News

Today MakeMusic released version 25.3 of Finale and an updated Dolet 6.10 for Finale plug-in. Both releases include notable MusicXML improvements to both import and export.

For import, Finale v25.3 adds a new MusicXML import preference, “Restrict MusicXML formatting”. This improves on the “Use current document if empty” preference added in Finale 25.2. When selected, the amount of formatting data imported from the MusicXML file is greatly restricted. This is especially true for document settings, system breaks, and page breaks. The formatting preferences for the current empty document are used instead. This preference is ignored if there is no document open, or the current document is not empty.

MusicXML preferences are available in Finale v25 via the File menu. Choose either the Import or Export submenu and then select “MusicXML Preferences…”. The preferences are also available when using the Dolet for Finale plug-in with Finale 2014.5.  In that case, go to the Plug-ins menu and choose the MusicXML submenu, then select “MusicXML Preferences…”.

Finale v25.3 includes an additional 14 new features and fixes to MusicXML export and import support. Some of the most important ones are better export of expressions assigned to layers, better export of multimeasure rests. and better export of page-attached text. Dolet 6.10 for Finale includes all these improvements. You can read more about all these updates in our Dolet for Finale release notes.

MusicXML in Finale v25.3 also supports the new 25.3 features. This includes the new options for short and long crescendo / decrescendo openings, and the new Unicode support for nonstandard key signatures and fretboard numbers.

As with version 6.9, version 6.10 does not support Finale versions earlier than Finale 2009. This is due to the ongoing modernization of our software technology, especially for Mac platforms. If you are still using these older versions of Finale, we hope you will consider upgrading to the latest version. If not, please be sure to keep your current version of the Dolet plug-in.

Also note that the Dolet for Finale plug-in is 32-bit only. Finale v25.3 includes all the added features that used to be part of the Dolet plug-in, plus some MusicXML features that only work in 64-bit Finale. With our 64-bit Finale v25, all the MusicXML functionality you need is available directly on the File menu.

We hope that you find these new plug-ins help in moving your music files between applications. If you have issues with the plug-ins, please let us know in the Finale portion of our Help Center.

The annual NAMM show in Anaheim is always a great way to start the year, and 2017 was no exception. One highlight for me was an informal Friday evening dinner with members of the W3C Music Notation Community Group. We shared food, drink, and stories about everyone’s adventures in music notation, software, and fonts. Tom Nauman from Musicnotes was kind enough to take a group selfie from the dinner and give permission to redistribute it:

Starting at the left and going around the table clockwise we have

• Daniel Spreadbury, Steinberg
• Michael Good, MakeMusic
• Adrian Holovaty, Soundslice
• Matt Briggs, Semitone
• Raphaël Schumann, Newzik
• Pierre Mardon, Newzik
• Jeremy Sawruk, J.W. Pepper
• Philip Rothman, NYC Music Services
• Bruce Nelson, Alfred Music
• Tom Nauman, Musicnotes

Missing from the picture is Jeff Kellem from Slanted Hall who arrived shortly afterwards. Jeff, Bruce, and Daniel are all music font designers, so there were some lively typography discussions going on at that side of the table.

This was the first time I ever met Philip Rothman in person. Besides all of Philip’s musical activities, he hosts SibeliusBlog.com which has expanded beyond its name to cover all aspects of music notation software. Philip interviewed me during the show. Here he is visiting the Alfred / MakeMusic booth together with Ryan Sargent, MakeMusic’s social media manager:

Ryan Sargent, Michael Good, and Philip Rothman at NAMM 2017

Two new MusicXML product announcements also happened during NAMM. Semitone demonstrated their Komp application in the NAMM.Software exhibition on the 2nd floor. Komp is a music sketching handwriting recognition app for iOS, due out in the first quarter of 2017. Like their exhibit neighbors Newzik, they use MusicXML as their underlying notation file format. Komp is optimized for the Apple Pencil and has some training and other innovative user interface features that I had not seen in similar applications before.

The other announcement was Apple’s release of Logic Pro 10.3, which now includes MusicXML import. Logic Pro X had added MusicXML export earlier, but having both import and export covers a wider variety of exchange use cases for Logic customers.

As mentioned on the W3C Music Notation Community Group blog, we are looking to complete MusicXML 3.1 and SMuFL 1.2 by the end of March 2017. After that we plan to start looking at longer range music notation format issues with the MNX project, which we plan to discuss at more detail in April at Musikmesse in Frankfurt. If you are interested in participating, please join the W3C Music Notation Community Group, and follow the MusicXML repository on GitHub to be notified of issues and updates as they occur. With your help, we look increasing the power of music notation standards even more in 2017.

Today MakeMusic released version 25.2 of Finale and an updated Dolet 6.9 for Finale plug-in. Both releases include notable MusicXML improvements to both import and export.

Finale v25.2 includes the last of the features that had been available in the Dolet for Finale plug-in, but not in Finale v25. This is the ability to open an empty file, such as a template, and import your MusicXML file into that template. This makes it faster to reformat MusicXML files into your own favorite Finale styles.

You can access this feature by setting the new MusicXML import preference “Use current document if empty”. Checking this option will import into the currently open file if possible – that is, if the file is empty and is open to a score rather than a linked part. This is the same behavior as the Dolet 6 for Finale plug-in. If you leave the option unchecked, the behavior is the same as in earlier versions of Finale – a new default document is opened and the MusicXML is imported there.

MusicXML preferences are available in Finale v25 via the File menu. Choose either the Import or Export submenu and then select “MusicXML Preferences…”. The preferences are also available when using the Dolet for Finale plug-in with Finale 2014.5.  In that case, go to the Plug-ins menu and choose the MusicXML submenu, then select “MusicXML Preferences…”.

Finale v25.2 includes an additional 12 new features and fixes to MusicXML export support. They include support for the Finale Copyist Text font as well as better export of metronome marks, compound dynamics, and chord symbols. Dolet 6.9 for Finale includes all these improvements, as well as most of the MusicXML improvements included in the original release of Finale v25. You can read more about all these updates in our Dolet for Finale release notes.

As with version 6.8, version 6.9 does not support Finale versions earlier than Finale 2009. This is due to the ongoing modernization of our software technology, especially for Mac platforms. If you are still using these older versions of Finale, we hope you will consider upgrading to the latest version. If not, please be sure to keep your current version of the Dolet plug-in.

Also note that the Dolet for Finale plug-in is 32-bit only. Finale v25.2 now includes all the added features that used to be part of the Dolet plug-in, plus some MusicXML features that only work in 64-bit Finale. With our 64-bit Finale v25, all the MusicXML functionality you need is available directly on the File menu.

We hope that you find these new plug-ins help in moving your music files between applications. If you have issues with the plug-ins, please let us know in the Finale portion of our Help Center.

Today MakeMusic released version 25.1 of Finale and an updated Dolet 6.8 for Finale plug-in. Both releases include significant MusicXML improvements, especially for MusicXML export.

One of the main new features is one-step export all the linked parts in your Finale file to a folder of MusicXML files. This is mainly intended for use with SmartMusic.

MakeMusic is rapidly improving our new web-based version of SmartMusic that runs on Chromebooks. One of the features coming soon in our SmartMusic roadmap is allowing teachers to upload and assign their own MusicXML files. Since these SmartMusic files will be individual parts, exporting all the linked parts from a file in one step will make this process much easier.

Finale v25.1 includes an additional 14 new features and fixes to MusicXML support. They include better import of percussion staves from MusicXML files exported from Sibelius, better export of text using the MaestroTimes font, and much more. Dolet 6.8 for Finale includes all these improvements, as well as most of the MusicXML improvements included in the original release of Finale v25. You can read more about all these updates in our Dolet for Finale release notes.

One thing to consider before upgrading your Dolet plug-in to version 6.8 is that this version no longer supports Finale versions earlier than Finale 2009. This is due to the ongoing modernization of our software technology, especially for Mac platforms. If you are still using these older versions of Finale, we hope you will consider upgrading to the latest version. If not, please be sure to keep your current version of the Dolet plug-in.

Also note that the Dolet for Finale plug-in is 32-bit only. Finale v25.1 includes all the added features that used to be part of the Dolet plug-in, plus some MusicXML features that only work in 64-bit Finale. With our 64-bit Finale v25, all the MusicXML functionality you need is available directly on the File menu.

We hope that you find these new plug-ins help in moving your music files between applications. If you have issues with the plug-ins, please let us know on our MusicXML forum.

MusicXML application support continues to grow! These days most of the growth comes in new notation apps, as nearly all the current music notation apps already support the MusicXML format. Today we are up to 225 applications with MusicXML support.

Some of the highlights of the new applications that are shipping now with MusicXML support are:

• REAPER. This DAW from Cockos recently added a notation editor in version 5.20. This was quickly followed by MusicXML export in version 5.22 and then MusicXML import in version 5.23. DAW support for MusicXML lagged behind many other application areas, so it is great to see the continued growth of MusicXML support in this area.
• ReadScoreLib. This is a music scanning SDK and library provided by Dolphin Computing, the same people behind the SeeScore SDK. As with SeeScore it works on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows. This is the scanning technology that Dolphin uses in their PlayScore mobile app.
• OpenSheetMusicDisplay. This is an open-source JavaScript library for rendering MusicXML in a web browser using VexFlow. There is an online demo available for testing with your favorite MusicXML files.
• Kunkunshi Editor. This may be my favorite as it is the most unusual. Kunkunshi Editor is an Android app for editing Okinawan music in Kunkunshi (工工四) format. This is a vertical, tabular format of music notation which is a variation of Chinese music notation systems.

There are many other updates and additions to the MusicXML software world. Band-in-a-Box 2016 with MusicXML support is now available for Mac as well as Windows. Overture 5 is now shipping with MusicXML export as well as import.

Do you have MusicXML software or a source of MusicXML scores that we don’t have listed on our site? Please let us know so we can add you to our lists and round out our picture of the MusicXML community. Feel free to post on the MusicXML forum, or contact us via Twitter or Facebook.

Just in time for Musikmesse, we released new updates to our Dolet MusicXML plug-ins today. The Dolet 6.7 for Finale plug-in includes 20 fixes and new features, including a new preferences feature. The Dolet 6.6 for Sibelius plug-in works much faster than before, and adds a manual installation option for Windows 32-bit systems. As always, downloads are available from our plug-in downloads page.

Dolet 6.7 for Finale adds a new menu item for Dolet Preferences when running in Finale 2014.5. You may set preferences for exporting different versions of MusicXML, exporting compressed or uncompressed files during batch export, and validating against the MusicXML DTD or XSD. This restores features that were dropped in Finale 2014.5 in version 6.6 while making them easier to access and use.

Dolet 6.7 for Finale also adds preferences for silencing error messages during batch import and export and logging the messages to a log file instead. The log file option is the file name that is used within the folder being imported or exported. This option will silence messages from the Dolet plug-in, but not messages from Finale that may occur when reading in files.

Version 6.7 also adds another 19 new features and fixes, including improvement to exporting Finale shape notes, laisser-vibrez ties, improved support for jazz articulations, better export of accidental text inserts, and more. You can read more about what’s new in the release notes.

Dolet 6.6 for Sibelius exports files much more quickly than previous versions. On Mac it can export 50% faster. On Windows, export can be 5 to 10 times faster, with more improvement for larger files. You can read more about what’s new in the release notes.

We hope that you find these new plug-ins help in moving your music files between applications. If you have issues with the plug-ins, please let us know on our MusicXML forum.

For the past 3 years we have had a MusicXML community meeting at the Musikmesse fair in Frankfurt. This year we will have another meeting: the first meeting of the W3C Music Notation Community Group in Europe.

The meeting will be held on Friday, April 8 from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm in the Logos/Genius conference room in Hall 9.1. As in past years, we plan to have a 2-hour meeting followed by a 1-hour reception sponsored by Newzik.

Our proposed agenda is to discuss the group’s progress on MusicXML 3.1 and SMuFL 1.2, and review the notation use cases that we expect to guide the group’s future work. We welcome your suggestions on changes or additions to this agenda.

Please sign up on our Google form at http://bit.ly/1U1SUIP if you plan to attend the meeting. This will help ensure that we have enough room and refreshments for everyone.

You will need a Musikmesse ticket to attend the meeting. These cost 25 euros and are available online at www.musikmesse.com.

We look forward to seeing you in Frankfurt!

Best regards,

Michael Good, Daniel Spreadbury, and Joe Berkovitz
W3C Music Notation Community Group co-chairs

Happy New Year everyone! We are happy to announce that thanks to the work of Joe Berkovitz and NAMM staff, we will be having a W3C Music Notation Community Group meeting during the upcoming NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

The meeting will be on Saturday, January 23 from 10:30 am to 12:00 noon in the Hilton Oceanside room. The agenda will include:

• Community Group status update
• Use case document discussion
• MusicXML 3.1 updates
• SMuFL 1.2 updates

Please let us know if you have suggestions for additional agenda topics.

Since the meeting is in the Hilton rather than the Anaheim Convention Center, you do not need to be registered for the NAMM show in order to attend the meeting.

We apologize for the short notice about the meeting. This was our first time working with NAMM staff regarding a W3C music notation event, so we have been learning as we go.

The room holds 30 people. We expect that will be sufficient given the short notice and the attendance at the NAMM MusicXML meeting in 2012. For planning purposes it would be helpful if you could let us know if you plan to attend. Feel free to send an email to Michael or to respond on the community group mailing list or the MusicXML Forum.

For those who can’t make it to NAMM, we do hope to have a meeting at Musikmesse in Frankfurt this April, as we have done with the MusicXML community the past three years. We hope to provide more advance notice for that event.

We look forward to seeing many of you at this meeting!

We have posted a year-end update about the W3C Music Notation Community Group on the group blog. One of the highlights for MusicXML users is that MusicXML 3.1 development will be starting soon, either later this month or in early January.

MusicXML 3.1 will be focused on adding greater coverage for musical symbols, along with targeted bug fixes and feature enhancements. The goal is to maintain and improve MusicXML 3.0’s high level of document interoperability, without distracting from the longer-term work of the community group. You can see the current list of MusicXML 3.1 issues in the MusicXML GitHub repository.

If you would like to participate in MusicXML 3.1 development, please join the community group. Click on the link and press the “JOIN THIS GROUP” button, which will lead you through the process of joining the group. Joining the community group is free, and you or your company need not be a W3C member to participate.

Thank you for your continued support of MusicXML. I look forward to working together with the community group on this new update.

Coinciding with the release of Finale 2014.5 are updates to our Dolet MusicXML plug-ins. The Dolet 6.6 for Finale plug-in adds support for Finale 2014.5, while the Dolet 6.5 for Sibelius plug-in adds support for Sibelius 8. As always, downloads are available from our Dolet plug-in downloads page.

You can read more about what’s new with the plug-ins in the Dolet for Finale and Dolet for Sibelius release notes. One notable addition to the Dolet 6.6 for Finale plug-in is that file exports now include XML processing instructions for features that the plug-in knows it cannot export correctly. This feature has been in the Dolet for Sibelius plug-in for many years and we are happy to now bring it over to the Finale plug-in as well.

Meanwhile, the W3C Music Notation Community Group has had a lot of thoughtful discussion on the future direction for MusicXML and notation formats. Joining the group is the best way to make your voice heard on how MusicXML will evolve in the future. Community group membership is free and does not require W3C membership.