Photoscore Ultimate 7 - Software - CD-ROM

When learning any piece of music , hearing it played in rhythm and proper pitch is very helpful. Being able to play along is also a great help, but the tempo of a recording may be too fast initially. A recording without soloist has the same problem unless a slow pace second recording is present. PhotoScore provides a means of scanning any sheet music and providing a midi file that can be played at any tempo needed, without distortion . Photoscore provides the midi file and a very crude musical rendition. Some form of midi-file player is needed to play the files it makes with quality sound reproduction. One such player is the Garritan personal orchestra which plays these files and allows a choice of orchestral instruments, has excellent sounds and is inexpensive.If you buy the scoring software make sure to read the instructions carefully. You will need basic notation skill to correct the scanning errors in rhythm . Where the right piano hand has a second melody the scan often places notes in the wrong rhythmbut it is simple to correct these errors. Take any elementary book of etudes, it is unlikely you will find recordings of all the songs. You can scan all of these tunes and make your own recordings at your own pace , and faster ones for later as you speed up, all in perfect pitch. The dynamics are missing of course but that is your personal contribution anyway.I looked at other software. Many were far too costly, others were too elaborate to learn quickly . Photoscore was the best bargain.Later Comments Sep.30thPhotoscore has a tab that allows score transfer to Sibelius. This is a great program and the basic software isinexpensive . I now transfer my files over and edit them there. Curiously Photoscore cannot transpose a measure up to the top piano keys which sibelius can. Further the Midi file "save" procedure asks for the selected player and the options include Garritan Player. The results seem better. For example , Photoscore has trouble producing midi files that play grace notes properly, which Sibelius does.One last comment. SongSurgeon is a great program that transposes songs to lower tempos, and much more without distortion (at least down to 45% of the original). The results are very musical with little distortion. But of course it doesn't read music so you must have a recording to begin with.

This product does work well but under certain conditions-the original scan of the music cannot have any broken ledger lines of faded notes because after the Photoscore scan there is allot of repair before it can be exported to Sibelius. Alos, I leared to do one page at a time in Photoscore; do my repair/adjustments and then export it to Sibelius. I then do the second page and export to the same Sibelius score-in other words I build up the Sibelius score as I go along.

This was a disaster--the software disk arrived without the booklet and no serial number!Un-useable!!Unforgivable!I had a deadline (as in "had") and this arrived two days late without the serial number, so I could not use the software to produce for my deadline---Ouch!

I purchased this product in an attempt to be able to download old public domain scores from IMSLP.org and arrange them for other ensembles. I tried a few scores with the downloadable trial version and was impressed.This product works pretty well on music that was scanned from other computer-generated scores, but does not do much for handwritten scores. I'd strongly suggest trying out the trial version online before purchasing.Be sure to clarify if it's reading a Printed or Handwritten score (there is an option when it reads the music) otherwise it will just get confused.Again, certain scores are read with incredible accuracy, but most scores printed in the 1800's cause problems.Try the trial version first!!

Photoscore Ultimate is ok. If you think this will save you time, you are guessing. I've used the product with some success over the years. Some scores scan well, others not so well. Don't think this is easy. It isn't. You have to baby sit it, and correct a lot of it. 99% accuracy? Hardly... I'd say 80% accurate but the remaining 20% will take lots of time to correct. One of the maddening things with this product is when scanning an instrument score, often, Often OFTEN, the program will group different staves into one system and there is no way to fix it that I've found. You either have to rescan the page, and if the page is part of a multipage document, you have to repeat the entire scanning process. Sometimes it is faster to simply enter the notation with Sibelius manually. Would I buy it again, knowing what I now aware of? I wouldn't purchase the product new. It has some value, but takes LOTS of time.

I'm a sax player. My horns are pitched in E flat and B flat, so I need to transpose things all the time. This software allowed me to take a classical cannon arranged for piano into a melody only piece in my key. The entire process took about 40 minutes. Wow. That would have taken me DAYS to do on paper. This software is a lifesaver.

This is a good product and works well provided that any potential purchaser realises that time will need to be taken to make amendments to the scanned and read score. However, once done, the ability to convert to a Sibelius file and manipulate thereafter is fantastic!Users will no doubt find what works best for themselves as they become more accustomed to the software.

I've used this program to arrange/ edit music that is out of copyright. From a good copy (scanned) or a clear PDF it works very well, though there are usually lots of mistakes in the lyrics. Sharps are frequently mistaken for notes, and scanning manuscript is rarely succesful.Nevertheless, I've found it very useful.Roger

The software is very disappointing and certainly does not do what it says on the tin(!) It should scan in scores and convert them to Sibelius format for editing and printing. It also claims it can scan in and "understand" manuscript scores. I tried to scan in both sorts of score: it failed miserably with both. The 10 stave printed score had so many errors it may have been easier for me to start again and input it from scratch!!

Not as easy to use as it looks. It's like most programes you have to work at it to get results other than that it a 1st class programe

A great aid to get the bulk of the scanned music into something that can be tweaked. A little awkward at first but when you get used to the quirks it does get you there.