Hello All,

I've now reread this thread, which is growing by the day!

You all want some solutions to problems here, so this post will propose some solutions. You can let me know here if they will significantly help.

First, a brief introduction: There's a two-way road between MIDI and notation. MIDI to notation is called "transcription". Notation to MIDI is called "musical interpretation". We should be clear about the distinction when we discuss and solve these problems. I will propose some solutions that deal with both transcription and interpretation in a uniform way that deals with both directions between MIDI and notation.

Ian reports that Composer’s transcription is inconsistent. Transcription is inconsistent if, given exactly the same MIDI file, the resulting notation is different. I highly suspect that Herbert experience of inconsistent transcription is due to different Transcription Options settings being applied at different times. With exactly same set of Transcription Options and the same MIDI file, the same notation should be produced. It's possible that some additional factor alters the resulting notation; but I have not ever observed exactly the same Transcription Options and same MIDI file produce different notation. I think the problem here is that the user is unknowingly applying different Transcription Options at different times.

My proposal for solving the problem identified in the previous paragraph is that the Transcription Options dialog will let the user set one or more “transcription profiles”. Take a look at Sherry’s screen shot of the Transcription Options dialog box near the top of this thread. There would be an extra place in the Transcription Options dialog box where the user could say, “Please remember exactly all of the checkmarks and settings in this dialog box, and give those settings the name ‘My Options.”

Now that you have a precise set of Transcription Options associated with the options profile name ‘My Options’, you can confidently recall those options when re-transcribing a MIDI file, with assurance that the MIDI file will transcribe to exactly the same notation.

Going the other direction, from notation to MIDI, is called “MIDI interpretation”. It has been pointed out in this thread that Composer does no MIDI interpretation, while other notation apps out there do. That’s quite true. That will change. In the last 18 months, I’ve already done a lot of unpublished work in the area of MIDI interpretation of notation. That includes interpretation of markings such as accent marks and dynamic mark. To be honest, I had not planned to also include swing rhythm interpretation, but that will be easy to add. These interpretation features will be delivered in Composer 3.0, which release date I cannot commit to yet.

Included with the interpretation feature will be the equivalent of the ‘My Options’ proposed above for the Transcription Options dialog box. The user will be able to control the musical interpretations with quite a few knobs. The user will be able to save distinct sets of musical interpretation knobs settings with one or more ‘My Interpretation’ names. Thus, there would be a close parallel in how the user can save and recall options for both directions between MIDI and notation: transcription and interpretation.

The above solution does not claim to solve every problem related to transcription that has been discussed in this thread. If we admit that perfection is impossible in transcription and interpretation, would you find the above solution a big step forward for Composer 3.0?

Cheers
-- Mark