Studio reference · Score to Video

This page is the long form of the help panel inside the studio. Every control that shows a hint when you hover it in the studio has a section here, with the same wording, plus room for anything that doesn’t fit in a sidebar.

Open the studio’s own help with the ? button in the bottom-right corner, then hover a control to read its hint in place. To send someone to one specific control, hover the heading below it and copy the link.

Step 1 · Files

Add a PDF of your score and a recording of the piece. You can also add a MusicXML file to improve auto-sync.

Score file (MusicXML)

Optional: the MusicXML export of this score. With it, every line's start time is placed automatically and the sync step becomes a quick review.

If you skip it, auto-sync may still be available: a PDF exported from notation software carries its own notation, and the studio reads that instead. A scan or a photo carries none, so those still need tapping by hand.

Supplying the file is worth it either way. It gives exact pitches and rhythms, and it's the only source that knows what a transposing instrument actually sounds. A written C on a B♭ clarinet sounds a B♭, and the printed page can't tell you that.

Step 2 · Crop

Each page is split into systems (lines of music). Click a box to select it, drag its edges to resize, and use the plate number to include or exclude it. Boxes that overlap combine into one, move, resize, or draw a box over others to merge them; Split box cuts one in two at the cleanest gap. Snap box to ink tightens the selected box; new boxes you draw snap automatically (toggleable). Reset a page (or all pages) back to the detected boxes. Ctrl/⌘+Z undoes your last edit here (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z redoes), and each step keeps its own history.

The page and its boxes

The page with its detected boxes. Overlapping boxes combine: move or resize a box over another (or draw across several) to merge them into one. With a mouse or trackpad, drag on empty paper to draw a new box; click empty paper to deselect.

A crop box

Click a box to select it. Drag to move, drop it onto another box to combine them into one.

The order plate

The line’s play order. Click the plate to include or exclude this box from the video.

Delete a box

Delete this box. (Delete or Backspace does the same.)

Resize grips

Drag an edge or corner grip to resize the selected box, stretch it over another box to combine them.

Previous page arrow

Flip to the previous page. Keyboard: ← or [.

Next page arrow

Flip to the next page. Keyboard: → or ].

Page navigation

Step through the pages of your score. Keyboard: ← and →.

Page strip

One square per page, outlined squares hold included lines. Click a square to jump to that page.

Selected box type

Reclassify the selected box. Music lines get timed in the sync step; a title rides above the next line, a title page is a full cover shown over silence, and page headers/footers ride along untimed.

Split box

Cut the selected box in two. The cut lands on the emptiest gap nearest the middle, never through connected music if a clean gap exists. Keyboard: S.

Reset this page

Put this page's boxes back to what the detector found. Manual edits and tapped times on this page are discarded, you'll be asked to confirm.

Reset all pages

Put every page's boxes back to the auto-detected layout. All manual edits and tapped times are discarded, you'll be asked to confirm.

Snap box to ink

Tighten the selected box to the ink inside it, trimming empty margins in one click.

Snap drawn boxes

New boxes you draw tighten to the ink they contain when you release. Turn off to keep exactly the rectangle you drew.

Include: title pages

Include detected title pages (full covers). They show over the intro/outro silence; set each one's length on the sync step.

Include: titles

Include inline titles: headings that ride above the next music line, untimed and outside the highlight box.

Include: page headers

Include the running head above the first line of each page (title block, composer).

Include the text below the last line of each page (page numbers, copyright).

Included line count

How many lines are included in the video, out of everything detected across all pages.

Continue to sync

Happy with the crops? If a score was supplied or read off the PDF, this press aligns the recording to it, so the sync step opens with every line already placed and only the flagged ones to review. Without a score, it goes straight to the tap flow.

Step 3 · Sync

Play the recording and tap at the start of each slide; its marker lands on the waveform. Slide 1 is pinned to the start, and a tap never moves a slide you already placed. Drag markers to retime, drag the end handles to trim the clip, and zoom in for finer timing. The rail lists every slide: click a placed one to jump there, change any slide’s type with its picker (tap the ? by “Slides” for what each type means), and use “Add repeat” to bracket a section the music plays again. Title-page covers appear at the top (intro) and bottom (outro) of the list; set how long each shows. Ctrl/⌘+Z undoes your last change here (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z redoes), and each step keeps its own history.

Live preview

A live preview of your video at the current playhead, it updates as you place and adjust lines.

Playback bar

Scrub through the recording straight under the preview: drag the handle, or click anywhere on the bar, to move the playhead. The same play button, position and speed as the transport row below the waveform, because both drive one player.

The shaded ends are the part of the recording the clip handles trim off, so you can see at a glance how much of the bar actually becomes video. Arrow keys nudge the playhead one second, shift plus arrow ten, and Home or End jumps to either end. Everything else follows along live: the waveform playhead, the up-next card and the preview frame.

Up-next cue

A thumbnail of the next line waiting to be placed, and how many lines you've timed so far.

Tap button

Press at the start of each line as the recording plays to place its marker. Keyboard shortcut: the space bar.

Go to start

Jump the playhead back to the very beginning of the recording.

Play / pause

Play or pause the recording. Keyboard shortcut: K.

Playback speed

Slow the recording down to tap fast passages accurately, or speed it up. Timing stays exact at any speed.

Timeline zoom

Zoom the timeline in and out for finer placement. Tip: ⌘/Ctrl + scroll over the waveform.

The waveform

The recording's waveform. Click to seek; drag a numbered marker to retime its line; drag the dark end handles to trim the clip.

Clear all times

Remove every placed time and start the sync over. Line 1 stays pinned to the start.

Auto-sync

Align the recording to the score and place every line's start time automatically. Lines you've adjusted by hand stay pinned.

The score it aligns against is the MusicXML file if you supplied one. If you didn't, and your PDF came out of notation software rather than a scanner, the studio reads the notation off the PDF itself and uses that, which is why the button appears on some PDFs and not others.

Reading the PDF is the less exact of the two, so expect more flagged lines to review. Dropping in the MusicXML export at any point switches auto-sync over to it.

Review flagged

Step through the auto-placed times that need a check. The playhead jumps to each flagged line in turn.

Up next card

A preview of the slide that will show next: the first placed slide past the playhead, or the next one waiting to be tapped.

The ? beside “Slides”

Open the help panel and explain every slide type: music line, title, title page, and page header/footer.

Add repeat

Mark a repeated section: pick its first and last line, and the video plays those lines again. Each pass gets its own taps. A repeat can sit fully inside another one.

The slide rail

Every slide in play order. Click a placed slide to jump the playhead to it; repeated sections show one entry per pass.

A slide’s type picker

Change what this slide is: a music line, a title, a full title page, or a page header/footer. The ? by “Slides” explains each type.

A slide’s ⋮ settings

Open this slide’s settings to change its type, and for a title page how long it shows.

A title-page row

A full title-page cover. Open its ⋮ settings to set how long it shows; intro covers play before the music, outro covers after.

Slide types

Every box you kept has a type. Change it with the picker on any slide:

Music line

A line of the score. It’s timed on the waveform and highlighted as it plays.

Title

A heading (the piece or a section title). It takes no time of its own; it appears above the next music line when that line plays, but stays outside the highlight box.

Title page

A full cover shown on its own over silence. Set how many seconds it stays up. Intro title pages play before the music and outro ones after; add as many as you like, each with its own length.

A running head (title block, composer) at the top of a page. It rides along above the music, untimed.

A page number or copyright line at the foot of a page. It rides along below the music, untimed.

Step 4 · Export

Choose your video style: camera motion, highlight color, paper background, and contrast, then render. Free exports are 720p and carry a small ScoreToVideo.com badge in the corner; a credit unlocks badge-free 1080p and 4K for this project forever, and lets you add your own watermark, a diagonal line of text and your logo, under “Your watermark”. Ctrl/⌘+Z undoes your last style change here (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+Z redoes), and each step keeps its own history.

Aspect

The shape of the video frame: 16:9 widescreen, 4:3 squarer, or Vertical for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. Vertical can't use the Book layout.

Motion

How the camera moves: Scroll glides down one page, Page cuts screenful to screenful, Book sets two pages side by side for tall scores. Book isn't available for vertical video.

Transitions in Scroll mode

Ease the camera down to the next line as it approaches. Turn off to jump line to line instead.

Transitions in Page mode

Cross-fade to the next page just before its first line plays. Turn off for a hard cut, like a page flip.

Transitions in Book mode

Cross-fade to the next two-page spread just before its first line plays. Turn off for a hard cut, like a page turn.

Transition duration

How long each glide or cross-fade takes. Shorter is snappier; longer is slower and more cinematic. Only applies while Transitions are on.

First page (Book mode)

Book mode only: whether the piece opens on the left or right page of the first spread. “Right” leaves the first left page blank, like a score that opens on a right-hand page.

Highlight

Draw an outline and a progress bar around the line currently playing. Turn off for a clean, unmarked score.

Highlight color

The color of the highlight outline and progress bar under the active line.

Paper

The page background the score sits on. The score is isolated to ink and laid on your chosen background, no white plates floating on cream. Black inverts to light-on-dark.

Contrast

Cranks contrast and drops the paper out of the page. Raise it to clean up grey or low-contrast scans; clean PDFs need little.

Preview playback

Play the preview at the top of the export step, or drag the handle to jump to any moment. It runs the same player the sync step uses, so the frame you see here is exactly what the render will put at that timestamp.

Use it to check the parts that are hard to judge from a still: the transitions between lines or pages, where the watermark lands as it roams the corners, and whether the highlight keeps up with the music. Arrow keys nudge the playhead one second, shift plus arrow ten, and Home or End jumps to either end.

Free 720p export

Render an unlimited 720p video with a small ScoreToVideo.com badge in the corner, free, no account needed.

Export master

Spend one credit to unlock this project for watermark-free 720p, 1080p and 4K exports, forever, including re-renders.

Your watermark

Unlock this project to remove the Score to Video watermark and add your own: a diagonal line of text laid across the frame, a logo in a corner, or both.

The logo is saved in this browser rather than in the project, so one upload serves every project you make on this device.

Watermark switch

Burn your own branding into this project's exports. Off renders a clean video with no marks at all.

Diagonal text

A faint line of text laid diagonally across the whole frame: an imprint, a copyright line, or “perusal only”. Leave empty for no text.

Diagonal strength

How strongly the diagonal text sits on the page. Low is a ghost; high is hard to crop out or ignore.

Diagonal text color

The ink the diagonal text is drawn in. Pick something that reads on your chosen paper.

Logo

A PNG, JPEG, WebP or SVG logo drawn in a corner of every frame. Drop one on the tile or click it to browse. It stays in this browser and is reused by all your projects.

Show logo

Draw your logo on this project's video. Off keeps the logo saved for other projects without burning it into this one.

Logo corner

Which corner the logo sits in. Keep it clear of the score's own margins and page numbers.

Logo size

How big the logo is drawn, as a share of the frame. A tall logo is held to the same box as a wide one, so it can't run off the edge. It scales with the export, so it looks the same at 720p and 4K.

Logo opacity

How solid the logo is drawn. Full strength for a house mark; lower for a subtle sign-off.