Scanning music  

Finale offers a variety of ways for you to scan sheet music and bring the results into Finale. You can bring your scanned files into Musitek’s MIDISCAN or SmartScore software, then import the resulting files into Finale. Or, you could directly acquire sheet music from your scanner, and translate it to a Finale file using built-in SmartScore technology. The SmartScore Lite feature in Finale, like many music scanning products, doesn’t recognize articulation marks, hairpins, double or repeat barlines, or text. It will recognize 3 accidental types, 3 clefs, 16 staves per page, smallest note value is a 32nd note, and a maximum of 1 augmentation dot.

Because scanning is not a perfect science, you will need to clean up any file after conversion. Depending on the music, some users will find it easier to simply re-enter the music via one of Finale's traditional note entry methods: Simple Entry, Speedy Entry, or HyperScribe.

We encourage you to respect all copyrights.

Remember that to take advantage of any of Finale's scanning capabilities, you will need to have a properly installed scanner (contact the manufacturer of your scanner if you have questions). Because scanners and scanning software varies widely, we cannot provide instructions on how to prepare a file for every scanner. For some hints on how to prepare a scanned file from some popular scanners, see Scanning in the User Manual. The scanned sheet music image should be saved as a grayscale graphic in an uncompressed TIFF format at a resolution of 300dpi.

1. Place a sheet of music on your scanner. Ensure it is placed squarely on the scanner’s bed, and the staff lines are not slanted on the page. Do not use handwritten or photocopied scores. If you have already scanned and saved TIFF files (or want to use our demonstration TIFF file), from the File menu, choose Scanning: SmartScore Lite, and then Import Existing TIFF File (and skip the next three steps).
2. From the File menu, choose Scanning: SmartScore Lite, and then Scan and Import. Finale opens the SmartScore Lite scanning software. In most cases, all the settings you need to properly scan the file for Finale import are configured.
3. Scan the first page of your score. After the scan, click Yes to scan additional pages. Click No once all your pages have been scanned.
4. Click OK. The SmartScore Lite dialog box appears.
5. Click Add Files to List. The Open dialog box appears. If you just scanned, your files appear in this list. Click the first file in this list and then hold down and click the last file to select all of them. Then click Open (and skip the next step). If you want to import the demonstration TIFF file we have provided, continue with the next step.
6. Navigate to the file called: Tutorial 8a.TIFF and double-click on it. The file appears in the file list window.
7. Click the file name to highlight it. A preview of the file appears in the left window.
8. Click Begin Recognition. The Instrument Name Assignments dialog box appears, which allows you to configure instrument transpositions, staff names, and the MIDI instruments. It is important to apply this information to ensure your staves are transposed properly. See Instrument Name Assignments dialog box.
9. Click OK. Finale transcribes the scanned file(s) and displays the music in a single Finale file. (If you encounter problems, such as a "Recognition Failed" error, see Using you scanner's software to scan sheet music for Finale import below).

You may wish to copy and paste the music into a new Wizard-created document for a fast improvement in layout.

For more information, see Scanning in the User Manual.

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