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Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:31 pm
by wfeg
Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

I have a composition where the second movement has changed key signature (from 4 sharps [C# minor]) from the first movement into no sharps [A minor] in the second movement. Neurotron Photoscore will read this correctly, but when I export this composition into Sibelius, the second movement changes to 4 sharps [C# minor]. See the attached image.

What is the best way to correct for this?

I selected the whole of the second movement and changed the key signature into no sharps [A minor], but then I get a whole host of notes where they are out of tune, and it is too large a task to correct them all. I did the conversion froom Neurotron to Sibelius again and got the same result, so i am stuck.

Any suggestions please?

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:14 am
by MikeLyons
You have to make absolutely sure that the key signs are correct throughout the score BEFORE you send to sibelius. If necessary, force the key change in PS at the start of the 2nd movement.

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:30 am
by wfeg
MikeLyons wrote:
Mon Jan 11, 2021 7:14 am
You have to make absolutely sure that the key signs are correct throughout the score BEFORE you send to sibelius. If necessary, force the key change in PS at the start of the 2nd movement.
Mike

Thank you for your comments. I have discovered that at the very end of the first movement, there was no key change to the second movement, so I have inserted an A minor (no sharps or flats) key change there. I then re-sent my Photoscore composition to Sibelius, but there were still mistakes in notes appearing in Sibelius that were not in Photoscore, so I have had to painstakingly correct these. I will certainly keep your comments in mind for the future.

Thanks

Wfeg

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2021 8:11 am
by KJ_Palmer
Also, try to make sure your score is as good as it can be in Photoscore before sending to Sibelius. Clear all bad timing errors, make sure notes are all present and correct and in the right voice, clefs, time signatures, dynamics, bar lines etc. Basically everything.

PS can make a lot of mistakes, especially with complex music, and scores scanned from old music sheets. After all nothing's perfect. You'll still have work to do in Sibelius, but correcting in PS should save time in the long run.

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:29 am
by MikeLyons
Photoscore does not eliminate your role as proofreader! :D

PS can put incorrect key and time changes into a scanned score (even from a pdf) and you should very carefully check the start of every system for spurious key changes. I get caught out by this quite a lot. The change between 2 sharps/flats and 3 sharps/flats is easily missed at the start of a system as PS doesn't put in cautionary key changes. Text is often misread - even in the very latest version so watch out for that as well.

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:05 am
by wfeg
MikeLyons wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:29 am
Photoscore does not eliminate your role as proofreader! :D

PS can put incorrect key and time changes into a scanned score (even from a pdf) and you should very carefully check the start of every system for spurious key changes. I get caught out by this quite a lot. The change between 2 sharps/flats and 3 sharps/flats is easily missed at the start of a system as PS doesn't put in cautionary key changes. Text is often misread - even in the very latest version so watch out for that as well.
Mike

Thanks for this info. I do appreciate your comments.

Although I check my Photoscore manuscript very carefully, I did miss a change from four sharps to no sharps at the END of a section (my .PDF manuscript did not have the change to no sharps here), and even though the next section had the correct no sharps key signature, this mucked my score, requiring a lot of extra work. Correcting this key change mistake (at the END of the section) did not correct the mistakes that importing Photoscore into Sibelius had made in the next section. All the notes in the next section were a semitone too high. I did try the easy way to correct this by selecting the whole passage and trying to transpose, but there was no selection for transposing down a semitone and putting in the required notes as flats. However, I was able to transpose this section down a semitone, but the result was in sharps, not flats. How do you get it to transpose down a semitone and put the required flats in place rather than sharps? The transpose menu seems a bit lacking in this regard.

wfeg

Re: Export from Photoscore/Import into Sibelius causes key signature to change

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:31 am
by MikeLyons
So much in sib depends on your choice of transposition interval and on the settings for the individual instruments.

Can you send me your score and the .opt file from PS and Sib so I can have a close look at what is happening? This long-distance relationship is making it very hard for me to detect your issues. :D

My email is mike@mike-lyons.co.uk