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MusicXML Dolet Plugin for Sibelius Beta Coming Soon

This press release just appeared on the musicxml.com website and I thought it worth sharing (source: https://www.musicxml.com/dolet-8-for-sibelius-beta-coming-soon/)

Over the past few months MakeMusic has been working to update their free Dolet® for Sibelius plug-in for exporting MusicXML files from Sibelius.

Original development was centered around being able to transfer Sibelius files into MakeMusic’s SmartMusic more easily, but it was soon apparent that this would be useful more generally.

It has been over five years since the plug-in has been updated. MakeMusic wanted to take advantage of the new features of both MusicXML 4.0 and Sibelius’s ManuScript programming language to get better MusicXML files out of Sibelius. This should make it easier for people to transfer their music from Sibelius into SmartMusic, Finale, and other music notation apps.

To apply for the beta test, please fill out the application form. This will let them know what type of test coverage they will be getting in terms of both Sibelius versions and applications that will be making use of the exported MusicXML files. If accepted, you will receive information about accessing the beta versions during the week of November 29.

The Dolet 8 for Sibelius plug-in requires Sibelius 2019.5 or later. Restricting to later versions of Sibelius makes it much easier to support the plug-in and make use of the latest ManuScript features.

There will be 50 new features and fixes available in the initial beta release. Here are 10 of the highlights:

  1. Concert scores now export transposition information, including alternate clefs for transposed parts.
  2. Concert scores with octave-transposing parts such as guitar and piccolo now export correctly.
  3. Cross-staff notation is exported starting with Sibelius 2021.9.
  4. Dynamic parts can be exported all at once using the new Export Parts to MusicXML menu item.
  5. Page-aligned text is now exported except for headers and footers.
  6. Many more standard symbols are now exported.
  7. System directions export with the system attribute, providing better results when creating parts from an imported score.
  8. Text that mixes dynamics or musical symbols with words now export correctly.
  9. Metronome marks with numeric ranges now export correctly.
  10. Batch export no longer prompts for saving after each file.

Please consider joining the beta program to let MakeMusic know how it works for you in order to make the plug-in as useful and widely available as possible.

Original musicxml.com press release from November 22nd can be found here.

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X / Cross Noteheads in Music Notation

X noteheads, also referred to as “cross” or “crossed” noteheads have a number of functions in modern music notation.

In percussion writing, they are the go-to for non-pitched metallophone instruments such as cymbals or tamtam or gong. For drum set, particularly in jazz or rock charts, cymbals are typically the most active part, and X noteheads help these stand out from the other parts on a 5 line staff.

In vocal music, x noteheads are often used tor spoken text, or for unvoiced sounds / vocal effects. In both instrumental and vocal writing, they can be used to indicate notes of indefinite pitch. And in jazz charts, X noteheads can be used to indicate “ghost” notes in a melodic line.

(for drum set writing, there is an actual “ghost” notehead, which is a regular notehead in parenthesis.)

Cross (x) noteheads can also be used as a special effect to indicate hand / finger damping of instruments such as guitar, or tuned percussion such as vibraphone.

more >> “X / Cross Noteheads in Music Notation”
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Expression maps and Play mode improvements | New Features in Dorico 3.5

🎬  This article is a transcription of one of the excellent tutorial videos posted to the official Dorico YouTube channel.

Presented here in written form with the kind permission of its creator, Anthony Hughes, this tutorial is titled “Expression maps and Play mode improvements in Dorico 3.5“…

Hello, I’m Anthony Hughes, and I’m here to show you the improvements we’ve made to VST Expression Maps and working in Play mode, here in Dorico 3.5.

more >> “Expression maps and Play mode improvements | New Features in Dorico 3.5”
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JetStream Finale Controller Update Announced

If you are a Finale user, you may have already heard about JetStream Finale Controller. JetStream is a tool designed to increase your speed and productivity in Finale, which works with Elgato’s 15 key or 32 key Stream Deck hardware, its Mobile apps for iOS and Android, and also Keyboard Maestro for Mac.

JetStream Finale Controller is a community-driven project; written by a small group of Finale users with diverse backgrounds. JetStream itself is (and its developers promise) will remain, free to download and use.

Today, an update to JetStream Finale Controller was announced, with a number of new features, as well as various bug fixes and enhancements. Here’s what’s new:

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Perfect Layout Plugin for Finale

Music notation software has evolved considerable over the last 20 years, A goal for Finale and the other big players in this space continues to be automation; eliminating, as much as possible, the need for manual edits.

For instance, as of Finale 26, when you add more than one articulation to a note, they stack intelligently; and automatically adjust to avoid collisions with slurs. But collision avoidance of articulations is just the starting point for any good layout.

What if you could just enter notes and rests, articulations, phrasing and text, define a page size and margins, and the software would automate nearly all of the little details to make the music look great on the page? Magical, right?

Perfect Layout for Finale by Elbsound Studio aims to automate more than 100 processes for aligning, balancing and collision removal – and extends from articulations, and smart shapes to hairpins, lyrics and much more.

The Mac version of Perfect Layout was released today, bringing parity with the Windows version.

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