Video, tempo, and time (oh my!)

 

Workflows are like snowflakes. They vary greatly depending on the needs of the project and the tools you have at your disposal. With music notation work often intersecting in some capacity with music production and scoring to video, it’s important to know when your software of choice is the best option for a particular need within a project, and when it is not.

When it comes to fine-tuned formatting and engraving decisions, we can’t move from one notation software product to another without losing that important detail work. However, with the underlying composition itself, the information can be moved quite effectively with MusicXML or MIDI to and from to other software when a particular tool is needed elsewhere.

In this article we’ll take a look at how video, tempo, and time are handled with the four most popular desktop music notation software options — Dorico, Finale, MuseScore, and Sibelius — and how they compare to the unique notation/DAW hybrid approach from the tablet app StaffPad.

Products discussed in this article

Before we begin, let’s quickly mention each of the products we’ll be discussing here:

Dorico: music notation software application for Mac and Windows, produced by Steinberg

Finale: music notation software application for Mac and Windows, produced by MakeMusic

MuseScore Studio: music notation software application for Mac, Windows, and Linux, produced by Muse Group

Sibelius: music notation software application for Mac and Windows, produced by Avid

StaffPad: music notation software application for iPad and Windows pen-and-touch devices, produced by Muse Group

A note that, in the case of Dorico and Sibelius, those products have both desktop and iPad versions, but because only the desktop versions of both Dorico and Sibelius support video, we’re only referencing the desktop versions here. In addition, Dorico and Sibelius each have multiple tiers of their respective products, some of which include video support; in this article we are chiefly referring to the top tier of each product: Dorico Pro and Sibelius Ultimate, respectively.

Video

While options exist to allow working with video with all of the major notation programs, only StaffPad, Dorico, and Sibelius offer it as an included feature in their software.

StaffPad

StaffPad is an app for iPadOS and Windows pen-and-touch platforms. It has long been a favorite of composers writing for TV and film, but did not actually include video inside the app until last year. StaffPad approaches video in very much the same way it does for other forms of media, by adding a “staff” alongside standard notation staves. Video is displayed in an easily resizable, movable and closable window, and moving the cursor with the pencil or your finger allows you to scrub the video and identify the exact frame a change needs to happen.

Like other elements of StaffPad, edits seem intuitive and it is easy to trim the beginning and ending of a video in much the same way you would in a video editor. You can move the video to different starting locations in the score easily as well using the pencil. Once finished, you can export the video which now includes the music that you have written as the audio, a feature not available in any other notation software.

Dorico

Careful consideration was clearly given to video functionality when it was launched 5 years ago with Dorico 2. This polished video feature is attached to a flow and playback of the score and video are always synced perfectly. The video window is easily resizable, movable and closable.

Sibelius

Sibelius offers excellent video support and all tools relevant to video are found in the Play tab on the ribbon.  When using high definition video you need two screens or the window is too large to work around. The window itself is not manually resizable, but there are controls to allow for half size, full size, double size and full screen in the ribbon.

Tip: Even at half size, high definition video can be problematic to work with on a single screen, so try changing the video to 480p before importing if you only have one screen.

Finale

For those who remember Finale 2014, you might recall that video was once supported within Finale without requiring any other software. A decision was later made to no longer support video within the application, instead electing to support the popular ReWire software protocol (which was also supported by Sibelius) for synchronizing playback across applications.

With the choice to go with the ReWire option, Finale requires using a DAW to view the video you are scoring to when playing back. However, because the developer, Reason Studios, ended support for ReWire in 2020, most major DAWs no longer support ReWire, making it difficult to find a DAW that is compatible with Finale for use in this manner.

MuseScore

MuseScore 4 does not include any video functionality within the software.  MuseScore 3 (which is still available for download) supports the Jack Audio API that allowed a similar playback synchronization across applications, but it is not supported with MuseScore 4.  Because of the enormous amount of restructuring required to launch MuseScore 4, some feature regressions were part of this trade off. Most will agree the numerous upgrades that accompanied this significant update were worth some feature regressions and by no means has MuseScore sworn off including video in future updates.

There are still workarounds available for those who are up to the task.

Tempo and time

It might sound peculiar to talk about tempo and time because most aspects of these functions are handled the same way across the different software options, but when trying to match tempo with a previous session coming from a DAW or scoring to video there are some distinct differences.

StaffPad

Like video, StaffPad handles detailed work with both tempo and time with a simple, but powerful utility “staff”.  The tempo staff has 3 main functions: controlling the playback tempo, tempo mapping and functionality to import a MIDI tempo map. The time staff allows easy access to different ways of tracking time, including various frame options using the SMPTE standard commonly used in TV/Film work. With the time staff, you can also update the time so that it begins at any starting point needed for the product versus 00:00:00:00.

With the tempo staff, one can “paint” the bpm of a piece’s playback tempo with the pencil in the same way you do when setting automation curves for expression, volume and panning.

The purpose of tempo mapping in any software is to align audio to the internal metronome found in the software. StaffPad handles this nicely by allowing you to drag a beat line in the tempo staff to match up with the sometimes easy to spot signature in audio wave form. It should be noted that StaffPad is the only notation option that lets you view a waveform for imported audio.

The most unique element of tempo mapping however happens in conjunction with the time staff.  Let’s say you are scoring to video and know you want a build up of string tremolos followed by a big hit to match up with an action point in the video.  You determine the exact spot of the hit, but it doesn’t match up with a beat at your current tempo.  When tempo mapping is set to on in the tempo staff, you can drag the bar line (or a beat line) with the pencil to the exact moment you want the hit and StaffPad will automatically adjust the previous tempo marking to make that alignment possible.  It is an elegant and simple solution (as seen below) to what can other wise be a tricky game of adjusting tempos to match a marker.

The tempo map import option in the tempo staff allows exact mapping of the tempo details found on a MIDI file and is the best way to sync up your project from a DAW into StaffPad. Any later updates to the project done elsewhere can be easily imported into the tempo staff again to update the score in StaffPad.

Dorico

To match its easy to use video display functionality, Dorico has top of line support for importing a tempo map from projects that start in a DAW and every imaginable time display/offset option you could need. Time options are set when you import a video, but can also be set to any SMPTE setting even without a video upload.

Importing a tempo track into an existing score is easy to use and find in Dorico (File > Import > Tempo Track). Tempos are perfectly matched to any previous work in your DAW and the process can be repeated as often as you’d like as updates occur.

In Play mode, you can manipulate the tempo on the Time Track in an even more granular level than in StaffPad by using the Draw and Line tools.  When using the iPad version of Dorico, the pencil can be used for drawing these tempos as well which feels the same as StaffPad’s process of “painting” in automation curves on the tempo staff.

The depth of control over tempo and time display is second to none in Dorico and a perfect complement to their video viewer. While no audio import functionality exists in Dorico, the audio in a video is brought in (which can be used as a workaround for bringing audio as well). Any corresponding tempo mapping done in Dorico is handled by manipulating the time track to line up tempos.

There is also the Find Tempo window, which you can access from the Video panel in Write mode, and which allows you to specify one or more “important” hit points and then have Dorico calculate a tempo to allow those hit points to land on downbeats.

Sibelius

To complement its video import capabilities, Sibelius offers numerous SMPTE options, offsets for time, offsets for where a video starts, and various settings related to how it displayed on the score. This is a robust offering that gives users everything they need to get a useful time code synced up with a video.

Until very recently, Sibelius was mostly focused on the import of MIDI as starting point for a new score and not as a source of a tempo map for an existing score. Tempo information imported from MIDI on an existing score is treated as a metronome mark and is added to existing tempo text without replacing it. Each point in an automation curve is its own unique metronome mark (as seen below).

However, with the Sibelius 2024.3 update, it’s now possible to copy a section of a project from software that supports MIDI copy and paste — such as Pro Tools, which was also updated with this capability — and paste that same section of music into Sibelius.

If you want to paste the song structure into Sibelius — which includes the tempo map, time signatures, and key signatures — you’ll need to make sure that you have a purple system selection by either Ctrl + [click] or Cmd + [click] on a bar, or making a blue passage selection and going to Home > Select > Make System Passage Selection.

Then go to Command Search under Paste MIDI from Clipboard…

It has a shortcut: Shift-Alt/Opt-V. Alternatively, you’ll find Paste MIDI in the Home > Paste menu, as well:

When you do this, all of the MIDI information will come over, but you can delete the notes and CC data if you wish (using a blue passage selection), leaving the song structure and tempo information intact. See this video beginning at approximately 6:00:

 

If you’re coming from software that doesn’t support MIDI copy/paste, a workflow for importing MIDI tempo map to an existing score in Sibelius looks like this:

1. Add a blank placeholder staff to an existing score.
2. Delete any existing tempo text, metronome marks, and Live Tempo data first, or they will still be there after importing the MIDI file.
3. In File > Import, import MIDI to that one placeholder staff which will then import all the metronome marks to the score.
4. Delete your placeholder staff and the score will now have all the imported metronome marks.

As seen above, the approach is unsightly if you use any automation curves used in the MIDI file you’ve imported, but an easy cleanup job if there isn’t too much going on with the tempo map. You can use the Advanced Filter to make a system selection (purple passage) and filter the text by Metronome mark and tidy up the score when you have numerous metronome marks piled up.

Alternatively, you could select one metronome mark and use Select More to select more of that same text style.

The Live Tempo functionality in Sibelius is great for creating expressive playback, and seemingly related as the resulting metronome markings are not added on the score. After tapping in the tempo you want, you can view the automation curve you have created in relation to actual defined tempo at that moment (with Panorama switched on, go to Play > Live Tempo > Display), but this functionality is detached from the MIDI import system, so you can not map a MIDI import to Live Tempo.

Live Tempo is, however, included in the tempo map on MIDI exports from Sibelius if you are bringing the file elsewhere.

While not included as part of Sibelius, it should be noted that the newest version of Graphical MIDI Tools for Sibelius allows tempo to be adjusted using an automation curve. Beyond allowing more control over MIDI data itself for fine-tuning playback (as seen in Dorico as well), this tool now makes it possible to control tempo using an automation curve in Sibelius.

Sibelius does not advertise audio import as an option, but you can import audio files when selecting a video to import and it will play it back on a blank video. Tempo mapping is not something that can be easily done in Sibelius without adding Graphical MIDI Tools and requires adding metronome marks with the correct tempo, which takes a lot of trial and error. The process can be clunky trying the Live Tempo approach, but it is possible.

Finale

While Finale requires using ReWire and a DAW to display synced video with playback, there are 5 different SMPTE frame rates supported as well as the ability to edit the starting time from 0:00:00:00.

Finale focuses on MIDI import as a way to start a score versus a potential function to import a tempo map into an existing score. If you are importing a MIDI file with the intention of beginning a new score with it, Finale handles the import of tempo information from a MIDI file differently than other products.  No tempo markings are shown on the score itself, but it stores the tempo map as if it were entered using the TempoTap functionality.

Tip: When you first open up the MIDI tool window the automation graph may be blank, but tapping the arrows in the lower left hand corner will refresh the window and show you the graph.

The playback tempo is accurate once you import a MIDI file, but the process requires you to figure out what to enter on the score to communicate it with a player visually.  It is not immediately obvious and clicking on points in the TempoTap graph does not reveal what exact bpm a particular moment is being played back at.

You can’t make small edits to the tempo map without actually tapping out a new tempo, so there is no concept of using lines or drawing with a pencil to create or make edits to a tempo map. You can not transfer this TempoTap data easily to another score either.

Finale allows you to import audio files, but like Sibelius requires you add your own metronome marks to sync audio to the internal metronome for tempo mapping or to use TempoTap. With no visual user-interactive tempo tool that lets you easily match a beat to an exact time location in the audio to a beat, your best bet is using TempoTap.

MuseScore

MuseScore does not yet support any SMPTE time options and a feature like this would likely accompany a future upgrade to support scoring to video.  There is also no way to import a tempo map to an existing score or any concept of a tempo staff that can be manipulated further with lines or a pencil. Tempo is mostly controlled by tempo text, but elements like rit./accel. lines, fermatas, caesuras, etc also impact playback in MuseScore.

Tempo is imported from a MIDI file when starting a new score, but it should be noted that MuseScore rounds any metronome markings to nearest integer so expect some subtle differences in playback when compared to the more granular tempo data found in a DAW.

Conclusions

Here is a summary of video, tempo, and time features discussed above.

	Dorico	Finale	Sibelius	StaffPad
In-application video support	✅		✅	✅
Import independent tempo map	✅			✅
Tempo map score to audio	✅			✅
Automation lines	✅		✅ (with GMT plug-in)	✅
SMPTE display options	✅	✅	✅	✅

Of the four desktop notation software products here (Dorico, Finale, MuseScore, and Sibelius) that all have advanced engraving capabilities, Dorico is the one with the best inbuilt tools to handle scoring to video, generally making it easy to alter a project’s tempo as you would see in a DAW. Since Dorico is both an engraving tool and has the best video capability, it may alone suffice for a user who needs both sides of the workflow.

StaffPad, as an app for iPadOS and Windows pen-and-touch platforms and not a desktop app, also has advanced video scoring features for music notation software. While its notation defaults are satisfactory for many situations, it does not offer the same level of engraving control that the other products offer.

If you primarily work on the desktop and use another product besides Dorico (i.e., Finale or Sibelius) for its engraving capabilities, these products have plenty of features for the video scorer, but you may find that StaffPad, with its video and audio features, would be a good complement to your desktop workflow.