score

cleaner
1

TUTORIAL and
REFERENCE manual
   3

contents
welcome to scorecleaner.............................................................5
I.ntroduction – What is ScoreCleaner?......................................................................................5
.About this manual................................................................................................................................6
.Prerequisites.............................................................................................................................................6
.Installation..................................................................................................................................................6
.Midi setup..................................................................................................................................................7

tutorial....................................................................................................8
1.  simple – record, clean, print and save.....................................................................8
. ecord.........................................................................................................................................................8
R
.Clean......................................................................................................................................................... 10
.Print and save....................................................................................................................................... 13
2.  arrange – polyphony, overdub and merge....................................................... 15
.Automatic voice separation – voices and chords........................................................... 15
.Overdub – adding voices.............................................................................................................. 19
.Append songs – extend your arrangement....................................................................... 22
3.  musical –
scorecleaner recognizes various musical structures................... 25
.Rubato and syncopation................................................................................................................ 25
Rubato 25, Syncopation 26
.Swing notation and triple division............................................................................................ 28
.Composite meters............................................................................................................................ 30
.Non-metrical structure (free rhythm)................................................................................... 31
.Click-track recording........................................................................................................................ 33
4.  edit – easy, fast and powerful editing................................................................ 36
.Powerful global editing.................................................................................................................... 36
.Changing the Time Signature (song window).................................................................... 36
Changing Note Values 37, Changing Measure Length 38
.Changing metrical phase – Pickup measures..................................................................... 39
.Changing key signature – Key, mode and transpostion................................................ 41
Changing Key and Mode 41, Transpose 43
.Correct mistakes – Changing notes, accidentals and rests......................................... 43
Erase rests 45, Change note 45, Change accidentals – Alterations 45,
Turn note into rest and change rhythm 45
4  contents

REFERENCE............................................................................................ 47

1.  the listener – working with snippets.................................................................. 47

Concepts................................................................................................................................................. 47
The listener window and toolbar............................................................................................. 48
Editing a snippet for cleaning – selection, crop and split snippet............................ 49
Crop 49, Split Snippet 50, The Listener Menu 50, Save, Open snippets
and more options 51
2.  the navigator – finding your way around your music........................ 52
Concepts................................................................................................................................................. 52
The Navigator window................................................................................................................... 52
3.  the song – the musical score document.......................................................... 54
Concepts................................................................................................................................................. 54
The Song window.............................................................................................................................. 54
The Edit menu..................................................................................................................................... 58
More song options............................................................................................................................ 59
4.  the menu bar.......................................................................................................... 60
The Scorecleaner menu................................................................................................................. 60
The File menu...................................................................................................................................... 62
The Edit menu..................................................................................................................................... 64
The Listener menu............................................................................................................................ 64
The Record menu............................................................................................................................. 64
The Window menu........................................................................................................................... 66

keyboard shortcuts.................................................................................................................... 67
Listener.................................................................................................................................................... 67
Navigator................................................................................................................................................ 67
Song........................................................................................................................................................... 68
welcome to scorecleaner
– a new concept for music notation

introduction – What is scorecleaner?

ScoreCleaner is an application that interprets MIDI perform-
ance input and converts it to Standard Western Music nota-
tion. In other words, it performs “automatic transcription”. It
differs from other comparable softwares since it doesn’t re-
quire you to make specific settings of tempo, key signature,
time signature, smallest note value, number of voices etc. – and
that you do not need to use click-track in order to retrieve a
useful notation from your performance.
ScoreCleaner makes a prediction of how a listener might
perceive the structure in the music you play and can thus be
regarded as a “virtual listener and notation assistant”, a listen-
er who is an expert at transcribing music but who doesn’t
know beforehand the pieces you are playing. ScoreCleaner is
based on long-term academic research in music cognition and
has been tested on an extensive body of music showing that
ScoreCleaner is quite successful in transcribing music. How-
ever, music notation is not always a simple, straightforward task
and it is important to realize that there is seldom only one
correct notation of a musical piece, since it depends a lot on
conventions about music notation. When it is possible for a hu-
man listener who does not already know the piece of music to
understand the musical structure, ScoreCleaner will generally
provide a useful transcription that can be used instantly with a
minimum of editing.
6  welcome to scorecleaner

about this manual

This manual contains information of how to download, install
and use ScoreCleaner. Although ScoreCleaner has a very sim-
ple user interface we would strongly suggest that you read the
entire manual and also watch the guided video tour, which
can be found on www.doremir.com/en/products under each
chapter.
This manual is divided into a Tutorial and a Reference sec-
tion. In the beginning of each major section in the Tutorial there
is a ‘Need to know’ - text box, which is all you have to read if
you are eager to get started!

prerequisites
This version of ScoreCleaner runs on Apple Macintosh com-
puters with Intel processors under Mac OS X 10.5 and later,
including Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
You also need a MIDI keyboard (or another MIDI device)
connected to your computer to use ScoreCleaner. If you e.g.
have a digital piano you might need to get a separate MIDI
interface to connect the instrument to the computer.

installation
ScoreCleaner can be downloaded at the following link:
http://www.doremir.com/en/download/

When it is downloaded, open the disk image. Please read the

read me file. Then, drag the application icon to your Applica-
tions folder (or other preferred folder).

When starting ScoreCleaner it will automatically perform ad-

ditional installations: The ScoreCleaner font, Modusnotes, will
be installed.
Drag the ScoreCleaner icon to the dock from the applica-
tions folder if you want to open ScoreCleaner from the dock.
 welcome to scorecleaner   7

midi setup
When the application is installed, open ScoreCleaner by dou-
ble-clicking its icon. You will find preferences under the Score-
Cleaner menu at the top left. Here you can choose the MIDI
input device that is connected to your computer. You can also
choose what output device to use - default is QuickTime GM
Synth (which is a software synthesizer built into Mac OS X).
Now you are ready to use ScoreCleaner.

Choose input
device from the list
and click OK.
TUTORIAL

1. simple – record, clean, print and save

How to notate music in ScoreCleaner:

1. Play
2. Stop recording by pressing the space bar or just wait
3. Double-click on the recorded “snippet” in the Listener
and ScoreCleaner will produce a musical score

record
ScoreCleaner has a very simple, intuitive user interface: Once
you have opened the application and checked that your MIDI
device is connected, just play your keyboard and ScoreCleaner
starts to record. When recording you will see notes appearing
in the listener window. Stop recording by pressing the space
bar or just wait around five seconds and the recording will
stop by itself.
Play a song! Let’s try this one at a moderate tempo, as a
first try: (Alternatively, open Snippet 1 in ScoreCleaner Demo
Files www.doremir.com/en/support/scldemofiles with File>
Open MIDI file > Raw)
 1. simple – record, clean, print and save  9

Stop the recording by pressing the Space bar. As you play, notes
will appear in the Listener window and when you are done
something like the picture below will appear on your screen:

ScoreCleaner menu

The Navigator

Listen to your recording by

clicking on the play button or
by pressing space bar.

The Listener

ScoreCleaner has recorded your playing in the Listener win-

dow, which displays the notes you played and roughly for how
long they sounded in terms of note values.This is called a Snip-
pet in ScoreCleaner. You can listen to your recorded Snippet
by pressing the space bar or clicking on the play button in the
listener window. You can record multiple snippets and a list of
all the snippets is stored in the Navigator window. You can also
edit your snippet in different ways (including deleting a snip-
pet), see Tutorial Chapter 4, Edit.
 10  tutorial

clean
The Listener display of the music is, however, not a useful musi-
cal notation. In order to get a musical score, just double-click
on the Snippet. ScoreCleaner will analyze it – clean it – which
means turning it into a readable musical score.
In a few seconds another window, a Song window, will ap-
pear on your screen, which might look like this:

The Song window

Songs and Snippets
are displayed in the • Time Signature
Navigator. • Tempo
• Key and Mode
• Voices
• Rhythm
• Pickup Measures
• Clefs etc. are auto-
matically assigned
 1. simple – record, clean, print and save  11

ScoreCleaner analyzes your playing and produces a useful

score in Standard Western notation from it. It contains most
of what you need, in order to play the music, Time Signature,
Notes and Rhythm, Tempo, Key and Mode, Voices (in this case
only one), Clefs etc.

4/2 time – double bar length

4/4 time – double bar length

There is generally more than one way of correctly transcribing

a piece of music and it might be that your notation looked dif-
ferently, most likely like one of the two examples above.
The differences in notation can depend on how fast or
how regularly you played. None of the above three notations
is wrong given the very limited information inherent in the
melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. Which one you prefer
might be related to traditions, conventions or personal choice.
Therefore, we have made it very easy to transform the inter-
pretation of the notations, a topic we will return to in Chapter
4, Edit.

Did you not get a notation like the ones above? Try recording
again and think about:

„ Try not to cut phrase ends too much

„ Try not to make abrupt tempo shifts
 12  tutorial

ScoreCleaner models how humans notate music and can suc-

cessfully separate tempo changes like rubato playing from
rhythmic changes, even including considerably ritardando and
accelerando – but it will have a hard time guessing what you
are after if you cut the phrase ends very much or make abrupt
changes in tempo.
If you got a notation with no time signature, ScoreCleaner
has considered your playing to be non-metrical (“free rhythm”),
see Chapter 3, Musical. To avoid this, try being a little straight
with regards to tempo in the beginning of the piece – this
helps ScoreCleaner to interpret the piece as metrical.
Note also that ScoreCleaner analyses the time based on
all the recorded events, so if you play something “free” before
you start playing according to a beat, the entire recording will
be interpreted as non-metrical – skip the free intro or erase it
from the analysis later! (see Reference, Chapter 1).

Tip! You get better results from ScoreCleaner if you

„ Play clearly and distinctly
„ Play with organic musical phrasing
„ Avoid cutting or extending phrase ends to the extreme
„ Avoid abrupt tempo shifts
„ Don’t mix “free rhythm” and tempo. Skip or unselect the
“free intro”
 1. simple – record, clean, print and save  13

print and save

In order to present the music to a performer, you might want

to add some information about the song.
Click on the Song info button in the tool bar of the Song
Window and a pop-up dialogue will appear in which you can
type in basic information about the Song.

Song info

When you have added the information and clicked OK, it will
appear in the Song document, like this:

To print, just choose print from the ScoreCleaner File menu

or use the generic print command -P and a common print
dialogue will appear.
14  tutorial

Save Song in ScoreCleaner

Document format (.scld)
Save selected snippet
as MIDI file (.mid)

Save all Snippets in Listener

as MIDI files (.mid)

For exporting to
other applications

In the File menu there are several options for saving your work
and for exporting it to other applications for further editing.
„ Save Song as ScoreCleaner Document (.scld). This is the
standard format which saves a song document including all
the edits you have performed in the current song window.
You can open a ScoreCleaner document in ScoreCleaner
by double-clicking the document icon in the Finder.
„ Export Current Snippet saves a selected snippet (high-
lighted in the Listener window) the original recording, in
Standard MIDI file format, which can be reopened in i.e.
ScoreCleaner
„ Save all Snippets saves all the snippets in the session listed
in the Navigator and in the Listener to a folder with today’s
date in Standard MIDI file format. This option is very use-
ful when you want to continue working with a project at
another time.
„ Export Song as MIDI saves the current song in Standard
MIDI file format, which can be useful if you want to use
entire songs or voices in a sequencer program.
„ Export Song as Music XML saves the current song in Mu-
sicXML file format, which is especially useful if you need
to make further editing to your score in a more advanced
score editing (music notation) application, since the inter-
pretation made by ScoreCleaner as well as edits made by
you are preserved when opening the file in the other ap-
plication.
   15

2. arrange – polyphony, overdub and merge

How to arrange in ScoreCleaner:

Either
1. Play your arrangement on the keyboard (polyphony) –
ScoreCleaner separates voices from chords, sustained
notes from true voices
2. Add voices to your score by Overdub recording
Extend songs to arrangements by dragging a song from the
Navigator to another Song window

Automatic voice separation – voices and chords

One of the key features of ScoreCleaner is advanced voice
separation, which is deduced from the structure of the music
you play. Play the following simple arrangement of “Twinkle,
Twinkle Little Star”:
Start playing and the notes will appear in the listener. Stop
the recording with the space bar. Double-click and wait a few
seconds for the Song window to appear. (Alternatively, open
Snippet 4 in ScoreCleaner Demo Files www.doremir.com/en/
support/scldemofiles with File> Open MIDI file > Raw)
16  tutorial

Voices

This is a resulting song score from an analysis of a performance

of this arrangement:
Click on the Voices button in the tool bar of the Song win-
dow and the main voices ScoreCleaner have found are dis-
played by different colors. In this case ScoreCleaner has found
three voices, a treble voice, a tenor voice and a bass voice, the
two latter displayed on the lower system. ScoreCleaner is by
default in piano staff mode, which means it places the voices
by register in two staves.
If you want to listen to or print just one or some of the
voices, you can select which voices to view and listen to by
clicking off and on voices in the Voices submenu.

Select which
voices to
display

Since there are really three independent voices in this arrange-

ment you might want to display each voice in separate systems,
in an ensemble staff design.This is useful for instance when you
arrange for an ensemble on the keyboard. You acquire this by
clicking on the Split Staff button to the right on the tool bar:
 2. arrange – pholyphony, overdub and merge  17

Split Staff
displays voices on
separate staves

ScoreCleaner separates typical chordal voices from true po-

lyphony, treating chords as just more notes in one voice. In the
following arrangement of “Twinkle, twinkle” there is just two
main voices, the lower being a chordal voice. (Play yourself or
alternatively, open TwinkleChords.mid in ScoreCleaner Demo
Files www.doremir.com/en/support/scldemofiles with File>
Open MIDI file > Raw)

Chord
voice
 18  tutorial

In improvised keyboard arrangements, there is often a hybrid

between true voices and chords, which is also modeled by
ScoreCleaner. Moreover, sustained notes may be common
which may result in sub-voices, i.e. temporary extensions of
true voices, like in this example. (ScoreCleaner Demo Files,
twinkle_subvoice)

Sub-voice
division

Tip! You can help ScoreCleaner interpret your poly-

phonic arrangement better if you play notes that
you want to belong to the same voice
„ Not too short (more legato than staccato) and
„ not sounding too long after their desired duration (not
extreme legato)
„ The more consistent the voice structure is, the easier it
is for ScoreCleaner to make a useful guess about voice
separation
„ For longer pieces with varying voice structure, like e.g.
sonata movements, it can be a good idea to divide the
recording into sections with similar structure (see Ap-
pend Songs p. 20)
 2. arrange – pholyphony, overdub and merge  19

overdub – adding voices

To add voices to your song is as easy in ScoreCleaner as to
notate music. Just click on the Overdub button in the tool bar
in the Song window and you will hear a click introduction of
two measures. Then you can add a voice by playing along with
the song – still without click-track and without having to do
any settings regarding interpretation!

Overdub button
(-D)

Recording
cursor

New overdub
song

Added
voices

By default ScoreCleaner inserts the added voices in Piano Staff

Layout, which means only two staves, a treble and bass system
of staves, in the current example resulting in a top voice in
the upper system: (Alt. open Twinkle_overdub.scld in Score-
Cleaner Demo Files with Files>Open)
20  tutorial

ScoreCleaner inserts new voices in the staves by register, in-

serting treble voices in the upper staff and bass voices in the
lower system. If you for instance, recorded a voice with a reg-
ister between the melody and the tenor it would have been
placed as a second voice in the upper staff.
ScoreCleaner actually produces a new song window for
each overdub, by default named the original name of the song
followed by the word overdub. The original song is found be-
hind the overdub window. You can always return to your origi-
nal song, without even having to deselect voices.

Deselect Piano Staff Layout

to add new voices into new
staves.

Suppose, however, that you would want to add the new voice
into a new separate staff, for instance if it was to be played
by another instrument. Then you need to deselect Piano Staff
Layout in the Record menu.
If we perform an overdub, adding a similar voice to the
same original Song with Piano Staff Layout deselected it will
appear in a separate staff:

Added
voice
 2. arrange – pholyphony, overdub and merge  21

Note that it is perfectly possible to add more voices at the

same time onto more than one staff, for example adding a
piano accompaniment to a melody.
Moreover, you can continue to overdub and ScoreClean-
er will place the additional voices in system in register order.
Here we have added a chord voice to the previous overdub,
which results in another staff placed between the top voice
and the piano arrangement: (see twinkle_chord_overdub.scld
in ScoreCleaner Demo Files)

Added
chordal voice

You can select which voices to show or hide in the Voices sub-
menu, by clicking on the Voices button in the Toolbar.
22  tutorial

append songs – extend your arrangement

Another way to arrange music in ScoreCleaner is to combine
songs. You do this by appending one song to another: Just
click-drag a song from the Navigator window to the song
you want to append it to, then the two songs will merge. This
is very useful not only for arranging music, but also for exam-
ple when you record and transcribe a song in sections, e.g. an
a- and a b-part separately, or when you would like to create a
repetitive pattern, like an ostinato.
Here is an example in which we will add an introduction to
an arrangement of “Twinkle,Twinkle, Little Star”. We will create
the introduction by selecting a part of the Snippet and “Clean”
it by itself, creating a short song which can serve as the intro-
duction. (Play yourself or open twinkle_overdub_snippet4 by
Files>Open and Snippet 4 by Files>Open MIDI File> Raw).

Original song overdub

1. Select part of snippet

by clicking-drag-release
Original snippet
2. Click Crop to
selection to execute
the selection
 2. arrange – pholyphony, overdub and merge  23

First we selected the two first phrases of the song by click-

dragging over the area we wanted to use as an introduction.
You can listen to the selection by pressing the space bar or
press the Play button. In order to execute the selection and
hide the unselected notes, press Crop to Selection in the Lis-
tener toolbar. Then the unselected notes become greyed out
and you can see the shaded background color delimiting the
selection:
Click and drag the
selection boundary to
change the selection

Active selection Deselected notes

Then double-click on the selection in order to clean just that

bit and you will get a two-bar song from the selection.

NB! It is not unlikely that ScoreCleaner will come up with

an analysis different from that of the entire song, especially if
you make a short selection, in which case you may need to
edit the new voice before continuing.
24  tutorial

Now you got two songs in two different windows, which both
are displayed in the Navigator window by the same name, here
Snippet 4. Adjust the size of the windows so you can see both
of the songs. Then append the original song (the longer one)
by click-dragging it and releasing it on the new one.You will see
a rounded rectangle with a plus sign in the lower right corner
indicating that you append the song.

Original Song Overdub

Click-drag and drop

original from
navigator to new
song to append
New Song Intro

The result becomes a merged song, where the original song is

appended to the first two bars of the new song.
   25

3. musical – scorecleaner recognizes

various musical structures

ScoreCleaner automatically tracks

„ Rubato and Syncopation
„ Swing timing
„ Composite meters
„ Non-metrical music (Free Rhythm)
„ Pickup measures
When accompaniment is missing, use Click-track recording
ScoreCleaner does not generally track change of Time Signa-
ture, Key or Mode

rubato and syncopation

The basic concept of ScoreCleaner is that you should be able
to play musically while you notate your music. However, since
it attempts to model how a listener who is not familiar with
the song you play or the musical style may interpret your mu-
sic, there are constraints to how freely you can interpret the
music.
To get a desired notation from playing in ScoreCleaner, it is
generally more successful to play in a musically clear way with
organic timing than to play absolutely straight, like a machine. It
depends, however on the music you play.
Let us give a few examples, which may serve as hints for suc-
cessful use of ScoreCleaner.

Rubato
We will use Standard MIDI files from the folder ScoreCleaner
Demo Files which can be found on www.doremir.com/en/sup-
port/scldemofiles
26  tutorial

1. O pen the MIDI file twinklewaltz.mid by choosing Open MIDI

File > Raw from the ScoreCleaner Demo Files folder and you
will see the file appearing in the listener as a snippet.
2. Listen to the recorded snippet by pressing the space bar
or choose play from the Listener Tool Bar. As you can hear
the tempo fluctuates quite a lot. It is a lot slower in the
beginning than towards the end and there is a substantial
ritardando at the very end.

3. Double-Click on the snippet (or on the name of the snip-

pet in the Navigator window) and after a few seconds you
will see the notation below (excerpt) in a song window.

Listen to the song by clicking on the Play button in the Song

window and you will hear ScoreCleaners notation of the re-
corded snippet played back. As you can see and hear, Score-
Cleaner has removed all the tempo variations from the nota-
tion. This is an example of ScoreCleaners ability to separate
rhythmic and metrical structure from tempo variation.
 3. musical – various musical structures  27

Syncopation
Another notation problem is syncopation, which means that
you articulate notes that are not on the beats but off-beat,
thus hiding the beat. ScoreCleaner also tracks syncopation,
provided you keep a reasonably straight tempo – it is hard
also for a listener to track syncopation if you don't play with a
steady tempo!
Open the file latin_syncopation.mid in the folder Score-
Cleaner Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw and listen to
the snippet. As you can hear there are a lot of syncopations in
the chord voice. Then double-click on the snippet. In just a few
seconds you will see the analyzed, cleaned score.

When accompaniment is missing, use Click-track recordi

Tip! „ When accompaniment is missing, use Click-track record-

ing
„ ScoreCleaner does not generally track change of Time
Signature, Key or Mode
„ Try to keep a steady tempo when you play syncopated
rhythms
„ Play with natural timing and organic tempo-variations
when playing rubato-style music
„ If you are unsure if the metrical notation is correct, click
on the Click icon in the Song toolbar and you will hear a
click-track when you playback the song
28  tutorial

swing notation and triple division

In some notation styles, such as Jazz notation, it is common not
to display uneven rhythmic divisions of beats as tuplets, but
rather as even eighth notes. This is a notation convention that
has to be set referencely in ScoreCleaner since it differs from
standard notation even though ScoreCleaner in fact automati-
cally detects swing timing in the quantization process.
Open the file swingex.mid in the folder ScoreCleaner
Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw and listen to the snip-
pet. As you can hear it is played with general long-short rhyth-
mization, perhaps moderate swing-feel, but not especially tight.
Then double-click on the snippet. In just a few seconds you will
see the analyzed, cleaned score in a Song window.

If you compare it to the original you will notice that all rhythms
have been quantized to fit with triple division, which is a bit
more uneven than in the original.
In order to have it displayed as Swing notation just click on
the Toggle Swing button in the Song tool bar.
 3. musical – various musical structures  29

As you can see all triplets are erased and the beats are subdi-
vided into ‘even’ eighth notes. Still the syncopated rhythms are
displayed and when you listen to the Song you will still hear
triple division.
Even within other musical styles triple division may be
notated in different ways, according to different conventions.
Therefore, we have made it possible to switch between duple
subdivision and triple subdivision of beats by a single click.
If you first click on the Toggle Swing button again to return
to Triplet notation (duple division) and then click on the Triple
Time you will see the following notation:

Time Signature
change to 12/8
Triple Time button

This will still sound exactly like before.The difference is that the
notation demonstrates a triple subdivision of the beats, indicat-
ing a sub-tactus pulse level.
 30  tutorial

Tip! „ If you get triplets instead of desired eighth notes or vice
versa you can easily convert the notation to your prefer-
ence by using the Toggle Swing and Triple Time com-
mands

composite meters
One feature that makes ScoreCleaner stand out from most
other comparable applications is that it can interpret more
complex metrical structures than the most common time-
signatures within Western music. In many musical styles 5, 7, 9,
10 etc. beats per measure is rather common. Moreover, beats
may be grouped differently in different measures.
Open the file asymmetrical.mid in the folder ScoreCleaner
Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw and listen to the snip-
pet. As you can hear there are only short notes with asym-
metrical accentuation. Then double-click on the snippet. In just
a few seconds you will see the analyzed, cleaned score:

Triple Time button

As you can see and hear ScoreCleaner interprets the beat

grouping according to the grouping indicated by the melody
structure, where the beaming of the notes show the beat-
grouping within the measures, 2+2+2+3 and 3+3+3.
In this case the beat grouping was indicated in the melody
by recurring melodic patterns, but it was also indicated through
the playing by the accentuation. The metrical interpretation is
influenced by your performance, so if you make a clear inter-
pretation it is more likely ScoreCleaner will recognize your
intentions.
 3. musical – various musical structures  31

ScoreCleaner can also, to a limited degree track changes in

Time Signature when it is acomposite meter (subdivided
beats). However, ScoreCleaner is a bit biased towards regular
pulse and regular measures, so if you want to change time, it
is a good idea to record a piece in different sections or use
Click-track recording where the change of Time signature can
be set in advance.

Tip! „ You can help ScoreCleaner recognize asymmetrical beat

patterns by accentuation
„ If you want to record music with changing Time Signa-
tures you can record the Song in sections and use ap-
pend or use Click Track recording (see below)

non-metrical structure (free rhythm)

ScoreCleaner interprets if your recording is likely to be per-
ceived as metrical, i.e. perceived as related to a pulse like
most dance music, or is likely to be perceived as non-metrical
(“phrase-based” or with “free rhythm”), without general met-
rical structure – without pulse. In non-metrical music it feels
unnatural to stomp your feet along with the music.
Non-metrical music is actually more common than you
might think. A lot of vocal music around the world has no
pulse or meter, not to the least chants and religious songs, but
this is also true for some film music, certain modern art music
and music used for relaxation.
Like a human listener, ScoreCleaner, attempts to find a reg-
ular beat and measure level in your music, such as in the “Twin-
kle, twinkle” example, but if ScoreCleaner does not succeed it
assumes that it is non-metrical (’phrase-based’). It then divides
the music into phrases and makes a quantization according to
the phrase structure. Phrase boundaries are displayed as bar
lines.
32  tutorial

Open the file edwards_nonmetrical.mid in the folder Score-

Cleaner Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw and listen
to the snippet. As you can hear there are long notes and or-
namented passages. This is a Swedish traditional herding call
converted to MIDI from an audio recording. Then double-click
on the snippet. In just a few seconds you will see the analyzed,
cleaned score:

”Bar lines” shows

No time signature Phrase boundaries

Metrical status

Listen to the recording. As can be seen in the illustration there

is no Time-signature in the resulting score and Non-Metrical
shows in the lower left corner of the window. If you listen to
the Song, you will hear that the notation is quite close to the
original, with gentle quantization.
Since ScoreCleaner like most human listeners, is biased to-
wards recognizing metrical structures, you may need to use
the command Clean Snippet Non-metrical under the Listener
menu in the ScoreCleaner menu bar to achieve a non-metrical
interpretation.
Most users will on the other hand be surprised by a non-
metrical interpretation of their playing. ScoreCleaner chooses
a non-metrical interpretation when it cannot find a consistent
pulse throughout the recording. In order to avoid a non-met-
rical interpretation try being a little more straight with regards
to tempo especially in the beginning of a piece. If you have a
recording with both free sections and tempo sections, notate
the different sections separately by making selections for analy-
sis in the Listener (see Reference, Chapter 1, The Listener).
 3. musical – various musical structures  33

Tip! „ You can force a Non-metrical interpretation by using the

Clean Snippet Non-metrical command
„ You can usually avoid non-metrical interpretation if you
play a little more straight and do not mix metrical struc-
ture in the same recording – deselect the “free intro”

click-track recording
Although recording without click-track is sufficient for most
situations, there are some musical situations where click-track
recording, i.e. recording in relation to a metronome click, is
needed. This is especially useful when the entire musical struc-
ture does not show in the music which is recorded into Score-
Cleaner, for example if your performance relates to an imag-
ined accompaniment which is not played. It can also be useful
when you play something with a varying or complex metrical
structure or when it is hard to keep a regular tempo through-
out your playing.
Open the file need-click-snippet in the folder ScoreCleaner
Demo Files with Open MIDI File>Raw and listen to the snippet.
As you can hear the metrical structure is somewhat ambigu-
ous.Then double-click on the snippet. In just a few seconds you
will see the analyzed, cleaned score:

However, this snippet was originally conceived in relation to a

3/4-time metronome click, like this:
34  tutorial

ScoreCleaner cannot, like most listeners, arrive at the above

score, since there are not enough structural cues to reveal
the composers intentions and since the structural cues are
ambiguous.
This is a case when it is useful to use click-track recording.
Try this by opening Click-Track Recording from the Record
menu (-R).
Click Track
Recording
Dialogue

Tempo

Additional Time Signatures

Time Signature Beat Grouping Number of measures

Count in

Pickup Measure

The Time Signature fields defines the click-track.You can define

your own Beat Grouping by changing the values in the Beat
Grouping field. You can also add Time Signature shifts by add-
ing more Time Signatures to the beat map by clicking on the +
sign and define the number of measures it will continue before
switching to another Time Signature.
To record our example piece, set Tempo in the Click
Record Dialogue to 144. Click on the choose Time Signature
radio button and select 3/4 from the drop-down menu, then
click in the Beat Grouping field and you will see that it shows
1+1+1/4.
By default you get two measures introduction. However,
you can change this value, as well as if there should be a pickup
measure or not.
 3. musical – various musical structures  35

Try recording the example piece above by clicking on the

Record button and then play (or open the ScoreCleaner doc-
ument need-click-song.scld by choosing Open from the File
menu)
Click on the metronome icon in the Song toolbar and listen
to the song. The perception of the song is quite different when
you hear the accompanying metronome click.

Tip! „ Use Click-track recording when your playing is relating

to a “silent” accompaniment or when you need changing
Time Signatures
36

4. edit – easy, fast and powerful editing

Fast, easy and accessible edit of interpretation of

„ Key and Mode
„ Time Signature
„ Note Values
„ Pickup measures
„ Transpose your music or change tempo according to
your choice
„ Correct mistakes easy by clicking on the note or rest,
erase it or drag it to its desired position

powerful global editing

ScoreCleaner interprets what you play but let’s you decide
which interpretation you prefer. ScoreCleaner allows quick
and simple editing of both recordings in the “listener window”
as well as the interpreted notations. You can choose to only
notate a part of the piece you just played, a great improvisation
for example, and then fuse it with other pieces of notations
using simple drag and drop, adjusting prelude, time signature,
pulse, key and tempo showing your notation with or without
swing timing.
There are basically two types of editing of a song in Score-
Cleaner: editing of ScoreCleaners interpretation and editing
of the music itself. Since ScoreCleaner is designed basically for
playing music and not edit music, the former type is more de-
veloped and offers a unique set of tools.

Changing the Time Signature (song window)

Which Time Signature should be notated is often a matter of
conventions and personal choice. Let us return to the example
of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, that was used as an example in
the previous sections. Open the file Snippet 4 in the folder
ScoreCleaner Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw. Clean by
double-clicking the Snippet in the Listener or double-click the
Snippet in the Navigator window.
 4. editing  37

The resulting analysis of the song gives an adequate but some-

what unusual Time Signature for the song, 4/2. However, it is
likely that you would see Twinkle, Twinkle notated in 4/4 in
music books, which can be achieved either by halving the note
values or reducing the length of the measures. Both these
transformations can be easily done in ScoreCleaner.

Changing Note Values

Let us start with changing the Note values: Click on the Time
Denominator icon in the Song Tool bar and choose Shift Time
Denominator Up.

Shift Time Denominator

changes beat duration,
hence all Note values and the
Time Signature accordingly

Thus you will change the beat duration from half notes to
quarter notes and the Time Signature will change to 4/4. NB.
It is still 4 beats per measure and the tempo is the same, it is
only the note values that are changed.
38  tutorial

Changing Measure Length

The other possible transformation of the interpretation is to
halve the length of the measures, keeping the same note val-
ues. First return to the previous notation by e.g. choosing Undo
Shift Time Denominator from the Edit menu (-Z) or use Shift
Time Denominator Down.
Start by reducing the length of the measure by clicking the
Time Numerator button in the Song Tool bar and choose Shift
Time Numerator down twice. (⌥⇧ 2).

Shift Time Numerator changes

the number of beats per measure

But we have still half notes as beat. To change this, click on

the Beat Density button in the Song Tool bar and choose .
This means that there will be four instead of two beats per
measure.

Changing Beat Density changes the

frequency of beats per measure,
hence the Tempo and Time signature

Now there are four beats per measure, and since the Beat
Density is double what it was before the tempo is doubled.
However, the song still sounds exactly the same. We have only
changed the notation. In order to hear the change we can use
 4. editing  39

the Click button in the Song Tool bar which makes the change
in interpretation audible – it clicks twice as many times per
measure as before.

Tip! „ Shift Time Denominator changes beat duration, hence all

Note values and the Time Signature accordingly
„ Shift Time Numerator changes the number of beats per
measure
„ Changing Beat Density changes the frequency of beats
per measure, hence the Tempo and Time signature
„ You can mostly change ScoreCleaners interpretation of
Time and Rhythm according to your preference with a
few commands instead of making another recording
„  Use Keyboard shortcuts to make fast and easy edits (see
Keyboard shortcuts)

changing metrical phase – pickup measures

ScoreCleaner automatically, and for the most part correctly,
tracks Pickup measures. Open the file OhSusannah.mid in
ScoreCleaner Demo Files by using Open MIDI File > Raw from
the File menu and Double-Click to Clean it or Play it yourself.

However, even very well known songs can be ambiguous with

regards to pickup measure interpretation. Open the file Clem-
entineI_nopickup.mid in ScoreCleaner Demo Files by using
Open MIDI File > Raw from the File menu and Double-Click
to Clean it.
40  tutorial

However consistent with the performance this is not how

“Oh my darling Clementine” is notated originally. The two first
notes should be an upbeat to the downbeat, and belong in a
pickup measure.
To change this, just click the Metrical Phase button in the
Song Tool bar and choose twice or, preferably, use the key-
board shortcut command ⌥ 6.

Shift Metrical Phase moves all bar lines

If you listen to the Snippet (select it in the Listener and press

Space bar) you will hear that the performance actually indi-
cates the erroneous Metrical Phase. You can help ScoreClean-
er interpret your intentions by accentuating the downbeats,
as in the example clementine2.mid (Choose Open MIDI File
> Raw and select clementine2). More often than we usually
think, it is actually possible to interpret metrical structure in
different ways and since ScoreCleaner do not know any songs,
it will make its interpretation based on your playing and the
structural cues in the music.
 4. editing  41

Tip! „ Shift Metrical Phase moves all barlines

„ You can help ScoreCleaner track your interpretation of
Metrical Phase by accentuating downbeats when the
rhythmic structure is ambiguous with regards to meter
„ It is very easy and quick to change metrical interpretation

changing key signature

– key, mode and transpostion
ScoreCleaner has an advanced automatic tracking of Mode
and Key Signature for Major and Minor modes. However,
sometimes the information in the Snippet can be too limited
or ambiguous for ScoreCleaner to arrive at the desired Key
and Mode interpretation.

Changing Key and Mode

Open the file twinkle_var_key.mid in the folder ScoreCleaner
Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw. Listen to the Snippet.
As you can hear it is somewhat ambiguous regarding key and
mode, indicating one mode in the beginning and another to-
wards the end. Double-click to clean it.
42  tutorial

Key and Mode indicators

The resulting analysis indicates E as the Key and Minor as

Mode. This is, however, not likely to be consistent with any
of the two most probable alternative conceptions of key and
mode, namely D major (beginning) or B minor (end).
We can easily change this by using the Change Key button
in the Song Tool bar. Press the Change Key button and choose
e.g. Major Key > D Major. The result shows here:

Change Key Signature

Key and Mode indicators

As you can see what happens is that you change the interpre-
tation of the Key and Mode, nothing more.This means that the
Key Signature in the beginning of the staves change, temporary
accidentals disappears and the Key and Mode indicator in the
lower left corner of the window change.
 4. editing  43

Transpose Transpose button

However, changing Key can imply something completely dif-
ferent, namely to the music according to a shift of Key. Say, for
instance, that you want to transpose this piece from D Major
to Eb Major. To do that, you simply click on the Transpose but-
ton in the Song Tool bar and choose Up > Eb Major.

Key and Mode indicators

Note that there are no minor keys available when the original
mode is major. To change to a minor key, start by swapping
mode by using the Change Key button (or Swap mode com-
mand in the Edit menu) and then Transpose.

Tip! Change Key and Mode via the Change Key button before
using Transpose if you want to transpose the music from a
major key to a minor key or vice versa
44  tutorial

correct mistakes
– changing notes, accidentals and rests
We all make mistakes, especially when we are playing some-
thing for the first time. Sometimes changing a single note can
make the whole difference between a good piece and a bad
one.Therefore, we have made it easy to correct individual mis-
takes in ScoreCleaner, including changing and deleting notes
and rests. The general approach is to click on the event (note
or rest) you want to change to select it and then edit it.
Open the file twinkle_mistakes.mid in the folder Score-
Cleaner Demo Files with Open MIDI File > Raw. Listen to the
Snippet. As you can hear it has some odd notes, which we will
change in this exercise. Double-click to clean it.

Wrong accidentals

Unnecessary rests “Wrong” notes “Wrong” rhythm

(erase note)

We have marked a number of typical “errors” that you can

correct.
 4. editing  45

Erase rests
To erase the unnecessary rests, click on each rest and press
backspace ←. As you can see the rests disappear and the previ-
ous note is prolonged.

Change note
Change the erroneous note in the second bar by clicking on it,
then drag it one step up to an a. You hear the notes when you
drag the notes vertically. Make a similar change to the c natu-
ral in the first measure in the second system of staves. Note
that when simply dragging a note it adapts to the current Key
Signature.

Change accidentals – alterations

Change the b flats in treble and bass staff in the first measure
to b natural, by pressing the alt-key (⌥) while dragging the note
upwards. Note that you can also get double sharps and double
flats if you continue to drag further than the sharps and flats. If
you click on the stem of the chord notes in the bass system all
notes will be selected – click only on the note head to select
only b flat. Selecting all notes in a chord is useful when you
want to delete all notes with a single key stroke.
You can also make quarter tone alterations by holding shift
+ alt (⇧⌥) while dragging the note head vertically.

Turn note into rest and change rhythm

By pressing backspace ← repeatedly you can actually change
the rhythm. Select the f sharp enclosed by a ring in the last
measure in the first system of staves and press backspace. First
the note turns into a rest. If you press a second time the rest is
erased and the previous note is prolonged.
 46  tutorial

When making local edits you might want to listen only from
a certain point in the score. You can select the starting point
for the play back by pressing the alt-key, ⌥ while you click at
certain note in the score. After a few more edits you can end
up with a notation that looks like this:

Alt-click in the score to select

starting-point for playback

Tip! „ You can easily correct mistakes by dragging notes in verti-

cal direction or using the backspace key when notes are
selected
„ Remember that dragging with the alt-key press gives
alterations
„ Use the alt-click to listen from a certain point in the
score
REFERENCE
– all about the scorecleaner
user interface

1. the listener – working with snippets

concepts
The Listener records your playing when ScoreCleaner is open.
This means that even if another application is active the Lis-
tener will activate as quick as you start playing.This way, you do
not have to activate ScoreCleaner to save your ideas.
A recording in the Listener is termed Snippet. It is a per-
formance MIDI recording (“Raw” MIDI), which means it records
your playing with a milliseconds accuracy (equals 440 beats per
second). The notes in the Snippet are only rough indications of
note values in order to help you edit your Snippet.
In ScoreCleaner a Snippet is the raw material which is used
for turning your playing into a score, the latter termed Song in
ScoreCleaner.The process of analyzing the Snippet into a Song
score is called Clean.
All the Snippets you record during a session are displayed in
the Listener. Which Snippet is active at the moment is showed
by a grey-blue background shade. You can navigate between
snippets by arrow keys.)
You can save one Snippet or all snippets – your perform-
ances – for later analysis. This is especially useful when you are
working with a composition or arrangement and do not know
yet which parts you want to use later. You can open a perform-
ance MIDI file in the listener by choosing Open MIDI file > Raw
under the File menu.
You can also edit a Snippet in a few different ways, and
listen to the Snippet when the Listener window is active. Snip-
pet edits can be made within the Listener Tool bar and via the
Listener Menu in the ScoreCleaner menu bar.
48  reference

the listener window and toolbar

Crop to Selection
(requires selection)

Hide/Show Icons

Play button Click Track Recording

Deactivate/Activate Split Snippet
Listener Recording (requires Split point)

Time (minutes:seconds)

Select Snippet – simply by clicking on it (see also Navigator)

Active – The Listener is active by default and records every-
thing you play on your MIDI instrument when connected.
You can turn off recording in Listener e.g. for rehearsal by
clicking the Active icon (-L).
Stop recording – A recording stops by default after a silence
of about 5 seconds. However, you can stop a recording by
pressing the space bar.
Play – Playback the active snippet by clicking the Play button or
press space bar. The Play button and space bar also stops
the playback.
Playback from chosen position – Select Playback starting point
by pressing the alt key (⌥) while clicking in the active snip-
pet. Then click on the Play button or use space bar.
Crop to Selection and Split Snippet – see below.
Click Track – opens the Click Track Recording dialogue, in
which you can make settings for your Click Track (Metro-
nome Click). In order to Record with Click Track press the
Record button in the Click Track Dialogue.
Hide/Show Icons – by clicking on this button. You can change
how and which Icons are displayed by right-clicking (or ctrl-
click) in the Listener Tool bar.
 1. the listener  49

Clean – Clean (Analyze) the snippet into a Song (Score) by

double-clicking on the Snippet.

editing a snippet for cleaning

– selection, crop and split snippet
It is easy to select a part of a Snippet for Analysis. This is very
useful if you for instance happen to play something that should
not be included in the score or if you want to use only a sec-
tion of what you have been playing in the analyzed score.

Crop
There are two ways of making a selection of a Snippet for
Cleaning:
1. Drag the outer boundaries of the Snippet into the Snippet.
The unselected notes will be greyish, showing that they are
not part of the selection.

Deselected notes

Crop Snippet by
moving its boundaries

2. M
 ake a selection by click-dragging an area. The selection
shows by a blue color. Then choose Crop to selection to
confirm the selection and deselect the other notes.

2. Confirm selection
by Crop to Selection
1. Make a selection by
click-dragging over an
area
50  reference

Note that you can also increase or reduce the area of the se-
lection by click-dragging its boundaries before choosing Crop
to Selection. Also, the playback command adapts to the se-
lected area so you can check your selection by listening before
Crop.
You can also undo the selection by the generic Undo com-
mand -Z or select all of the current snippet by -A.

Split Snippet
In addition you can Split a Snippet into separate Snippets. This
is very useful when you have e.g. different metrical structure
within your Snippet, such as one section without pulse (Non-
metrical) and one section with a regular beat (Metrical). Score-
Cleaner cannot (so far) detect changes in metrical structure
and hence the analysis will produce a poor result.
To Split a Snippet first choose the Split point by alt-clicking
at the point where you want to split. You can check that the
point is correct by listening since the playback starts from the
marker. Then choose Split and you will get two different snip-
pets, named according to the original snippet.

You can undo this by the generic Undo command -Z.

The Listener Menu

You can find the Listener menu in the Score-
Cleaner menu bar..
  In the menu there are yet some useful op-
tions and it does also display the short-cut
commands such as  ↑ for Clean Snippet
which can be used instead of Double-Click.
 1. the listener  51

Clean Snippet Non-Metrical – forces Non-metrical analysis

of Snippets. Since metrical interpretation is more common
ScoreCleaner analysis is biased towards metrical interpre-
tation, and this option is useful if you prefer a phrase-based
analysis of your music.
Zoom In/Zoom Out – is useful when you edit long snippets
and especially using the  + and  - short-cut com-
mands.
Select All of Current Snippet – is useful when you edit selec-
tions of snippets and want to restart.
Delete Snippet and Delete All Snippets is useful for keeping a
clean work space.
Active – has the same function as the Active button in the
Listener Tool bar and is set to Active by default.

save, open snippets and more options

When a Snippet is selected in the Listener you can save it by
choosing Export > Export Current Snippet in the File menu. It will
be saved as a Standard MIDI File Type 1, which can be opened in
ScoreCleaner or another application. NB. It will not contain the
Cleaned Score, but is a replica of your performance.
You can also save all Snippets by choosing Export > Save
All Snippets in the File menu. This is very useful when you work
with a project and want to make further edits or if you just
want to save your session for later. ScoreCleaner will then cre-
ate a folder with todays date and save all snippets within this
folder.
In order to open a saved Snippet or another MIDI file as a
Snippet in the Listener, choose Open MIDI file > Raw in the File
menu. It will then appear in the Listener window and will be
analyzed from scratch when you Clean the file.
You can also name, navigate between and clean snippets in
the Navigator window, which will be covered under Naviga-
tor.
Hide the Listener window by deselecting Listener from the
Windows menu. N.B This does not mean that any of your snip-
pets will disappear, they just don’t show. (Later you can choose
to open the Listener again.)
52 

2. the navigator
– finding your way around your music

Concepts
When composing or arranging the number of Snippets and
Songs can soon become quite substantial during a session. The
function of the Navigator is to help you navigate among your
Snippets and Song and it gives you a good overview of your
session.
The Navigator can also be used for Cleaning and most im-
portantly for combining songs when arranging.

the navigator window

SONGS Select and Show Song and Snippet by

click. Step between with arrow keys.
Append one song to another by drag
and drop to a Song window.

SNIPPETS
Clean Snippet by double-click

Click once to name Snippet

Total duration of the

Snippet/Song (m.ss)

As soon as there are Snippets or Songs they will appear in

the Navigator. The total duration of the Song and Snippet is
displayed in minutes and seconds.
When a Snippet is selected in the Navigator it will be se-
lected and displayed in the Listener. When a Song is selected
the Song window will appear as the top window among the
open Songs.

Step between Snippets and Songs in the list by pressing the

arrow keys – up/down once a Snippet or Song is selected.
 2. the navigator  53

Clean a Snippet by double-clicking the name of the Snippet in

the Navigator.
Name Snippets by clicking once on the Snippet in the Naviga-
tor and type a name. N.B. This name only applies to the
current session and is not saved when you save Snippets.
Append a Song to another Song by drag and drop from the
Navigator to the Song window you want to append the
song to. Make sure the target Song is visible on the screen.

Append one song to another by drag

and drop to a Song window.
54 

3. the song – the musical score document

Concepts
The Song is the cleaned Score. You can have multiple Songs
open at the same time, which is useful for example when you
arrange music.
The Song window is where you make edits to your music
including making additional recordings, for example when you
add voices by the overdub command. In principle, the Snippets
are only serving as raw material for Songs – once you have a
Song, that is where you will work with your music.
When you choose Save Song it is saved in ScoreCleaner Doc-
ument file format (.scld), which means all of your edits will be
saved when you open the Song the next time.
The Song can also be exported in Standard MIDI File or
Music XML file formats, when you need to use the cleaned
Score in another application.
What is displayed on the screen and what sounds when
playing back a Song is one and the same, the notation.Thus, the
Song does not contain your original recording.
What you see on the screen is also what you will get when
you print the Song by choosing print from the File menu.

the song window

Song Name Hide/Show Icons
The Song Tool Bar

Hoover the mouse over the

button to see explanation

Select notes by clicking (green color)

Key and Metrical status

The Song window displays the cleaned Score and it displays

additional information such as Key, Mode and Metrical status in
the lower left corner of the window.
 3. the song  55

The Song Tool bar contains a number of buttons which

correspond to different actions. Most of these actions can also
be accessed through the menu or by Short-cut commands.
The Icons in the Song Tool bar can be hidden by clicking the
hide/show icons button in the upper right corner of the Song
window.
More elaborate explanations of how to use these com-
mands can be found in the tutorial in the previous chapters. In
the following we will only briefly describe the functionality.
You can undo edits made in the Song window by using
Undo in the Edit menu or use the Undo short-cut command
-Z.
To see what the different Icons in the Song Tool bar does,
just hoover the mouse pointer over the Icon text.

Play – Playback the Song as it is displayed in the Score (except

swing notation, see below) Alternatively, press Space bar.
When playing the same button/command stops playback.
Select Playback starting point by alt-click in the Score.
Overdub – record additional voices. You will get a count-in
and then you can play along with your Score which re-
sults in new voices added to your score. See also Overdub
menu below and Tutorial. Chapter 2, Arrange. By default
Overdub is in Piano Staff Layout, meaning that additional
voices will be inserted in either the Treble or Bass staff. You
can change this by deselecting Piano Staff Layout in the
Record menu. Overdub stops currently when the original
song ends. (-D).
Click – A metronome click sounds when you playback the
Score. This corresponds to the current Time Signature,
Tempo and Beat Grouping, a high sound denoting Down
beats.
Voices – Clicking on the Voices button displays the Voices
submenu, where it is possible to deselect/select voices for
inclusion in the score. Different voices show in different
colors in the score. Hidden voices won’t display, print or
sound when playback, but they are not erased from the
Song. This way you can easily print separate parts from a
single Score.
56  reference

Note that temporary extensions of a voice which is termed

sub-voice in ScoreCleaner, for example sustained notes which
makes up a separate secondary voice, are not displayed in the
Voices sub-menu.

Set Tempo – Set the tempo of the Score. This will affect play-
back as well as tempo when you e.g. export the Song as a
Standard MIDI file. (-T).
Change Key – Change ScoreCleaners interpretation of Key
and Mode. See also Tutorial, chapter 3 and below the Edit
menu. Note that it does not change any notes, only the ap-
pearance in the score and the Key/Mode status. It will still
sound exactly the same.
Time Numerator – Increase or decrease the measures by the
number of beats per measure, given the same beat tactus,
e.g. 4/4 to 5/4. It does not change the sound of the score,
but the measures will expand to include more beats and
vice versa. (⌥⇧-2 and 8).
Time Denominator – Increase or decrease the beat and all
note values correspondingly. Shift Time Denominator Up
changes the Time Signature from e.g. 4/4 to 4/8 and all note
values will be reduced to half their value. The tempo sign
will be changed accordingly. The Score will still sound the
same when playing back. This command is useful for choos-
ing an appropriate note and beat value. (⌥-2 and 8).
 3. the song  57

Metrical Phase – Move the music in relation to the bar lines

(or if you prefer the opposite way around) according to
beats. Move Metrical Phase Right will move the music to
the right (the bar lines to the left). This command is essen-
tial for changing upbeat interpretation. The difference can
be heard if you turn on the Click while playing back. (⌥-4
and 6).
Beat Density – Increase or decrease the number of beats per
measure keeping the length of the measure constant. If you
for instance choose Double Beat Density 4/4 becomes 8/8.
Once again, the Song still sounds the same, but you can
listen to the difference by turning on the Click when Playing
back the score. (See Tutorial, Chapter 4 Edit.)
Triple Time – Change the division of the beat from Duple to
Triple Time or vice versa. Changing from Duple to Triple
time means that the beats become punctuated, for exam-
ple a 2/4 time becomes 6/8 and all notes prolonged with
half their original value. The opposite way around turns tri-
ple divided eighth notes into triplets. This is useful, since it
is often a matter of convention if you want to notate your
score as e.g. 6/8 or 2/4 time.
Toggle Swing – Display triplet notes as ‘even’ eighth notes,
which is applicable e.g. for jazz notation. This option is only
active when ScoreCleaner has found consistent swing tim-
ing, i.e. when there is an underlying long-short division of
beats which is not too acute, which ScoreCleaner by de-
fault displays as triplets although it is usually not that big
difference between the notes. When clicking Toggle Swing
triplets are erased and substituted for even eighth notes.
(-J). However, triplet division of beats is still used for play-
back. (See also Tutorial, Chapter 3, Musical.)
Transpose – Transpose the score , i.e. all notes, according to
Key Signature up or down within an octave. If you for in-
stance transpose a score in C major up to D major, all
notes will be transposed a second up and Key Signature
will change accordingly, meaning that temporary acciden-
tals will be preserved. This command is not a change of
ScoreCleaner’s interpretation but a real edit of the Song
content.
58  reference

Split Staff – Displays each genuine voice (not sub-voices) on

a separate staff, thus turning a Piano Staff System into a
Grand Staff system. This is useful for turning a piano ar-
rangement into for example a Choir staff system.
Song Info – When clicking on the Song Info button you can
type in the Title of the Song, the Composer, the Instrument
and decide whether File name, File date and Page num-
bers should be displayed in the print-out of the Score. Title,
Composer and Instrument will be displayed in the song
window, while remaining information only shows in print.

Song Info

the edit menu

Most of what you can do by clicking the but-
tons in Song Window Toolbar is also acces-
sible via the Edit menu and often also via
keyboard shortcut commands.
  Almost all of the actions in the Edit menu
can be found in the above listing of the Song
window Toolbar Icons. Please read them for
an explanation.
Keyboard
The only exceptions are Shortcuts
Swap mode – Change from Minor to Major
mode or vice versa.
Shift Key Signature Up – Changes the Key
Signature along the circle of fifths to-
wards the sharps, which implies that a
 3. the song  59

click results e.g. in a shift from D Major to A Major (adding

sharps, reducing flats).
Shift Key Signature Down – Changes the Key Signature along
the circle of fifths towards the flats, which implies that a
click results e.g. in a shift from D Major to G Major (reduc-
ing sharps, adding flats).

more song options

In the File menu you can open, close, export and print song
documents (as well as saving and opening Snippets, see below
under File Menu).
In the Record menu you can make Overdub settings and
deselect/select Piano Staff Layout.
In the Windows menu, like in the Navigator, you can select
the active Song.
60 

4. the menu bar

the scorecleaner menu

The ScoreCleaner menu contains general settings and infor-

mation as well as the generic Mac OS X commands for hiding
and quitting the ScoreCleaner Application.

The About ScoreCleaner window shows which version of

ScoreCleaner you possess and information about Licensed
software as well as the License agreement for ScoreCleaner.
 4. the menu bar  61

The ScoreCleaner Preferences window displays your current

MIDI Setup. The devices you have connected to your compu-
ter show as a list when you click on the double-arrow sign in
the Input and Output button. By default ScoreCleaner uses
the built-in QuickTime GM Synthesizer for output sounds, but
if you have a different MIDI setup you might want to change
this.

The License window is useful if you have downloaded a trial

license and want to buy ScoreCleaner or when you have pur-
chased ScoreCleaner and received a license code, which can
be registered by clicking the Register license button.
62  reference

the file menu

Open ScoreCleaner Songs (.scld)

Open Standard MIDI files (see below)

Save Songs in ScoreCleaner

Document file format (.scld)

Export as Standard MIDI file or

Music XML (se below)

Clean all MIDI files in folder

Add Song Info (Title etc.)

With the standard Open and Save commands in ScoreCleaner

you can open and save Songs in ScoreCleaners internal format,
ScoreCleaner Document (.scld). You can also open a Score-
Cleaner document in Finder simply by double-clicking on the
icon.
With the Open MIDI File command you can import Stand-
ard MIDI Files of type 0 and 1 into ScoreCleaner. When you
choose to do that you are faced with two options.

Either you choose Open MIDI File > Raw... which means open-
ing an unquantized (“Raw”) performance MIDI file as a Snippet
in the Listener space. This is when you want to clean/analyze
the MIDI file from scratch, including analysis of its voices.
Or, if you have created and quantized the MIDI file in
ScoreCleaner or another software and just want to display
it in ScoreCleaner, e.g. for using it in an arrangement, you can
choose Open MIDI File > Cleaned and the MIDI file will be
converted into a Song. Then ScoreCleaner represents it as it
was created, with the addition of Tuplet interpretation.
Export is for exporting Snippets and Songs as Standard
MIDI Files of type 1 or in MusicXML format.
 4. the menu bar  63

Save Songs in ScoreCleaner

Document format (.scld)
Save selected snippet
as MIDI file (.mid)

Save all snippets in Listener

as MIDI files (.mid)

For exporting to other

applications

As mentioned before, Save All Snippets can be a very good

thing to do when you are working with a project since it cre-
ates a folder where all the Snippets in the current session are
saved as separate MIDI files which you can continue to work
with later.
When exporting a Song as MIDI some of the information
that is inherent in a Song Document will disappear, since MIDI
does not allow for e.g. beat grouping to be saved. However, it
can be useful if you want to use a voice in e.g. a sequencer pro-
gram. You can choose which voices should be saved. NB. MIDI
does not make any difference between sub-voices and true
voices which means you can end up with a lot more voices in
your exported MIDI file than in the original Song.
Export Song as MusicXML is a good choice if you want
to continue to edit your Song in another Notation Software
that can import MusicXML format, which means voices, beat
grouping, Song Info etc. will be preserved.
Batch Analysis means ScoreCleaner will clean all MIDI files
in a folder. This is especially useful if you have saved a number
of Snippets in a folder and want to continue to work with
them.
Song Info can be added here as well as by clicking the Song
Info button in Song Toolbar. The Print command lets you
print a Song. N.B. You cannot print Snippets.
64  reference

the edit menu

See Reference, Chapter 3 The Song – the musical score docu-
ment-

the listener menu

See Reference, Chapter 1 The Listener – Working with Snip-
pets.

the record menu

The Record menu contains a few commands and settings use-

ful for Recording.
Record with Click Track is for recording a Snippet with
Click Track, i.e. play in relation to a Metronome click. This topic
is covered in depth in Tutorial, Chapter 3 – Section Click Track
recording.
 4. the menu bar  65

Click Track
Recording
Dialogue

Tempo

Additional Time Signatures

Time Signature Beat Grouping Number of measures

Count in

Pickup Measure

In order to record with click-track, which is useful when you

play in relation to a ‘silent’ accompaniment, you need to define
Time Signature, Tempo, Number of Introduction bars (count
in) and if it should be a Pickup bar or not.
Then press Record and you will hear a click. Remember that
whatever you play before the Introduction is heard will not be
recorded. Note that it is possible to specify Beat Grouping and
a have changing Time Signatures in the click track, by adding
more Time Signatures and specify the number of measures
each Time Signature should apply.
66  reference

Overdub is only possible in a Song. See Tutorial, Chapter 2,

Arrange and Reference, Chapter 3, The Song – the musical
score document for in-depth explanation of the subject. How-
ever, in the Record menu you find Overdub settings and the
Piano Staff Layout toggle command, which is useful for Over-
dub recording.

The Overdub Settings dialogue lets you specify the number

of bars for Count-in, during which a Click is heard. The Click is
derived from the current Song.You can also specify if you want
to hear a Click while overdubbing.
Piano Staff Layout specifies if ScoreCleaner should place
additional overdub voices within a Piano Staff system or not.
It is selected by default, which means you can create a Piano
Score by playing in each voice separately. ScoreCleaner will
place the voices on the two systems by means of register, from
the highest to the lowest.
If you want to place voices on separate staves, Piano Staff
Layout should be deselected, which makes ScoreCleaner cre-
ate new staves for additional voices when you overdub. The
added staves are inserted in relation to the register of the
voices from the highest to the lowest.

the window menu

In the Window menu you
choose to hide/show Listener
and Navigator and choose
which song document is active.
   67

keyboard shortcuts
Listener

Action Command

Play/Stop Space Bar

Insert Split Point/Playback Start Point Alt-Click in Snippet
Scrub Playback Alt-Click-Drag in Snippet
Clean Snippet Double-Click or Cmd-↑
Clean Snippet Non-Metrical Shift-Cmd-↑
Save Current Snippet Ctrl-Cmd-S
Toggle automatic Listener recording (Active) Cmd-L
Record With Click-Track Cmd-R
Save All Snippets Ctrl-Alt-Cmd-S
Open MIDI file in Listener Shift-Cmd-O
Delete Snippet Cmd-⌫
Delete All Snippets Shift-Cmd-⌫
Zoom In Cmd-+ or t
Zoom Out Cmd-– or r
Select All of Current Snippet Cmd-A
Hide/Show Listener Cmd-0
Undo Cmd-Z
Step between Snippets Cmd – Left/Right arrows

Navigator

Action Command

Clean Snippet Double-Click

Step between Songs/Snippets Up/Down arrows
Hide/Show Navigator Cmd-1
68  keyboard shortcuts

Song

Action Command

Play/Stop Space Bar

Insert Split Point/Playback Start Point Alt-Click
Scrub Playback Alt-Click-Drag in Song
Save Song Cmd-S
Save Song As... Shift-Cmd-S
Export Song as MIDI Ctrl-Alt-Cmd-S
Open Song Cmd-O
Add Song Info Cmd-I
Print Song Cmd-P
Overdub Cmd-D
Overdub Settings Shift-Cmd-D
Change Tempo Cmd-T
Shift Metrical Phase Left Alt-Cmd-4
Shift Metrical Phase Right Alt-Cmd-6
Shift Time Numerator Up Alt-Shift-Cmd-8
Shift Time Numerator Down Alt-Shift-Cmd-2
Shift Time Denominator Up Alt-Cmd-8
Shift Time Denominator Down Alt-Cmd-2
Display in Swing Notation Cmd-J
Select Note/Rest Click
Change Note to Rest, Delete rest and prolong
  previous note Backspace
Change Scale Degree Click-Drag vertically
Change Accidental (semitone) Alt-Click-Drag vertically
Change Accidental (quartertone) Alt-Shift-Click-Drag vertically
© 2011 Sven Ahlbäck, DoReMIR Music Research AB
Grafisk form: Bitte Granlund/Happy Book