Notation Workflow : Tips For Moving Logic Files into Sibelius or Finale

For Logic users there may come the time that one needs to get a file over to Finale or Sibelius to finish a project. Logic has its own proprietary notation display formatting and doesn’t currently support Music XML. However, you can export a Standard MIDI File (SMF) and achieve good results. To maximize compatibility before exporting a SMF, you’ll need to do some adjustments, as described below.

The important proprietary formatting items are Display Quantize, Interpretation mode and to a lesser degree, Syncopation mode. These items affect Logic’s display only – playback remains unaffected. You may also need to deal with pedal markings (these do affect playback). Let’s look at what they do, and how to pass along this information in a SMF.

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Interpretation

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If you play parts in live, you will generally get much more readable part(s) and score by having the Interpretation mode selected. (If you add notes by hand this is normally not needed and best left unchecked.) This can be achieved globally by checking the Interpretation box in the Score Editor’s Inspector.

This can also be managed on the track level by making a note selection and navigating to the Attributes menu > Interpretation and selecting Force from the sub-menu.

You can also double click on a note to open up the Note Attributes window and go to Interpretation, selecting Force from the pop-up menu.

What does Interpretation do? For example say you play in a quarter note, but its actual  duration is closer to three 16th notes long as you played it just a bit short. Interpretation mode assumes you want a quarter note and displays it as such, avoiding a look of a tied 1/8^th to a 16^th followed by a 16^th note rest. You may have also played the note a bit early, Interpretation puts the note on the beat. You probably want this Interpretation quarter note look to be passed along in your exported SMF, see below.

 

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Syncopation

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This is toggled on/off in the same methods as Interpretation and is always found next to it in the above mentioned areas. I find it easier to leave this off and add only as needed. Typical use example is an eighth-quarter-eighth look that shows up as a four eighth notes, with the second and third notes tied together.

Selecting the tied notes and applying Syncopation creates the eighth-quarter-eighth look.

 

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Display Quantize

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If you look in the Score Editor’s Inspector you’ll see an item called Quantize with a pop-up menu just to the right. It defaults to 16,24 (16th and 16th note triplets will be the finest division of the beat, so notes are snapped to its grid). For viewing fun, move it to 128,384. If the view doesn’t change much, it probably means you did the entry by hand (as opposed to performing the parts live) or you’ve already quantized the performance elsewhere (and this would affect playback). Now move it to 4 – every note snaps to a quarter note (again, display only, playback is not changed).

An example of when to use this would be playing in a swing feel. Logic may show triplets or dotted eight/sixteenths, an unnecessary and cluttered look for a jazz feel. Change the display quantize to 8 and the smallest division will be eighth notes. Playback will be the same, the look will be eighth notes – your players will be happy.

(Tip: as this parameter is region based, you can create new region for the triplets or sixteenth run you have. In score mode regions that abut will be shown as one part).

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Sustain Pedal

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A typical situation might be if you played a chord for four beats for a string part, but the sustain pedal is held for two bars. You need to transfer the sustain pedal note length information to the notes, so the notes are eight beats instead of four. Go to local menu Functions > Note Events > Sustain Pedal to Note Length. Your pedal markings are also removed in the process – back up/duplicate if these are important!

 

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Preparing to Export the SMF

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With Sustain Pedal preparation covered, let’s get back to the Display Quantize, Interpretation and Syncopation functions.This information needs to be “normalized” (in Logic speak) before you export a MIDI file.

There are two menu items in the Score Editor’s local menu, found together following this local menu path: Functions > Quantize. They are “Fix displayed Note Positions” and “Fix displayed Note Position and Duration”. So what do they do?

These functions will lock the MIDI notes to their displayed position (this is a destructive function – duplicate/back up if you want save the original). “Fix displayed Note Positions” moves the note start position to match the display grid. This is a typical quantize function. “Fix displayed Note Position and Duration” additionally extends the note length so your dotted eighth/sixteenth “quarter” note is now actually a quarter note in length.

While these steps may seem like a bit of work, all of this will help your parts and scores look much closer to your intentions when you export them as a SMF and bring the material into Finale or Sibelius.

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Doug Zangar is the author of Groove3.com’s “Logic Score Editor Explained“, teaches courses for the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program, Discovery Tools and Crywolf Training, and is the founder of the Seattle Logic User Group.