Using SmartScore - Tips from the Techs
Scanning
1) Learn the proper resolution to scan your scores.
Recognition accuracy is directly related to the quality of an image file. Producing the best possible image file for recognition is essential for optimizing your time while using SmartScore. Before you scan your music take a look at the score and ask yourself a few quick questions:
How large is the printing of the score? How fine are the lines? What is the condition of your original score?
Clean, new scores printed on letter or legal sized pages will recognize very well at 300- 350 dpi. If the printing is small and/ or very fine, you should increase the resolution. Try starting at 400 dpi and decrease the contrast for the final scan by Ð10%. Darkening the final scan will thicken these lines, making them easier to recognize. Be careful, higher resolutions do not always equate to higher accuracy. There is a point of diminishing returns when the optimum resolution is exceeded. At 400+ dpi, recognition accuracy of scores with "normal" font sizes may suffer decreased accuracy.
If your score is older or a Xerox copy, there may be some fading or breaking-up of the print. Try the above tips to fatten lines and close possible gaps in the final image file. You may even need to open the image file in the Image Editor to redraw some broken portions of the music (barlines, brackets, stems, etc.).
2) Good scanners make good image files.
The next greatest variable is the quality of the scanner used. Most flatbed scanners are adequate. But be careful of "page scanners" and some $49 flatbeds... some do better than others. Never use hand scanners. If the scanner does not make a good solid black and white image file, then recognition of that file will not be as accurate as it could be or it may fail altogether.
3) Use the SmartScore scanning interface, if possible.
SmartScore uses a custom TWAIN interface that only scans in black and white, at 300-600 dpi, and will automatically deskew and crop the scanned image. This saves you from having to set these parameters yourself when scanning music. Auto-cropping leaves 1/4" margin on all sides of your score, removing any excessive white or black portions from the image file. Auto-deskewing will correct some skewing of an image file that has been placed on the scanner crooked. Skewed image files can result in a lower level of recognition accuracy. Recognition
1) Straighten up a crooked scan.
ÒGarbage In, Garbage OutÓ holds true with the recognition of any image file. If Recognition did poorly on a given page and you notice the scanned image was not straight, it is a quick and easy task to correct the skew and re-recognize the music. Go to FILE > OPEN and select your scanned file from ÒImage FilesÓ list. Using the Line Draw tool with ÒSkew CorrectionÓ active, draw a line along any horizontal staffline. While in the image editor, you may remove any extraneous pencil markings and coffee stains, or redraw broken lines. Save and re-recognize the file.
2) Replace a bad page of a multi-paged image file instead of rescanning every page.
If for some reason a particular page in a multi-paged TIFF file is bad (too skewed, some of the music was accidentally cut off, etc), you do not have to rescan the entire score. HereÕs what you need to do.
• Rescan the bad page • Save the good image file, be sure to use a unique name. • Select File > Begin Recognition. • Press ÒAdd Files to ListÓ and select the original image file and your new page. • Highlight the bad page from the page list and press the ÒRemove Files from ListÓ button. The bad page is removed.
• Now highlight the new image file and use the ÒMove Up/ DownÓ buttons to place the new page correctly within the page order. • Press the ÒSave As..Ó button to save the reconstructed multi-paged TIFF file.
ENF Editing
1) Learn the Quick Keys/ Quick Select
This may seem like an overly obvious recommendation, but SmartScoreÕs Quick Keys have been designed to increase the efficiency that a user can operate the program. Place the your index finger of your left hand on the ÒCÓ key of your computer keyboard. This will allow you to toggle edit modes, Quick Select, and all the most important tools and objects without taking your cursor through many menus or tool palettes. SmartScoreÕs Quick Select transforms the entire ENF document into one tool palette. Hold the ÒCtrlÓ key down and click on any ENF object to select it for editing (Insert, Change, or Delete). This is similar to AdobeÕs PhotoShopÕs Eyedropper Tool. 2) Copy and Paste correctly recognized phrases and chords to fix mistakes in recognition.
Most music is written with repeating lines or phases. If one phrase/ chord is recognized correctly and the next was not, you can copy the correct phrase/ chord and replace the incorrect material.
• Press the "O" key of your keyboard (Select Area/ Symbols Tool)
• Left-click and drag a box around the notes you want to copy. Release the mouse button once the notes are highlighted. • Press ÒCtrl + CÓ to Copy the notes to the clipboard. • Press ÒCtrl + RÓ to activate the Paste Replace function or ÒCtrl + VÓ to activate regular Paste. • Left-click at the point you want to Paste the contents of the clipboard and Replace the existing events.
This type of editing is also useful when you have already made the correction and the same phase/ chord occurs several times yet was misrecognized. Copy and Paste (or Paste Replace) saves you time if the required edit takes more than on or two steps.
3) Use the Color Mode > Voice to find timing errors in playback.
If you are playing your file (ENF or MIDI) and you hear extra beats in a measure or notes that should play simultaneously but donÕt, switch the Color Mode (Options > Color Mode) to Voice. You will now see your score in multiple colors. Black = voice 1, red = voice 2, green = voice 3, and blue = voice 4. Most score will only have one or two voices, so if you see green or blue notes odds are that there is a mistake here that needs to be fixed.
Notes in separate voice lines can not be tied together. If thereÕs a pair of notes that you can not tie together, turn on voice color and check the voice assignment of the questionable notes. Vertical Alignment: In many keyboard pieces a measure may have one voice with stems-up (voice 1) and one voice with stems-down (voice 2). Multiple voices, within one staff line, also occur in SATB vocal scores. These notes may be horizontally offset and are not aligned. In many cases, while in Color Mode > Voice, the non-aligned notes will both display as one voice. Aligning the notes will adjust their voice assignment to match the remainder of the measure.
• Press the "O" key of your keyboard (Select Area/ Symbols Tool) • Left-click and drag a box around the notes in question. Release the mouse button once the notes are highlighted. • Press the "Y" key of your keyboard to vertically align the notes.
Cluster Tool If a note of a chord is not recognized, be sure to use the Cluster Tool to add those notes back in. A common mistake is to simple Insert a note of the appropriate rhythmic value. With the Color Mode now set to voice, you may see a chord with one, black note, one red, and one green. These notes were entered as separate voices and not as part of the chord.
• Press the ÒXÓ key of your keyboard twice (Delete Any mode) • Click on the incorrect notes, removing them from the chord. • Press the ÒCÓ key then the ÒZÓ key of your keyboard (Insert mode and Cluster Tool) • Click to Insert the correct notes as part of the chord.
4) Use the Master System to recover a stave that is not recognized, not Edit > Stave > Insert Above/ Below.
Sometimes a staffline (usually at the bottom of a page) is not recognized because it was cut off during scanning. Reconstructing the lost staff line is quite easy and it doesnÕt require rescanningÉ • Go to the system that is missing a stave and hold the ÒCtrlÓ button of your keyboard. • Go to Edit > Master System (or just press ÒMÓ since you are already holding ÒCtrlÓ)
• You will see the structure for this system, one of the Visibility check boxes will be unchecked. Check the Visibility for that Part. • Set Apply to Visibility for the System. Click OK.
• Now your system will contain all the parts. You may need to Cut and Paste the material from the recognized staves up or down to another stave depending on which stave was missed in recognition.
The Master System controls the structure of a score. In this case, you only need to recover a single missed stave. SmartScore maintains the recognized system structure throughout every system, even if a stave is not recognized. This is how SmartScore copes with expanding and collapsing systems. The Edit > Stave > Insert feature adds a new stave to that system and a new part to the Master System for the entire score. 5) Only one stave of music can be edited at a time.
If youÕre having trouble with the editing of any notational object, be sure that you are in the active stave. The mouse cursor must cross the top or bottom staff line of a stave to make it the active stave. If the cursor does not cross into the active stave and you try to Insert or Delete a tie or accidental, nothing will happen. When trying to Insert a note or rest, the object will be Insert as part of a different stave. This will cause voicing problems and notes may have an excessive amount of ledger lines.
To display only the active stave in full color, go to Options > Show Active Staff. All inactive staves will be grayed-out.