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I’m hoping that you have this resolved. If not, feel free to email me or Andre for a download link. Like everyone, I get tons of junk mail but I do check my spam filters. Please put something in the title like “Need Encore Link” so that I don’t delete requests accidentally. The folder contains Mac and Windows versions plus some troubleshooting documents that I got from Richard a lifetime ago.
Specific support questions for these old versions should be asked on this forum so that the questions and answers benefit everyone. Since I haven’t owned a Windows computer in years, I tend to answer Mac questions only.
is there any chance that Encore will open Overture files directly or will it be necessary to use the MusicXml format?
Don and I have been discussing the logistics for the upcoming Encore 6 release and this question came up. Overture has more functionality than Encore. There are plans for an Overture update that will open Encore files but Encore 6 will be released first.
Encore 6 is coming along and I’m getting excited. When he asked what app I use for quick choral, praise band, lead sheets and Christmas charts, I answered that I open my 2012 MacBook Pro and do them in Encore 5.
Only the blue enhanced line is a quote, the following lines are Mike’s reply
Exactly. To do the same, copy the line(s) you wish to quote. Now paste them into a Reply, highlight and select B-QUOTE from the top menu. Now type your remarks below. Submit and your quote will be in blue.
I discovered an (apparently) amateur program (Harmony Assistant).
I tried it recently. Unlike the constant suggestions on the old board, I see that this version actually opens Encore 5 files with much of the information intact.
I’m glad you like it but there are way too many deficiencies for me to be able to stand it. It’s less work to open PDFs of my Encore files in PDFtoMusic Pro 2 and export to Finale via MusicXML 3.0 than it is to correct/edit my scores in Harmony Assistant and go from there—way too fiddly for me. The $95 price is the only thing that I liked about it.
I am still looking forward to Encore 6 and hope that I can do my next Christmas Book in it. For that, lead sheets and my choral work, Finale is way overkill but Harmony Assistant ain’t it for me.
I have a 2017 Macbook Air running High Sierra 10.13.6, with 8 GB of memory. It would be great to get the dropbox link.
Either update it to Mojave or create an APFS Volume, Download Mojave from the App Store and install it on that Volume.
Add, delete, or erase APFS volumes in Disk Utility on MacRemove the spaces and decode the email address and I will reply with the link.
The problem you describe first appeared in macOS High Sierra 10.13.0. Apple was the culprit. The font issue was resolved in 10.13.01 released a few days later but one has to reset the fonts in any file opened in 10.13.0.
There are other problems such as measure endings that were never resolved in High Sierra but were resolved by Mojave 10.14.4. Mojave requires a metal graphics compatible Mac built between 2012–2018 — doesn’t run on anything built earlier or later. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that runs Encore and little else.
The last build of Mojave is 10.14.6 To take advantage of this, you must be running Encore 5.0.7 build 5.0.6 1303m (yes, that’s weird). Andres and I both have it. I can be emailed l o w b f l a t (at) a o l dot c o m. I’ll reply with a Dropbox link to the installer.
This is probably because of Pdf to Music Pro.
Specifically, PDFtoMusic Pro 2, much improved over the old version that I considered useless.
I paid the $199 because using it for free takes too much of my time. In Trial mode, it exports the first page only of a multi-page pdf. Here’s how to use it anyway:
Open your multi-page pdf in Preview and print-to-pdf one page at a time. Now open each page in PDFtoMusic Pro and export as MusicXML.
The problem in Finale is that importing a MIDI or xml file overwrites previous content. Here is a workaround:
Have your preferences set so that double-clicking on the xml opens automatically in Finale (or Dorico, Sibelius, MuseScore…). Name your file, then add as many measures as needed for your project and Save. Next, double-click the next page xml file—this opens a new Finale document Untitled. Now, in Edit mode, Select All and Copy. Go back to your named Finale doc, click on the first empty measure and Paste, then Save. You can Close and discard Untitled. Repeat till you get all the pages imported.
Or pay the two bills and export/import everything in one pass.
I find this much better on Encore pdf files than any version of SmartScore which is still useful on scans, something that PDFtoMusic Pro 2 cannot do.
MuseScore has an indirect OCR feature…
It’s still a scan, not very anccurate and it puts you into MuseScore. No thanks. MS5 is supposed to be good if you believe the hype but it’s not here yet. The current version, like all of those previous, is just not ready for prime time, IMO.
Encouraging.
I’ve been spending the last few weeks helping Apple Support with the latest Sequoia update. Oh boy… Hopefully, Apple will be releasing updated Support documents soon.
Meanwhile, I’ve stumbled across a relatively easy way to import PDF files generated by Encore into Finale/Sibelius/MuseScore. There’s even a free way to do this as long as one is willing to do it one page at a time.
I’ll try to get it edited and posted this weekend.
And since it will need to compete with the powerhouses mentioned, what on earth would make you think the new re-written Encore will be simplistic?
In my conversations with Don, I’ve tried to emphasize that competing with the powerhouses as you call them is not what most of us want. I had similar conversations with Richard, too.
Finale has been doing my heavy lifting since 1989 and will probably continue to do so—it runs great over Sequoia and I’ve made an external drive that will boot any Mac made between 2012–2025 to run 27 if that’s what I want.
I’ll check out MuseScore 5 when it’s released and may see if I can get used to Dorico, seeing as I have had a license since 2018. Never had a use for Sibelius and not about to start now.
Would it mean that MuseScore is planning to become unavoidable?
I do believe that is their plan.
Doesn’t mean I am going to follow, however. As MuseScore gets closer to being a pro notation app, it will become more complicated to use than it already is.
I still believe that there’s a place for a compact, easy to use, relatively simple app like Encore — but with better looking output, MusicXML 3.0 export and some of the annoying bugs squashed, especially the copy/paste bug that deletes data in other staves when you paste (don’t know if this is Mac only or not).
The current version of MuseScore 4.4 is no longer horrible (I’ve had it since the beginning). I don’t think it’s very good either -— certainly does not equal Encore’s ease of use. Its open-source model is dead and Cyprus based Muse Group has hired a small army of developers and AI engineers to build MuseScore 5 which they hope will rival Finale/Dorico/Sibelius as a professional notation app.
Muse Group began as Russian based Guitar Unlimited has Billion$ at its disposal and intends to dominate the world of music publishing where the really big money is — which is why they bought Hal Leonard, the world’s largest music publisher last December.
No reason not to try MuseScore. It’s free and will continue to be. BTW, Muse Group makes a lot of money on this free app through their subscription service where people upload scores for free, done in MuseScore only, while millions of subscribers pay $30 a year to download what they want from MuseScore.com while Hal Leonard makes sure that all the rights holders are paid. It’s a brilliant business model.
