[Menvi-discuss] Screen Readers for "Brf" Music Files

[Bill McCann]

Right, neither Lime nor GOODFEEL can open a .brf file.  I suppose that one could rename a .brf file to .gf and then use the BrailleView application that comes with the GOODFEEL suite to open it.  But when you open a formatted braille file in BrailleView your screen reader is going to simply verbalize the text characters as it would in Notepad or any other text editor.

For example, if it finds a backslash character consisting of dots 1-2-5-6, the screen reader will say "backslash."  If those same dots appeared on your display while you are working in Lime, our Lime Aloud feature would say "G, quarter" or "G, crotchet" depending on your Lime Aloud preferences.

Please do let us know how Toby's software works for you.  I tried it years ago but now I don't remember much about it.

MIDI files can definitely be helpful if you have no MusicXML to work with.  But the MIDI file format is limited in how much actual notational information it can store since, in the end, MIDI is a performance-based format and not a notation-based format.  For example, although the MIDI file format can store lyric text, it has no provision for things like dynamic marks, accents, staccato marks, etc.

That being said, Lime can import MIDI files if you have enough time and patience.  I have written a brief tutorial on how to import MIDI files into Lime.  See attached.

Bill McCann, President, Dancing Dots
Visit our YouTube page:
www.youtube.com/DancingDotsAccess<http://www.youtube.com/DancingDotsAccess>


From: Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org> On Behalf Of Jeanie Willis via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 7:15 PM
To: 'This is for discussing music and braille literacy' <menvi-discuss at menvi.org>
Cc: Jeanie Willis <jeaniewillis at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Screen Readers for "Brf" Music Files

Hi Bill,

Just to be clear though as the question did specify brf files.  Am I correct that neither Lime nor GoodFeel can open a brf.  You either have to scan the music into sharp Eye, or open an existing midi or xml files, or enter the notes yourself into Lime.

I do think midi files may be an under used resource.  I haven't done it recently.  But back when digital sheet music wasn't readily available for print music I regularly found midi files on the net and extracted the parts I wanted.  I had a whole set of instructions on how to do this and tidy it into good clean music.  The links would be out of date but the process largely unchanged if anyone wants me to dig it out.

Jeanie

From: Menvi-discuss On Behalf Of Bill McCann via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 9:51 AM
To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy <menvi-discuss at menvi.org<mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org>>
Cc: Bill McCann <info at dancingdots.com<mailto:info at dancingdots.com>>
Subject: Re: [Menvi-discuss] Screen Readers for "Brf" Music Files

Dancing Dots' Lime Aloud scripts do deliver what we call a Talking braille score feature to users of the Lime music notation editor who have a license for our scripts.  The scripts verbalize descriptions of the current note while showing the equivalent braille music on your braille display and the print equivalent on the video display.

Software that would verbally describe braille music characters would need to perform some fairly complex analysis of the braille score in order to convert it to a meaningful verbal description.  It would need to understand the order of signs and the syntax of braille music.  Certainly possible but not a trivial task.


Bill McCann, President, Dancing Dots
Visit our YouTube page:
www.youtube.com/DancingDotsAccess<http://www.youtube.com/DancingDotsAccess>


From: Menvi-discuss <menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org<mailto:menvi-discuss-bounces at menvi.org>> On Behalf Of Karen Gearreald via Menvi-discuss
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2023 12:25 AM
To: menvi-discuss at menvi.org<mailto:menvi-discuss at menvi.org>
Cc: karen118 at cox.net<mailto:karen118 at cox.net>
Subject: [Menvi-discuss] Screen Readers for "Brf" Music Files

On behalf of friends who are not MENVI members, I am wondering whether anyone uses NVDA or another screen reader to decipher "brf" files of braille music scores.  Any information about such experiences would be most welcome.  Thank you!
                                                                                Karen Gearreald
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It is possible to import MIDI files into Lime but it is much simpler and much better to import MusicXML files into Lime. MIDI files are performance-based representations while MusicXML is notation-based information.

If the MIDI file was exported from a notation program such as Finale or Sibelius, and you have the option, open the source Finale or Sibelius file and instead of exporting to MIDI, export to MusicXML. Then import the resulting MusicXML file into Lime instead of trying to import the MIDI version. 

See the GOODFEEL tutorial or GOODFEEL's online help (ALT+H) and read
"Preparing Files for GOODFEEL to Transcribe" and especially "Preparing MIDI
Files for GOODFEEL." In that section, we give specific guidance on editing your MIDI file to improve the resulting braille transcription.

As you will read there, in order to be able to import the MIDI file into Lime, you must first create a new Lime file with enough empty measures to import the musical material from your MIDI file.  Lime is much smarter when importing MusicXML files and is able to automatically create a Lime file with sufficient number of measures and parts to contain the score information from a MusicXML file.  This process is not automated when importing MIDI files.

So you must run Lime.

ALT+F, N to create a new Lime file.  Make sure that you tell Lime that your
new Lime file will have as many measures as the MIDI file you've created.

If the piece has any changes in time signature, you must account for those in the new Lime file *before* you
import the MIDI file.

If you plan on importing material from more than 1 track of your MIDI file, you must first add enough new parts to your Lime file to accommodate each track you plan to import.  Choose New Part under Lime's Parts and Voices dialog. 

Then, for each track in your MIDI file, you must go to File | Import MIDI and import each track of the MIDI file into Lime.  

Remember, you can always send sample files to albert at DancingDots.com and copy info at dancingdots.com as well. We can review and try to give you more specific guidance.