ScanScore - It's a Game Changer for Musicians!
Let’s start from the beginning…
ScanScore is Music Scoring Software developed by an innovative company based in Hamburg, Germany.
I was contacted by someone on the team to review this product. They simply gave me access to the software and paid me for my time – however, in no way am I obliged to write a raving review about their product. My approach to this piece was, “I will provide an Honest Review” about this.
I only accepted the opportunity because the initial idea behind the software enticed me greatly – Digitally Scan Your Sheet Music and turn it into a Midi Composition. As a musician – this could be very helpful if I want to share my music with other people. Granted – I am not that big into using sheet music – however, many of my friends who are also professional musicians use it exclusively. Especially classically trained musicians and jazz musicians.
Nonetheless – as a service to other musicians who have had to endure countless hours transcribing music like a 13th Century Hermit-Monk-type character…the following is an in-depth review of 10-years’ worth of coding and perfecting.
Let’s take a closer look.
Download & Installing
In order to get your own copy of ScanScore – you’ll need to head over to their website. On the landing page they have a little video explaining a bit about the software and an option for a Free Trial if you give them your email.
You can either make an account first or after making a purchase – where you’ll be forced to make one in order to obtain the license.
On the Product Page – you’ll be presented with three options; ScanScore Professional, ScanScore Ensemble & ScanScore Melody each with their respective price points.
I received their PROFESSIONAL License which is what this review will be based on. After having reviewed the software – the MOST VALUED OPTION is the Professional license. I will explain why throughout the rest of this review. However – if you MUST KNOW why – the mere fact that you get many more midi-instruments for $30 more than the previous price point is more than enough motivation to spring the extra cash.
INSTALLATION:
SIMPLE & STRAIGHTFORWARD
STEPS:
BUY, DOWNLOAD, INSTALL, ACTIVATE
First Reaction
Once you have activated the software and open it – you’ll see a very sleek and simple User Interface.
Dead in the Center of the screen you get all of the ways you can import your sheet music whether you implement a traditional scanner, import a PDF document, Import via their ScanScore App or to Open a Project you previously worked on.
The same menu is located right below the “file” option indicating the importance of this navigational feature. Next to this menu – you can find a wide array of options like undo/redo, zoom in/out, layout change, open midi-mixer, play/stop/pause (midi-playback).
Next to this menu still we have another Quick Menu which contains; Select, Drag, Eraser, Note, Accent/Techniques, Text, Clef, Dynamic, and Barlines & Repeats.
As you can see, despite the user interface being very minimal – it does provide you with a wide range of options to choose from. Anyone familiar with photo editing and/or music editing software should be able to pick up on how to use the software rather quickly. It all felt very native to me.
Importing Your Sheet
Since most people do not have access to a Traditional Scanner – and the vast majority of us have access to a mobile device – the most convenient way for me to scan my sheet music was to download the app.
To do this you can head over to their Google Play download link or their Apple Download link.
When you click on “Import Via App” – it will first require you to scan the QR code. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet – the QR code will take you to download page.
NOTE: I managed to link the App to my computer, however, when trying to import from the phone – the ScanScore software prompted me to download an additional script from Github. After I did this – the software worked fine. You may be prompted to download an additional script.
Here you can see the App interface. I found that turning on the flashlight works best as lighting is very important. I’ll show you later on below what I mean about lighting conditions.
Nonetheless – once you have synced your app and your computer software – and done the corresponding script downloads – you’re all set.
Simply open the app – take the pictures you want. IMPORTANT NOTE – you can upload multiple pages per import.
Once the document(s) have been “scanned” – you simply click “upload” and it will automatically sync to your desktop application.
This is where you’d be able to make edits, write in notes, transpose and immediately playback the score.
Below you will see how it looks when it is imported. It’s important to mention that the particular scores I was using was quite complex and since I had poor initial lighting conditions – it didn’t capture all of the notes from the original (left) and transposed it to the ScanScore Doc (right) as you can see in this screenshot.
Irrespective of missing a few barres – it did manage to capture a lot of notes which with subsequential editing can be worked out real quickly. Or – you could always re-take the picture and scan in again. It literally takes no less than 1 minute.
Trouble Shooting
As you can see – this second scan was far more accurate. The first picture (above) was my first attempt. I didn’t realize that lighting conditions were that important.
I found that when lighting conditions aren’t optimal – it’s best to use the flashlight icon for additional lighting. Simply doing this allowed me to get a far clearer image and subsequent auto-scoring.
However – even within this more accurate version – I still noticed some elements missing. Granted – this is a VERY COMPLEX SCORE. Most people will have far fewer elements on a page.
Here you can see some of the minor issues I ran into when it came to automatically-importing the document. For the most part it is very accurate – but these little nuances will appear (at least for the time being) when you do more complex imports. Of course – this could very well be my own newbery in using the software – however, we can assume most people who will be using it for the first time would have my level (or lower) of proficiency when it comes to working with new software.
While these issues are quite minimal in scale, the software will do 95% of the work for you – you’ll still need to “tidy it up” a bit. Nonetheless – any musician that had to suffer the painstaking task of copying sheet music by hand – this will be infinitely faster!
Other Interesting Options
Under the “File” drop down menu – you will find your typical options such as New Project, Open, Import, Save & Export/Print.
However, there are other options such as The Mixer option that allows you to play with a 2-channel mixer where you can select different instruments from the instrument rack.
THIS IS FANTASTIC for composers who want to have an idea how different instruments will sound within their composition. Furthermore – it allows you to hone in on particular sections within the score, transpose it, play with the instrument or simply mute a particular section.
Not to mention – the editing suite for adding music notation is all included within the sub menu. You simply have to select the Music Note icon to open the range of pre-determined music notation icons.
Within this same menu group – you can add text & much more.
I Showed this to a Classical Musician…
While I have been playing music for more than twenty years now – I truly don’t use Sheet Music as much as other musicians/producers do. This is why it was important that not only I review the site – but someone who could find some actual daily benefit from its use.
And so I reached out to the person who got me into music in the first place- one of the best pianists that I know – My mother.
She’s been classically trained and well-versed in sheet music. In fact, the sheet music I imported for this review came from one of her books.
I walked her through the main features of the software and asked what she thought of it.
It’s quite amazing! Sure – it doesn’t capture all of the minor elements within the score, but it does capture most of it. With about five minutes of editing per page – you can have perfectly created sheet music that can be printed out for individual instruments. You just have to be a bit creative. Absolutely fantastic!
Needless to say – she was impressed – as was I. All in all ScanScore is a very good and easy to use piece of software than in the hands of the right people – will make the world of difference.
Personally – I do think that this software has serious potential. While it’s not for the average musician who only knows their Do-Re-Mis, this will probably not be a good investment. HOWEVER – for any musician that utilizes sheet music often, or classically trained musicians that have a lot of scores to lug around – this is a phenomenal option to organize your music repertoire.
I’m sure the minor issues that I ran into will be fixed over time – as they are very minor issues indeed. Probably – the lack of lighting had the biggest influence in translating the import correctly and with more time on the software – I’m sure I’ll be able to make the transitions far smoother in the future.
Final Verdict: ScanScore
Ease of Use
Cost
Is it functional?
Should I Buy it?
Moderately Easy with a small learning curve.
Best value is the Professional License
VERY FUNCTIONAL for people working with sheet music
If you work with sheet music – MOST DEFINITELY!
