Flexibility of tempo: controls how Sibelius follows your speed. If you’re used to playing to a

click, set this to

None (non rubato), and Sibelius will keep a fixed tempo. The higher you set

Notes > Flexi-time Options (shortcut

the flexibility, the more Sibelius is inclined to follow your tempo. If you find Sibelius seems to be changing tempo oddly, it’s finding you hard to follow, so reduce the flexibility or set it to

(non rubato)

* Introduction ... bars: determines how many bars introduction will be played when you start

recording

* Record up to ... bars: if there aren’t many bars left in the score for you to record into, this auto-

matically adds enough bars when you start recording

* The Click button takes you directly to the dialog that determines the behavior of the metronome

click during recording –

* Voices options:

% Record into one voice allows you to specify a single voice to use for your Flexi-time record-

b 4.2 Mixer.

ing

% Record into multiple voices is an alternative to specifying a single voice: when switched on,

Sibelius will automatically split the music into two voices where appropriate; see below.

* Replace and Overdub control what Sibelius does if you record over a passage that already con-

tains music: if set to music you play; if set to

Replace, Sibelius will clear the existing music before notating the new

Overdub, Sibelius will add the new music you record to the existing

music to make chords.

Inputting

None

Voices

1. Inputting

* Internal MIDI time stamps: if you have a computer with dual processors or a hyper-threading

processor, you may find that the rhythm of the notated music becomes increasingly inaccurate as recording continues. If you encounter this problem, switch on this option (Windows only).

On the

Notation tab are these options:

* Note Values options:

% Adjust rhythms makes Sibelius clean up what you’re playing. Leave this on! % Minimum note value: this sets the shortest note value Sibelius will write. This is not a quan-

tization unit – Sibelius quantizes using a complex algorithm that varies with context. As a consequence, this value isn’t enforced rigidly; it acts as a guide. If you set this to (say) quarter note (crotchet) but then play 16th notes (semiquavers), Sibelius has to notate notes shorter than quarter notes, or you’ll end up with junk.

% Notate: these are options to notate staccato and tenuto; if you are confident of playing the

articulation exactly as you want it to be notated, switch these on. If you find lots of spurious staccato or tenuto articulations in your score after inputting with Flexi-time, switch them off, or adjust the

When shorter/longer than thresholds (representing the percentage of the

notated note value) beyond which these articulations are notated.

% Remove rests between notes on drum staves: switched on by default. this option “joins

up” shorter notes to remove superfluous rests in drum parts.

* Keyboard Staves: when inputting onto two staves, the split point determines which notes go

into each staff (notes on or above the split point go into the top staff, and notes below go into the bottom staff ). If you choose

Automatic, Sibelius will guess where your hands are on the key-

board at any time and assign notes to staves accordingly. Alternatively, you can specify your own

Fixed split point. (Note that in Sibelius, middle C is called C4 – which may be different from

how it is described in other music programs.)

* Tuplets: for each of the tuplets listed, you can set Sibelius to detect None/Simple/Moderate/

Complex ones. A “simple” triplet (say) means one with three equal notes. For tuplets such as a

quarter note (crotchet) followed by an eighth note (quaver), use rests or dotted rhythms, use

* MIDI Messages options:

% Keep program/bank messages adds any program and bank changes to the score using

Complex.

Moderate, and for tuplets with

Sibelius’s MIDI message text format. These messages are automatically hidden.

% Keep controller messages similarly adds all controller messages (such as pitch bend, sus-

tain pedal, channel volume, etc.) and hides them in the score.

% Keep other messages similarly adds any other MIDI messages to the score.

Our recommended Flexi-time options are the default values, as follows:

mum note value Tenuto on with thresholds of 35% and 110% respectively. For tuplets, set 3 to Simple or Moder-

, maybe 6 as well, and the others normally to None unless you’re into playing things like septu-

ate

sixteenth-note (semiquaver), Flexibility of tempo set to Low, Staccato and

Adjust rhythms on, Mini-

plets.

1.3 Flexi-time™

Recording transposing pitch

In the

Note Input page of File> Preferences (in the Sibelius menu on Mac), switch on the Input

written pitches

option if you’re recording by playing the written notes from a transposing score;

otherwise, Sibelius assumes you’re playing notes at sounding pitch.

Spelling of accidentals

As with step-time input, Sibelius guesses how you want to “spell” black notes (e.g. as F# or Gb), but you can alter the spelling of any note or selection of notes afterwards just by hitting Return (on the

main keyboard), or by using one of the accidental plug-ins (

b 5.11 Plug-ins).

Voices

As you record, by default Sibelius splits the notes into two voices if necessary (e.g. if you play polyphonic music such as a fugue). In most cases this is desirable, but if you are inputting onto a single staff or monophonic instrument you may prefer to force Sibelius to notate the music in a single voice. To change this setting, switch the appropriate option in the

Notes > Flexi-time Options dia-

log on or off (see above).

Although Sibelius generally makes good decisions about how to split the music you play into separate voices, you may need to go back and edit certain passages to make the notation more closely fit your intentions. You could, for example, filter out the bottom note in voice 1 chords (

b 5.5 Filters and Find) and then, say, swap them into voice 2 by typing Alt+2 or z2 – see

Splitting voices in b 2.29 Voices for more details.

Cleaning up Flexi-time

If you find that you’re getting a lot of unwanted rests in the middle of bars, e.g. because Flexi-time notated notes you intended to be an eighth note (quaver) as a sixteenth note (semiquaver), use the

Plug-ins > Notes and Rests > Remove Rests plug-in to clean up the music – b 5.11 Plug-ins.

Inputting

1. Inputting

1.4 Scanning

INTRODUCTION

PhotoScore Lite from Neuratron is a music scanning program designed to work with Sibelius – the musical equivalent of a text OCR (optical character recognition) program.

It is a sophisticated program with many advanced features. If you intend to scan relatively complex scores such as orchestral/band music, or scores of many pages, we strongly recommend that you start with more simple music until you are proficient with PhotoScore Lite, and then familiarize yourself with the

PhotoScore Professional

An advanced version of PhotoScore Lite, called PhotoScore Professional, is available to buy separately, with extra features and enhancements. PhotoScore Professional reads many more musical markings (including tuplets, slurs and text) and reads scores with more than 12 staves.

For details of PhotoScore Professional, choose Help > PhotoScore Professional, or contact your

local dealer or Sibelius.

Scanning

Scanning text is difficult for computers to do, and has only achieved reasonable accuracy in the last few years. Music scanning is much harder because of the more complicated range of symbols involved, and because of the complex two-dimensional “grammar” of music.

ADVANCED FEATURES section.

The difficulty with scanning music or text is that by scanning a page, a computer does not “understand” it. As far as the computer is concerned, scanning a page merely presents it with a grid of millions of black and white dots, which could be music, text, a photograph or anything else.

The process of actually reading or interpreting music, text or pictures from this grid of dots is extremely complex and poorly understood. A large part of the human brain, containing many millions of connections, is devoted solely to solving this “pattern recognition” problem.

Installing and uninstalling PhotoScore Lite

Refer to the separate

Suitable originals

PhotoScore Lite is designed to read originals that:

* Are printed rather than handwritten (and use notes with an “engraved” appearance rather than a

“handwritten” appearance, e.g. from a fake book)

* Fit on your scanner (i.e. the music itself is typically no larger than Letter/A4 size, though the

paper may be slightly larger)

* Have a staff-size of at least 0.12”/3mm

* Use no more than 12 staves per page, and 2 voices per staff. (Additional staves or voices will be

omitted.)

* Are reasonably clear – for example, staff lines should be continuous and not broken or blotchy,

half note (minim) and whole-note (semibreve) noteheads and flats should have a continuous

Handbook for help with installing and uninstalling PhotoScore Lite.

1.4 Scanning

circumference and not be broken or filled in, beams on sixteenth notes (semiquavers) and shorter notes should have a significant white gap in between, and objects that are meant to be separate (e.g. noteheads and their preceding accidentals) should not overlap or be blotched together.

Music that does not match the above will probably work, but with considerably reduced accuracy.

Scanning from photocopies is not particularly recommended unless the photocopier is a particularly good one, as photocopying tends to degrade the quality of an original significantly. You may be obliged to scan from a reduced photocopy if your original is bigger than your scanner, but you should expect lower accuracy.

Copyright music

You should be aware that if you scan someone else’s music without permission you are likely to infringe copyright. Copyright infringement by scanning is illegal, and in any case is forbidden by the Sibelius license agreement.

Most music states if it is copyright and who the copyright owner is. If you have a piece of music that you want to scan and you are not sure about its copyright status, please contact the music’s publisher, composer or arranger.

GETTING GOING

Like Sibelius, PhotoScore Lite functions in exactly the same way on Windows and Mac. You can start PhotoScore Lite either by choosing

File > Scan in Sibelius’s menus, clicking the Scan icon on

the Sibelius toolbar, or by running it from the Start menu (Windows) or double-clicking its icon (Mac). Sibelius doesn’t need to be running when you use PhotoScore Lite.

Inputting

The four stages

There are four stages when using PhotoScore Lite:

1. Scanning the pages

2. Reading the pages

3. Editing the resulting music

4. Sending the music to Sibelius.

* Scanning a page simply makes PhotoScore Lite take a “photograph” of your original.

* Reading is the clever bit – this is where PhotoScore Lite “reads” the scanned pages to work out

what the notes and other markings are.

* Editing is where you correct mistakes that PhotoScore Lite has made. Editing within PhotoScore

Lite works in much the same way as editing music in Sibelius.

Almost any marking can be corrected or input in PhotoScore Lite, but it is only essential at this stage to correct rhythmic mistakes – other corrections can be made after sending the score to Sibelius if you prefer.

* Sending the music to Sibelius is done simply by clicking on a button. After a moment the music

pops up as a Sibelius score just as if you’d inputted it all yourself.

1. Inputting

You can then play the music back, re-arrange it, transpose it, create parts, or print it out.

Quick start

Before we examine how to use PhotoScore Lite in detail, let’s run through the process quickly to introduce the four stages.

Although it is more useful to have a scanner connected to your computer when using PhotoScore, it is possible to “read” music without using a scanner. You will need each page of music stored as a graphics file on your computer in

.bmp (bitmap) format on Windows, or TIFF and PICT (Picture

file) format on Mac. (PhotoScore Professional can also open PDF files.)

The first step is either to scan some music, or to open a page you have already scanned:

* To scan a page, choose File > Scan pages (shortcut Ctrl+W or XW); your scanner interface will

load. Scan a page and it is added to PhotoScore’s list of scanned pages.

* To open a graphics file, choose File > Open; when prompted for the resolution the image was

scanned at, choose the appropriate setting and click

OK. The graphics file is then added to the

list of scanned pages.

PhotoScore Lite will show you the scanned image, with blue lines marking the staves it has found, and red lines denoting that staves are bracketed together. Just click

Read pages to turn the

scanned image into a music file (if another dialog appears with options in it, just click Reading the page will take a little while (depending on the speed of your computer) and a progress bar will show you how long you will have to wait.

Read).

When PhotoScore Lite has finished reading the image, the main editing window will appear (see left). From this window you can edit any errors in the music.

When you are satisfied with the corrections you have made, choose

to Sibelius

(shortcut Ctrl+D or XD) to

File > Send

send the music to Sibelius.

If Sibelius is not already running, it will start up, and the

Open PhotoScore File

dialog will appear, which allows you to choose various options concerning which instruments will be used in the Sibelius score. Don’t worry about these now – just click

OK. Moments later, the Sibelius score will appear, ready for

editing, just as if you had inputted it yourself.

1. SCANNING

Choose

File > Scan Pages (shortcut Ctrl+W or XW) in the menu to produce a dialog, which will

vary depending on your scanner.

1.4 Scanning

Before you scan, measure the size (height) of staves in the page you want to scan and choose a resolution using the following table, and scan in black & white or gray – not color:

Staff size Resolution

0.25”/6mm or more 200 dpi

0.15-0.25”/4–6mm 300 dpi

0.12-0.15”/3–4mm 400 dpi

Reading accuracy and speed will be considerably reduced if you scan at too low or too high a resolution. So, for example, do not scan at 400 dpi unless the staves really are small.

Usually, you can choose whether to scan in black & white or grayscale (shades of gray). Scanning in gray produce significantly more accurate results – if the option is not available in your scanning dialog, consult your scanner’s documentation.

Now you can scan your first page – try a page or two of simple keyboard music or something similar:

* Put the page of music (the “original”) into your scanner, face-down and with the top of the page

pointing away from you.

Put one edge of the original flush against the raised edge of the glass.

You can put the page on its side if it fits better. PhotoScore Lite will automatically rotate the page by 90 degrees if necessary. However you should normally align the top of the page with the left edge of the scanner to ensure it does not turn out upside down. Don’t worry though if it is scanned upside down, as it is easy to correct later on.

If you are scanning in gray, then the page does not need to be completely straight, providing that it is not more than 8 degrees off – PhotoScore Lite will automatically make the page level (to within 0.1 degrees) without loss of detail. It will still be rotated if scanning in black & white, but there will be loss of detail, and thus less accurate results.

* Click the button marked Scan.

* After a moment, the scanner will whir into life and transfer the page to your computer. (If this

doesn’t happen, see

* If you are scanning from a fairly thick book, gently press down the lid (or the book if easier) dur-

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS below.)

ing scanning to keep the page flat on the glass.

* A window will appear for you to enter a name for the page, which will be Page 1 by default. You

can change this to any name you like (although to avoid any unexpected results it should end with a number) – something like

* Subsequent pages you scan will be automatically numbered e.g. Piano p2, but you can change

Piano p1 would do – then hit Return (on the main keyboard).

these names if you like.

* Wait a few seconds while PhotoScore Lite makes the image level, chooses the best brightness,

and locates the staves.

* A scan of the whole original page will then appear. The buff paper color indicates that you are

looking at a scanned image (a “scan”) of the original page.

Check that all the staves are highlighted in blue – this shows that PhotoScore Lite has detected where they are.

Inputting

1. Inputting

If the page has systems of two or more staves, check also that the staves within each system are joined at the left-hand end by a thick vertical (or near-vertical) red line.

If not all staves are blue, or not all staves within systems are joined with a red line, you can manually tell PhotoScore Lite where they are (see

(Ignore the other buttons at the top of this window, which are also explained in

FEATURES

* Put the second page of music in the scanner, choose File> Scan pages, and proceed as for the

below.)

ADVANCED FEATURES below).

ADVANCED

first page.

* Continue until you have scanned all the pages you want to scan.

Scanning summarized

Once you’ve scanned a few pages you’ll rapidly get into the routine of it. The procedure can be summarized as follows:

* Place page in scanner

* Click the scanner button or choose File > Scan Pages

Choose the resolution, and whether to scan in black & white or gray

* Click Scan

Enter page name (or leave the default name)

* Check staves and systems have been detected, and adjust if necessary

* Go on to next page.

Catalog of scanned pages

It’s important for you to understand that whenever you scan a page, PhotoScore Lite adds it to a single list or “catalog” of scanned pages to be read later. You do not need to save scanned pages or the catalog – it is stored on your hard disk automatically.

This means that whenever you start using PhotoScore, it still remembers any pages you scanned previously. (You can delete pages that you no longer need to keep.)

We’ll tell you more about the catalog later.

Hints on scanning

* If you want to read a page of music smaller than the size of your scanner, you should make sure

that only that portion is scanned.

Most scanner interfaces allow you to scan part of a page, usually by clicking a

Preview button to

produce a thumbnail image, which may seem a little “blocky.” You can then adjust the required area by dragging from the edges of the thumbnail.

Then click

Scan to scan the selected area at high resolution. Every time you click Scan after this,

only the selected area will be scanned, until you change it.

* Ensure that all of the music on the page you are scanning is on the glass of the scanner.

It doesn’t matter if your original is larger than Letter/A4, so long as the music itself will fit onto Letter/A4.

1.4 Scanning

* If you are scanning a page that is smaller than Letter/A4 size, it doesn’t matter where on the glass

you position the original. However, it helps if you put the edge of the page flush against the edge of the glass, to ensure that it’s straight.

* If you are scanning a small music book then you may be able to fit a double-page spread (two

facing pages side-by-side) on the scanner glass, but don’t try this – PhotoScore Lite can only read one page at a time. Scan each page separately.

* For simplicity, we recommend that you scan all the pages in a piece of music before reading

them all. You are allowed to scan a page, then read it, then scan another and so on (see

ADVANC ED FEATUR ES below), but we don’t suggest you try anything like this until you are

proficient with PhotoScore Lite.

2. READING

As mentioned earlier, just scanning a page simply presents the computer with a grid of millions of black and white dots, which as far as it’s concerned could be anything from text to a photograph.

“Reading” the music is the clever bit, where PhotoScore Lite works out from the scan where and what the notes and other markings on the page are.

Starting reading

Once you have scanned every page of the piece of music in question, choose

File > Read Pages

(shortcut Ctrl+R or XR).

Inputting

PhotoScore Lite will start to think, and a small progress window will appear. This shows the name of the current page being read, and the progress made through it. This window can be minimized (collapsed) or moved out of the way, so that you can continue with other work.

What PhotoScore Lite reads

PhotoScore Lite reads the following musical markings:

* Notes & chords (including tail direction, beams & flags), rests

* Flats, sharps and naturals

* Treble and bass clefs, key signatures, time signatures

* 5-line staves (normal and small), standard barlines, 6-line guitar tab

* The format of the page, including the page size, staff-size, margins, and where systems end.

PhotoScore Professional, available separately, also reads text, a wider variety of clefs and accidentals, and has improved accuracy.

Hints on reading

* You should not need to interrupt reading, but you can normally do so if necessary by hitting Esc

or X., or by clicking Cancel on the progress window. PhotoScore Lite will show the part of the

page it has already read. You should delete this page by choosing

Edit > Delete page before re-

scanning or re-reading the page.

* If the computer gives a warning message while reading a page, or if a page seems to be taking a

very long time to read, see

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS below.

1. Inputting

* If you like, you can ask PhotoScore Lite to read just a single scan or a choice of scans instead of

the whole score; see

ADVANCED FEATURES below.

3. EDITING

When PhotoScore Lite has finished reading the music, its interpretation of the first page pops up in a window called the output window. Here you can edit mistakes PhotoScore Lite has made.

The top part of the window (with a buff-colored background) shows you the original page. The

Full detail view window at the top right-hand corner shows a zoomed-in portion of the original

page, according to where you point your mouse.

The large bottom part of the window (with a light gray background) shows PhotoScore Lite’s interpretation of the first scan – that is, what PhotoScore Lite thinks the first page of the original says. Hence this part of the window is where PhotoScore Lite’s mistakes can occur.

At the top left of the window it says (e.g.)

Page 1 of 2, and by clicking on the arrows you can move

through all of the pages that have been read (the output score). It makes sense to edit the first page completely, then advance to the second page and so on until the whole output score has been edited.

To the bottom right of the window is the Keypad, similar in function to Sibelius’s Keypad. This can be repositioned by clicking its title bar, and dragging.

There is a

ate

Create menu at the top of the window, which is also similar in function to Sibelius’s Cre-

menu, though features not appropriate for PhotoScore Lite have been omitted.

What to correct

The minimum level of correction recommended before sending the output score to Sibelius is to correct key signatures and time signatures. Other mistakes such as pitch can be corrected in Sibelius, but correcting key signatures and time signatures is much easier in PhotoScore Lite, so we recommend you do that.

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