I bought Finale planning to import my files from MusicTime. It doesn't work. I bought another package to aid in the transfer. That resulted in more editing than would be required just entering the entire file with a mouse. I'm very disappointed. I've heard good things about Finale but have yet to experience them.
Ah. So you’re blaming Finale because neither your MusicTime files nor your transfer program are working to your satisfaction.
Makes sense to me.
Seriously, why not tell us what the transfer program is, what it’s supposed to do, and how it isn’t working. In addition, please read this:
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/215729367-General-Discussion-House-Rules
A conversion service (not free) : https://www.deepsignalstudios.com/file-conversion/encore-and-musictime-deluxe-enc-and-mus-midi-file (to midi and MusicXML files).
Once upon a time in a galaxy far away…
Early builds of Finale could open Encore 1–3 and MusicTime 1–3 files. This never worked very well and could not open versions 4–5. Finale 2009 was the last version that made the attempt. That was 14 years ago. The last paid upgrade to Encore/MusicTime was to version 5 in 2008.
Encore/Music Time has gone through a number of owners over the years resulting in versions that cannot open older files. Fun? Oh yea. Until my wife accidentally threw out my old Mac G4, I was able to open and convert old files. It had many partitions and versions of the MacOS so that I could figure out what version to open, how to convert and to where till I finally got a version that can be opened in Encore 5.0.7 on my Mac running Mojave, the last OS where the Mac version can work. Encore 5.0.4 for Windows can be made to work still but it is buggy.
Any 3rd party conversion service is limited to being able to open up the old files, bring them up to version 5 and export as MIDI or MusicXML 1.1 (Win) or 1.3 (Mac). Some Text elements will survive but no Lyrics or Expressions — that was never incorporated into Encore.
I have much better luck scanning printouts or pdf into SmartScore 64 Pro and exporting them via MusicXML 3.0 into Finale. Finale owners can acquire SS64P for $199.99 (50% off).. If you want to open old MusicTime/Encores in Finale, this is my recommendation.
https://www.musitek.com/store/Fin2SS64.html
Fast forward to now. Passport Designs is dead as are all the entities that owned Encore/MT. Don Williams, the original developer, has recently bought the IP and has launched Passport Music whose first product will be Encore 6, a 64 bit upgrade that will open Encore 5 and the last version of MusicTime. No word yet on E6 being able to open E/MT files older than 5. Neither is there any word as to when this will be ready; the original December 2022 deadline is long passed. I pop in weekly or aso and answer questions as I can at the new site.
Don also opens Sonic Scores/Overture/Score Writer. Overture 5 cannot open Encore files but Don has promised me that Overture 6 will.
Ernie, there's no such thing as a converter. Clicking the link reveals that someone is offering a conversion service. I pointed out the limitations having offered the same but when my wife threw out my G4 and I gave away my last Windows machine, I lost all interest in offering it again. I can convert Encore/MT 5 files only until I get my new Mac, then I won't be able to convert anything till Encore 6 is released.
I was glad to see that link, though. That studio offers other services that I may use.
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