MusicXML to PDF, MP3, MIDI or braille: what each format keeps

MusicXML is sheet music as data: every note, rest, dynamic and lyric, written down so that MuseScore Studio, Dorico, Sibelius or a website can read the same score. The W3C Music Notation Community Group maintains the format, and the current version is MusicXML 4.0.

Nobody plays from XML, though. A pianist wants pages on the stand. A choir wants something to listen to while learning their part. A producer wants the notes in a DAW. A blind musician wants braille.

Each of those is a conversion, and each one keeps part of the score and leaves the rest behind. We built a converter for all four on this site. Here is what each one keeps, what it doesn’t, and how to make it.

The short answer

• PDF, for pages to print or share. It keeps the notation, engraved anew on A4 or Letter. It leaves out the sound, and the line and page breaks of the edition the file came from.
• MP3 or WAV, for something to listen to. It keeps the music as played back, with repeats, dynamics and tempo marks. It leaves out the notation, and the phrasing of real musicians.
• MIDI, for a DAW or another notation program. It keeps the notes and their timing, one track per part, with the instruments and tempo marks. It leaves out the page, and the sound: the program that opens it decides how it sounds.
• Braille, for a braille reader. It keeps the notes and rhythm, in the Music Braille Code 2015. For now it leaves out the signs for grace notes and tuplets.

All four read .musicxml, .xml and the compressed .mxl, and all four run in your browser tab: your file isn’t uploaded.

MusicXML to PDF: pages to print

Open the file in the MusicXML and MXL to PDF Converter, pick the paper and the staff size, and download the PDF. The paper is A4 or Letter, portrait or landscape. A small staff is 6 mm high, medium is 7 mm, a usual size for piano music, and large is 8.4 mm, easier to read from a music stand.

OpenSheetMusicDisplay (OSMD), the MusicXML renderer we maintain, lays out the pages, and jsPDF writes them into the PDF as vector graphics that stay sharp at any size. The preview shows exactly the pages that go into the file. To print one instrument from a full score, untick the other parts, and the pages are laid out again.

Two things to know. A PDF made from MusicXML is a new engraving of the notes, not a copy of the publisher’s pages: line breaks, page breaks, spacing and fonts come from OSMD, so they can differ from the edition the file was made from. We ran into the second while building the Jianpu tool: the fonts built into PDF readers only cover Western European letters, so a score with, say, Chinese lyrics goes into the PDF as images. The pages look right, but the text can’t be selected.

MusicXML to MP3: something to listen to

Open the file in the MusicXML and MXL to MP3 Converter, choose MP3 at 128, 192 or 320 kbit/s, or WAV, and download.

The converter plays the score with the audio player of OSMD Extended, our own build of OSMD, the same player the MusicXML Player uses. It doesn’t wait for the music, though: it writes every note straight into the recording, faster than real time, with the score’s repeats, dynamics and tempo marks, then encodes it. Each part plays the instrument the file asks for, as a General MIDI sound from the FluidR3 soundfont, which loads from this site the first time a score needs it.

What to know: it sounds like a notation program playing the score, not like a recording of musicians. That is enough to learn a part, check an arrangement or send a sketch to a choir. For a different tempo or balance, set them in the MusicXML Player and download the audio from there. And it only works in this direction: the tools here turn notation into sound, not a recording into notation.

MusicXML to MIDI: notes for a DAW

Open the file in the MusicXML and MXL to MIDI Converter, decide whether to play the repeats, and download the .mid file.

Verovio, the open-source engraving library, reads the MusicXML and writes a Standard MIDI File: one track per part, with the instruments the file names and its tempo marks. You can also set the tempo from 50 to 150 percent. Cue notes, another part’s notes printed small for orientation, are left out, so nothing sounds twice.

What to know: a MIDI file holds the notes, not the sound. Your DAW, notation program or MIDI player decides what it sounds like, so in a DAW you put your own instruments on the tracks. Keep the repeats on for listening and production. Switch them off if you want each written measure exactly once, for example to import the notes into a notation program and compare them with the score. Verovio itself is about 2.4 MB, so the first file takes a moment; after that your browser keeps it.

MusicXML to braille: music for braille readers

Open the file in the MusicXML and MXL to Braille Converter, pick a layout, and read the result on a braille display, copy it, or download it for an embosser.

The music braille module of OSMD writes the score in the Music Braille Code 2015 of the Braille Authority of North America. Standard writes the music staff by staff. Bar over bar puts both hands of piano music above each other. Ensemble gives each instrument a line of its own, lyrics go on a line above the melody, and facsimile follows the lines of the printed score. Take the .brf file, in North American Braille ASCII, for an embosser, and the Unicode braille text for a braille display. “What each sign means” explains the braille sign by sign, for sighted teachers checking a student’s material.

What to know: grace notes and tuplets, such as triplets, come out as ordinary notes for now. Every note is there, without the grace note and triplet signs. Lyrics are written in uncontracted braille. For a published braille edition, have a transcriber check the result.

Your file stays on your computer

All four converters run in your browser tab. The file is read there and the result is made there; it isn’t sent to our server or anyone else’s, so we never see it and nothing is stored. That matters when the score is an unpublished composition, or an edition you licensed. What comes over the network is the converter itself and, for MP3, the instrument sounds, both from musicxml.tools. There is nothing to install and no account to make.

Three checks before you convert

1. If a converter can’t read the file, run it through the MusicXML Validator. It checks the file against the MusicXML 4.0 schema and gives the line of every error.
2. An .mxl file is the same score as a .musicxml file, zipped. Every tool here reads both, and the MusicXML File Converter turns one into the other when another program insists on one.
3. Look at the score before you print it. The PDF converter’s preview shows the exact pages, and the Sheet Music Viewer opens any MusicXML file. For one instrument’s part, with long rests combined, Extract a Part from MusicXML gives you a MusicXML file and a PDF of it.

If a file comes out wrong in one of these converters, send it to support@phonicscore.com. The files that break a converter are how we find what to fix.

Questions

What is the difference between MusicXML and MXL files?

An MXL file is compressed MusicXML: the same score in a zip archive, much smaller. Every tool on musicxml.tools opens both, and the MusicXML File Converter turns one into the other.

Can I convert MusicXML to MP3 without installing any software?

Yes. The MusicXML and MXL to MP3 Converter makes the MP3 in your browser. The only download is the instrument sounds, from this site, the first time a score needs them.

Is it safe to convert MusicXML files in a browser without uploading them?

The converters on musicxml.tools read your file in your browser and make the PDF, MP3, MIDI or braille there. The file isn't sent to our server or anywhere else, so we never see it, and nothing is stored.

Does MusicXML conversion support all instrument parts and score layouts?

All the parts, yes: the PDF has every part unless you untick some, the MIDI file has a track per part, the MP3 plays each part with its instrument, and the braille ensemble layout gives each instrument its own line. The layout of the original edition, no: the PDF is a new engraving, so its line and page breaks can differ.

Can I convert MusicXML to braille for visually impaired musicians?

Yes. The MusicXML and MXL to Braille Converter writes the Music Braille Code 2015, as a .brf file for embossers and as Unicode braille for braille displays. Grace notes and tuplets come out as ordinary notes for now, so have a transcriber check a published edition.

What is the best way to convert MusicXML to MIDI for use in a DAW?

Convert it in the MusicXML and MXL to MIDI Converter with the repeats played out, import the .mid file, and put your own instruments on its tracks, one per part. A MIDI file holds the notes, not the sound.

Are browser-based MusicXML converters free to use?

Ours are. Every tool on musicxml.tools is free and works without an account.