'Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation'

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Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius n... - Mark Starr, 26 Jun 07:31AM
     Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Michael Good, 26 Jun 04:19PM
         Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Tommy Deering, 13 Jul 06:38AM
             Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Daniel Spreadbury, 13 Jul 07:30AM
                 Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Jezza, 13 Jul 06:44PM

Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation
Posted by Mark Starr - 26 Jun 07:31AM

I have been struggling with the conversion of midi files to Sibelius notation. For any piece performed into a midi sequencer in which the beats do not consistently match the initial metronome setting exactly, the rhythmic notation displayed by Sibelius' conversion bears little resemblance to the composer's musical notation in the original sheet music. The global adjustments that Sibelius offers are of little help, since rubato in a live performance is never consistent throughout -- such as always within a range of 1/32nd. With the conversion of compex rhythms from midi to notation, the results as displayed in Sibelius are usualy so far from the composer's original notation as to be unusable.

It seems to me what is missing in Sibeius' conversion of midi files to musical notation is a simple way to mark the location of the real beats in each bar of the musical notation. That could be done by simply mouse clicking on the notes in Sibelius' notation that marked the beats in the composer's original notation. Once that was done, Sibelius could correct the rhythmic values for each beat in each bar. The result might not be perfect, but it would likely be much closer to the composer's original rhythmic values -- and avoid hours of manual labor to make the same corrections.

Mark Starr
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Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation
Posted by Michael Good - 26 Jun 04:19PM
Many sequencers already offer this type of feature, or other ways to better transcribe MIDI into notation. So for now, you can use those features and then transfer in a format that contains more notation information that MIDI.

The latest ProTools already has Sibelius transfer built in. Cubase can export MusicXML files that Sibelius can read. For other sequencers that don't currently support MusicXML, like Logic and Digital Performer, you can print a PDF of the score, then use PDFtoMusic Pro to create a MusicXML file that Sibelius can read.

--
Michael Good
Recordare LLC
http://www.recordare.com
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Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation
Posted by Tommy Deering - 13 Jul 06:38AM
I'm having the same problem as Mark Starr, but I'm sorry to say I don't understand the answer from Michael Good. I have been arranging music for a long time but have only done lead sheets on Sibelius.

Can anyone simplify the answer for me?

Thanks,

Tommy Deering
tommydeering.com
[email protected]
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Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation
Posted by Daniel Spreadbury - 13 Jul 07:30AM
Michael's answer is really to use something other than MIDI as the interchange format when working with files that use a lot of rubato.

Even if you do that, unless the tempo, time signature etc. is consistent across the whole song, you'll still find that things don't line up when you get them into Sibelius.

If it's a MIDI file that you've created, spend some time in your sequencer before you export the MIDI file ensuring that it is properly quantized. If it's a MIDI file that you have simply acquired by downloading it from the internet, etc., then try running the Renotate Performance plug-in from Plug-ins > Simplify Notation once you've imported it into Sibelius; in general you'll find the plug-ins in that folder useful for this kind of thing.

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Contact Sibelius technical help:
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Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius notation
Posted by Jezza - 13 Jul 06:44PM
Michael's suggestion is probably the best solution. The problem is not Sibelius but the MIDI file. If you import the offending MIDI file into a sequencer you'll see the MIDI notes and how the are aligned or miss beats. In most sequencers you can lock the track, meaning that the MIDI notes are locked in time and not to the bar/beat ruler so they won't stretch or shrink as you change the sequence tempo.

Once locked you can adjust the tempo to make the beats land where they should. The easiest way is through some kind of tap tempo. Short of that Logic has a great beat mapping function, DP has some excellent tempo mapping functions, etc. Once the click in your sequence matches the performed music you can export a clean MIDI file.

If you hard quantize everything before exporting MIDI you will have much better results in the Sib import.

Good luck.

- Jezza

Film composer, orchestrator, and music copyist/engraver
www.jeremyborum.com
Mac OSX 10.5, 8-core 3Ghz with 8GB RAM
MOTU PCI-424 audio interface with 60 channels of I/O
Also running Finale (I know, I know...)
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Messages in this thread

Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibelius n... - Mark Starr, 26 Jun 07:31AM
     Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Michael Good, 26 Jun 04:19PM
         Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Tommy Deering, 13 Jul 06:38AM
             Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Daniel Spreadbury, 13 Jul 07:30AM
                 Re: Sib. 6.0: Conversion of midi fies to Sibeli... - Jezza, 13 Jul 06:44PM