Using the studio

The studio is where a PDF and a recording become a score-follow video. It works in four steps, Files, Crop, Sync, and Export, and everything runs in your browser, so your files are never uploaded unless you choose to share them with us after an auto-sync that fell short. This guide walks through each step, then covers the options that shape the finished video.

The four steps

1. Files

Open the studio and add two files:

• A PDF of the score. Engraved PDFs and clean scans work best.
• A recording of the piece: MP3, WAV, M4A, or OGG.

You can also add a MusicXML file of the score. It’s optional, but it lets auto-sync place every line for you.

The PDF and the recording together make up your project. One credit unlocks a project, and after that you can export it as many times as you like.

2. Crop

Each page is split into systems, the individual lines of music. Titles, page numbers, and margins are left out by default. Staves joined by a barline (a multi-staff system) stay together as one line.

Look over the detected lines and fix any that are wrong:

• Include or exclude a box by clicking its number plate.
• Merge boxes by moving or resizing one over another, or by drawing a new box across several.
• Split box cuts a box in two at the cleanest gap.
• Snap box to ink shrinks the selected box to fit its contents. Boxes you draw yourself snap automatically, unless you turn off Snap drawn boxes.
• Reset this page or Reset all pages brings back the boxes the studio detected.

Clean, straight scans usually need no edits at all. Crooked or faint pages are where a quick pass pays off, so fix them here rather than importing again.

If a scan is faint or gray, the Contrast slider on the export step can clean it up so every line reads crisply in the final video.

3. Sync

If the studio could read the notation, from your MusicXML file or from a PDF exported by notation software, every line is already placed when you arrive. Use Review flagged to check the few it wasn’t sure about, and press Auto Sync to run it again after you make changes.

Otherwise, play the recording and tap at the start of each line. A few controls make this easier:

• Space marks the next line at the playhead, so you can keep your eyes on the score and tap along.
• K plays and pauses without reaching for the mouse.
• Go to start jumps the playhead back to the beginning so you can take another pass.
• Drop the playback speed to 0.5× for fast passages. Your taps are stored against the real audio, so the timing stays exact at full speed. Speeds run from 0.5× to 2×.
• Zoom in on the timeline to place lines precisely, then zoom back out to see the whole piece.

If your score has title pages, they appear at the top (intro) and bottom (outro) of the slide list. Open a title page’s ⋮ settings to set how many seconds it stays on screen.

4. Export

Pick how the video moves and looks, then render. Exports are free in 720p with a small Score to Video badge, or you can spend a credit for a badge-free video in 1080p or 4K. Once a project is unlocked, every export is free, so feel free to keep tweaking.

Make it look the way you want

The style options on the export step control how the finished video moves and looks:

• Motion sets how the score moves:
  • Scroll glides continuously from line to line.
  • Page holds a page, then moves to the next one.
  • Book shows two pages side by side and turns them like a score on a stand.
• Transitions ease into each new line (a glide in Scroll) or page (a cross-fade in Page and Book). The Duration slider sets how long that takes: shorter feels snappy, longer feels slow and cinematic. Turn transitions off for instant cuts.
• Highlight color sets the color of the outline and progress bar on the active line.
• Paper sets the background: Cream, White, or Black.
• Contrast darkens faint ink and cleans up scanned pages so every note stays legible.

Keyboard shortcuts at a glance

Key	Action
Space	Mark the next line at the playhead
K	Play / pause
← / →	Previous / next page (Crop)
S	Split the selected box (Crop)
Delete	Delete the selected box (Crop)
Ctrl/⌘ + Z	Undo your last change on this step
Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + Z	Redo
Ctrl + Y	Redo (Windows)

Undo and redo work on every step, and each step keeps its own history. Undoing on Crop never touches what you did on Sync, and if your last change was on a different step, the studio points you there instead.

When you get stuck

Every step of the studio has a help panel, opened with the ? button in the bottom-right corner. It explains the controls on the step you’re on, so you rarely need to leave the page. Still stuck? Contact support and a real person will help.

Checklist for a clean result

• Trim silence from the very start of your recording so the first line lands on the downbeat.
• Fix wrongly detected lines in Crop instead of importing again.
• Slow playback to 0.5× for dense passages while syncing.
• Raise Contrast for faint scans.
• Pick the Motion style that suits the piece: Book for full scores, Scroll for single lines.

Ready? Open the studio and make your next one.