Music scanning applications (or music Optical Character Recognition) can be very useful for making new or legible copies from pieces of sheet music that are old or otherwise damaged, or that simply aren't available except as an image file on an archive somewhere. Using a scanning application and Notation Composer, you can create sheet music that looks and sounds great!

The basic steps:

1. Use the scanning application you choose to scan the sheet music (or read the graphics file, if the application can do that) and make corrections to the displayed notation.
2. Export (different programs say "Export as" or "Save as") a MIDI file of the piece.
3. Open up Composer, and then open the saved MIDI file. Composer will quickly and accurately transcribe the MIDI file to high quality sheet music. You can then easily make any changes to notes, add performance marks or annotations, or make your own arrangement, using the original sheet music as your starting point.

It's that simple!

Scanning applications that you may wish to check out

All of these programs have MIDI export, so any of them would be adequate to use with Notation products

Neuratron

PhotoScore Lite 7 reads scans, BMP and PDF files. It has the excellent interface and correction capabilities of its "big brother" Professional. By saving the scanned score as a MIDI (.mid) file, it's a perfect companion for Notation Composer. Click the small blue text "purchase" link at the top of the right-hand features column. Then select "Photoscore Lite 7" in the Product drop box. Regularly sells for $59.

Professional reads scans, BMP, and PDF files. It has an excellent interface for making corrections to the notation based on a close-up of the original scan, as well as showing where the notes and rests don't add up in a measure, for quickly cleaning up missed notation. Moving the mouse in the interpreted score shows a corresponding pointer in the original scan, for quick and easy comparison between the original in the "read" score for making corrections.

 

SmartScore

SmartScore MIDI Edition reads TIFF files and scans. It has a dual screen interface for comparing the original scan with the notation of the music. At $49, it is a modest investment that is a great fit with Notation Composer. Other scanning applications are much more expensive than MIDI Edition + Notation Composer.

SmartScore also has Piano and Guitar editions available, which have special tools specific to music for those instruments. They are similar to the MIDI edition in scanning capabilities, except that the Guitar version will read tabs, but only one line of notation at a time.

VivaldiScan (SharpEye)

VivaldiScan reads scans, TIFF images, and BMP images. It has a dual screen interface for comparing the original scan with the "read" notation of the music. Clicking at any location in the interpreted score shows a corresponding pointer in the original scan, for easy comparison.