You imported a MusicXML file into Dorico, and the score looks wrong. Don't retype it. Most of these problems have a quick fix, and this guide walks you through them one step at a time.
Does this look like your problem?
- Every page has one system, or the bars are crammed together
- The first few bars are empty or squashed on top of each other
- Clarinets or horns show the wrong notes
- Half notes are split into two tied quarter notes
- There is a gap or a silence near a coda
- Tempo marks and dynamics appear twice
- The whole score is a mess
If you ticked one or more, keep going. Start at step 1 and stop when your score looks right.
Step 1: Import again with fewer options
Dorico does whatever the MusicXML file tells it to, including its page breaks and hidden rests. Switch that off and let Dorico lay the page out itself.
- Open Dorico's Preferences and go to the MusicXML page.
- In the Import options, turn off most of them. The ones that cause the most trouble are Import system and frame breaks, the Rests options and Text items.
- Choose File → Import → MusicXML and import the original file again.
If Import is greyed out for your file, use File → Open instead.
This fixes crammed systems, one-system pages, collapsed first bars and doubled tempo and dynamic marks. Resetting the layout inside Dorico does not, because the problem is in what you imported.
Step 2: Check the instruments
If clarinets or horns show the wrong notes, Dorico didn't recognise the instrument, so it treated the music as concert pitch.
- Switch to Setup mode.
- Look at each player and make sure it has the right instrument.
- Pick the correct instrument where it doesn't.
Once Dorico knows the instrument, it handles the transposition itself.
Step 3: Fix split notes and odd gaps
If a half note comes in as two tied quarter notes, go back to the MusicXML import preferences and turn on Note durations. Dorico will then use the durations exactly as written in the file. Leave it off otherwise.
If there is a blank gap between two bars, or silence before bar 1, look for a repeat marker such as To Coda in the wrong place. Delete it, or delete it in the original program and export again.
Step 4: Still wrong? Start from a PDF
Sometimes the MusicXML file itself is faulty, and no import setting can fix that. In that case, skip the file and convert a PDF of the score instead. Tutti reads the music straight from the PDF, so the new file doesn't carry whatever was wrong with the old one.
- In the program that made the score, export it as a PDF.
- Open tutti-studio.com, sign in, and drop the PDF on the page. Click Check compatibility for free. Nothing is uploaded at this point and no free pages are used.
- When you see This score is supported., choose the pages you want and click Convert pages.
- When you see Your MusicXML is ready, click Download MusicXML.
If Tutti says We can't convert this PDF., the PDF is most likely a scan or a photo, or it comes from a program Tutti doesn't read yet. Reading a PDF directly is the route to try first because it is accurate. Every other method has to guess what the page shows, and optical music recognition (OMR) gets a lot wrong; PDF to MusicXML: Best Free and Paid Converters explains why.
If you still want to try recognition, the established tools are PhotoScore and ScanScore on a computer, and PlayScore 2 on a phone or tablet. Each reads the page and exports MusicXML that you import into Dorico, and PDF to MusicXML: Best Free and Paid Converters shows which suits which kind of page. Expect wrong notes to fix.
If you have a MIDI file of the piece, Dorico opens that as well. It keeps the notes and the timing, but not the layout, lyrics or markings.
And if the page is short or messy, typing it in yourself, or paying a professional to do it, is often quicker than proofreading a recognition result note by note.
Step 5: Import and check
Choose File → Import → MusicXML in Dorico and pick the new file. Put the PDF next to it and check a few bars from each section: the notes, the instruments and the repeats.
Quick summary
Most bad imports come from three things: page breaks and hidden rests you didn't want, instruments Dorico didn't recognise, and a faulty file. Turn off the import options, fix the instruments in Setup mode, and if the file itself is the problem, convert a PDF instead.
Ready to try? Drop your PDF on tutti-studio.com and run the free check.
Exporting from Finale or Sibelius first? See How to open Finale files in Dorico or MuseScore and How to convert a Sibelius file to MuseScore or Dorico.