scanned transposition

[redwinejazzclarinet]

Hello,

I use Sibelius, but on a very basic level, mainly to create jazz leadsheets, and simple compositions. I was just sent a pdf of about 50 pages of waltzes for a performance this weekend. The waltzes appear to have been transposed for Bb clarinet from a violin part. Thus, the keys are very difficult, especially as I will be basically sightreading. Someone years ago said you could scan a pdf and sibelius could turn it into a sibelius file. It would be great if I could do that and transpose the entirety of these parts for A clarinet (up a half step). Is this possible? Something a basic sibelius amateur could pull off? Any hints or suggestions? Thanks!

[Jarrell]

Sibelius can't directly do this, but it does come with an entry level version of the program PhotoScore, which does. There of course are differences between that entry level version and the full blown PhotoScore Ultimate (which I upgraded to). However, even with that it usually takes some tinkering for each score to fix things it didn't read correctly, so it may take just a minute or two, or longer, per page, depending on how clean the original copy was. Also, while it claims to do handwritten scores, I haven't had much success with that.

I would say that for 50 pieces, even if each one is one page - well, that's 50 pages to scan, and that could involve hours of post scanning fixup in Photoscore. So if there's another way - find a Bb clarinet for the gig, or have the person who sent you the pdf generate another one for A clarinet. This is assuming it isn't handwritten, but that they have it in Sibelius or another notion program, in which case it would be trivial for them to do.

Good luck!

[MikeLyons]

So much depends on the quality of the pdfs. If they are clean, computer generated pages, there should be very little work. Anything else is likely to take hours and hours of clean up.

Also, there are major features missing from the free version of photoscore. Do not let PS automatically read the score. Don't let sibelius automatically assign instruments.
Good luck!