Turn a scanned score into music you can edit with Audiveris

A printed part may be perfectly readable while remaining awkward to practise alone. You can follow the notes, but there is no playback button on the page. Turning the scan into musical information gives you a score you can hear, inspect and change.

Audiveris performs optical music recognition: it works from an image of notation. Its learned glyph classifier helps interpret musical symbols; version 5.11.0 added regularisation intended to reduce overfitting. The practical handoff is a MusicXML file that a notation editor can open.[1][5]

This walkthrough follows the documentation checked on 19 October 2026, using Audiveris 5.11.0 and MuseScore Studio 4.7.5. No score was transcribed for this article.[1][6]

Start with one clear page

Install Audiveris from the release assets for your operating system. The Windows, macOS and Linux installers include Java, so a separate Java installation is unnecessary. Install MuseScore Studio from its download page as the receiving editor; its published minimum includes 8 GB of memory.[2][6]

For a first attempt, choose one clearly printed page that you are entitled to use. A familiar solo part makes a useful exercise because you can compare the result with something you already understand. Keep the original scan in the same working folder.

1. In Audiveris, choose File → Input and select the PDF or image. PNG, TIFF and JPEG are also supported.
2. Choose Book → Transcribe book and let recognition finish.
3. Use Book → Save book as to save the recognition project with an .omr extension.
4. Use Book → Export book as to choose the destination for the compressed MusicXML .mxl file.

Keep both outputs. The .omr retains Audiveris’s working information and can regenerate the export; the .mxl is the exchange file for the next program. Exporting does not preserve everything held in the recognition project.[5]

Listen with the paper beside you

Audiveris’s own quick-tour example illustrates what deserves attention: recognition misses a flat sign and a quarter rest. Those are musically consequential omissions. A page that resembles the original can still ask the player to produce a different pitch or rhythm.[4]

In MuseScore Studio, use File → Open to load the .mxl. Use File → Save As and choose Save to computer to retain a native MuseScore project. Give it a name such as flute-part-checked, distinct from the uncorrected exchange file.[7]

Work through a few bars at a time. Compare the key signature, note positions, accidentals, ties and rests with the scan. Listen for a misplaced pitch, but also read the rhythm: a plausible tune can conceal a missing pause. The printed page is the reference for this transcription exercise.

For a missing flat, select the affected note and use the minus key to toggle the accidental, then check its spelling against the page. Up and Down change the selected pitch; Q and W halve or double a selected duration. After any rhythm correction, inspect the whole bar again.[8]

Press Space to start or stop playback. To inspect a passage more slowly, open the Playback speed control and lower its percentage. This changes the listening speed without rewriting the score’s tempo markings. Select a range and enable loop playback to repeat a difficult passage.[9]

Finish with a score you can reopen

Save the checked project. For a reading copy, choose File → Export, select PDF, choose the score or parts to include and click Export. The PDF is for reading or printing; the native project remains the file to reopen for further musical edits.[7][10]

Open the exported PDF and compare its first and last bars with the scan. Then reopen the saved project and play the passage you corrected. You now have two useful results: notation ready to read and musical material ready to practise.

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