Re: New Sibelius to LilyPond conversion suite

[Michael Good]

Hi Kirill,

This is an interesting approach to Sibelius to LilyPond conversion. However, I 
do agree with Carl's earlier message. It seems that a more generally useful 
approach would be to improve MusicXML to LilyPond conversion.

The Dolet 5 for Sibelius and Dolet 5 for Finale converters both convert nearly 
as much musical information to MusicXML as is possible via the program's plug-
in interface. Dolet 1 for Sibelius is many years old and designed for much 
older versions of Sibelius that did not have such extensive plug-in 
capabilities. 

Obviously one can do much better than Dolet 1 with Sibelius 6, but I don't 
think this extends to Dolet 5. I would be interested in hearing what you can 
convert directly to your XML format from your plug-in that is not being 
exported with the Dolet 5 for Sibelius plug-in. If it's available from the 
Sibelius 6.1 plug-in interface, Dolet 5 should export it to the MusicXML file.

There will definitely be lossiness going from Sibelius to an intermediate 
format, and from that intermediate format to LilyPond. But I think the 
lossiness will be minimized if that intermediate format is MusicXML produced 
by our latest Dolet plug-ins. The focus of the development could then be on 
reducing the lossiness of MusicXML to LilyPond conversions. That would make 
things work better for all programs - commercial programs like Finale or 
Sibelius, or free programs like MuseScore.

Best regards,

Michael Good
Recordare LLC