Music File Formats That You Can Use in Composer

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Music File Formats That You Can Use in Composer

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The following table identifies common music file formats that Composer does and does not support.

 

 

File Type

Description

Extension

Opens

Saves/Exports

Notation

Special format for music notation and performance used by all software programs by Notation Software.

.not

yes

yes

MIDI

Music performance data, not music notation data.

.mid

MIDI File Type 0 and 1

MIDI File Type 1

(but not Type 0)

Karaoke

A version of MIDI file that includes specialized lyrics information.

.kar

yes

yes

MusicXML

A standard file format for exchange music scores between music notation programs.

.xml

.musicxml

.mxl

yes

yes

Wave

An audio sound wave file format.

.wav

no

yes

MP3

A compressed audio sound wave file format.

.mp3

no

yes

OGG

A compressed audio sound wave file format.

.ogg

no

yes

FLAC

A compressed lossless audio sound wave file format.

.flac

no

yes

 

 

"Does Composer transcribe audio files or CD music to notation?" Composer does not do this. Some music software can do this only for very clear single note instruments and voice. Many audio engineers have spent years attempting to develop software that can identify what pitches are being played by what instruments at what times in an audio recording. But there has been very little success for music in which more than one note is played at a time. See our page on audio-to-notation for more information.