maybe i'm asking too much but

you know those "band scores" pdfs that have Guitar / Bass / Drums...

i wanted to somehow keep only the Drums on each page and combine them somehow automatically, .....cause i have to scroll down too much every few bars

i'm looking for a kinda automated process cause i want to do this for several pdfs

just for reference

7315828-Iron-Maiden-Killers.pdf - Free Download PDF (kupdf.net)

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 8, 2023

I never do this. But I am guessing you need to extract the actual data from the pdf file, which is not exactly standard text. So i found ScanScore application. if it doesn't do what you want, someone will have an alternative to it they can recommend. There was a pc release of it mid-July of a "current" version 3.0.3. No Mac version to "full demo".

The part which addresses pdf is: Flexible import possibilities with recognition of PDF files
- You can scan or read in files that you have digitally on your computer
- Even PDF files, for example from the IMSLP library, are no problem for ScanScore.

Spoiler: ScanScore description

Description: Scan, play and edit sheet music quickly and easily with ScanScore. Simply download ScanScore and use your smartphone, tablet or a scanner to scan your sheet music and play it back to you. And you can just as easily transpose your score, export your notes to almost any music program and edit them further.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if every piece of sheet music had a play button?
Now with ScanScore, it has!
- Scan printed and digital sheet music
- Play back your score
- Make edits and corrections to the notes
- Transpose notes, staves or the whole score
- Export your score for further processing in another program*
* Like MuseScore, Dorico, Sibelius, FORTE, Capella, Notion or Finale
Scan your sheet music and listen to it.
- Scan the sheet music with your preferred scanning method
- Let it play the notes for you
- Practice your voice or your instrumental solo before an orchestra, ensemble or choir rehearsal
Scan your sheet music and transpose it.
- Transpose the whole score or just single staves directly in ScanScore
- Change the key and make it easier to play or sing along
- Adapt the score to another instrument
- Print your transposed score with just a few clicks
Scan your sheet music and edit it.
- Edit your score easily with ScanScore's correction tools
- Export your notes (at the click of a button) to almost any music app via MusicXML or MIDI
- There you can simplify, add staves, change the layout and much more!
What makes ScanScore the right music scanning software for you...
User-friendly û scan sheet music and get fast results
- The user interface is very easy to understand
- You can digitize your sheet music within a few minutes, without frustration
Extensive, convenient correction and editing options
- The correction of scanning errors is extensive and convenient
- The playback feature makes finding errors easy
Flexible import possibilities with recognition of PDF files
- You can scan or read in files that you have digitally on your computer
- Even PDF files, for example from the IMSLP library, are no problem for ScanScore.
Significantly improved note recognition
ScanScore works with the newest detection algorithms to produce excellent results.
Export to all programs as MusicXML or MIDI
You can export your notes (at the click of a button) to almost any music program via the MusicXML or MIDI interface.

https://scan-score.com/en/

 

Last edited: Aug 8, 2023

hey when i click the link it took me first to a link hideyou.me or something...just asking whats that about to learn

i guess editing it would be a way to be able to extract info...so i'll keep it as an option

 

That is a redirect from any link on this forum to an external site. It makes your page visit appear to have come from "hideme". It just clicks through there before being redirected. it will change to the real page you want to visit a few seconds after that. it's on sister site.

 

Last edited: Aug 8, 2023

I looked your pdf and it seems to me that what you ask is not easy, maybe not possible in an automated fashion.
The pages are not chars or metadata but images, sw like scanscore could fail or misunderstand completely the staff, have a try in anyway.
Even after that you should sort them, it it could take the hell of time to do it properly.

The easiest way is to export images, manually crop parts and stitch them in new images as you like, then rebuild the pdf.
Time consuming, but at least working.

 

AI not good enough yet it seems like :X

 

why not try to find the guitarpro files with the complete instruments?

 

I made a small test.

 

what you mean? how you made that? manually? or how??

i assume since u only did 3 lines its hard to do it all automatically?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 10, 2023

i agree...but its just that sometimes guitarpro i am not sure if drums are accurate, they rate the whole song and not the drums

 

Of course it's hard do it all automatically, I don't have a clue how to do it.
Did you try scanscore or similar?

 

not yet... my hopes are not too high

 

Try more automated solutions like the aforementioned ScanScore first. Or even better, find a better source like ultimate-guitar > GuitarPro > Export as MIDI/XML.

If that gets you nowhere, you'll have to get your hands dirty.

Here's how I'd go about it:

Get a de-skewer to properly orient the PDFs - if needed.
Get poppler to convert the pdf into images.
Get GraphicsMagick to crop the resulting images.

Drop to the command line, then:

Code:

pdftocairo.exe -png myscore.pdf

You now have one png image per page. Then I'd de-skew and crop the images. I don't know the dimensions and X/Y offset, 300x300 at 150, 150 is just a placeholder.

Code:

deskew --output image_out.png image_in.png

Code:

"C:\Program Files\GM\gm.exe" mogrify -crop 300x300+150+150 -path cropped_images *.png

At that point, you could clean the images up further. Or just merge them back into a PDF with poppler or GMagick - or just keep them as images.

 

what is this sorcery? this is too advanced for me but i am not sure if it will work

the drum parts need to be identified by an AI or something its not always on same place

 

That's why i told you the easiest way it's by hand.

 

just this pdf alone is 150 pages....and i have interest in other pdfs too...so its not something i can do manually

i would have to flip pages/or scroll down every 4 bars

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 10, 2023

Since they're image scans apparently, why not go old school and simply print out the sheets, make cutouts, and paste them together into a new page to scan to PDF? It'd make sense for me to do it that way.

 

it would be ok if it was only regarding this pdf i guess

 

Did you ever try the program I linked you to the official website? Unless you are doing a whole lot of this sort of transcription, their pricing seems sort of expensive. Especially when you notice the prices are per year; I would be strangely comfortable with Sisters pricing. It sounds like it would use some kind of OCR (optical character recognition) or ICR (intelligent/ai) . One user mentions liking it better than Photoscore, but I would probably look into that too.

 

Last edited: Aug 10, 2023

How about extract or screenshot the PDF files, cut them on an image editor, paste the cutouts back together, and re-encapsule as PDFs? Same as my previous suggestion... but digitally.