Notation software is built for editing, engraving, and printing a score. What it can't do is figure out what's in a recording. That's where AI transcription comes in. Songscription listens to your audio and produces a file your notation software opens directly, so instead of transcribing by ear you start with a working draft and edit from there.
This guide covers which export format to choose and how to bring it into Sibelius, Dorico, or Finale.
MusicXML or MIDI: Which Export Format Should You Use?
Songscription exports two formats relevant to notation software: MusicXML and MIDI. They preserve different things, and the choice affects how much cleanup you'll do on the other side.
MusicXML is a structured notation format that carries the full written score, including how notes are grouped, marked, and laid out on the page. MIDI is a performance format. It captures which notes are played and when, but carries little guaranteed notational structure, so how readable it looks in a notation editor depends heavily on how the file was created.
Importing MIDI tends to mean spending time cleaning up the result into something that reads like a score, and our guide on converting MIDI to sheet music covers what that process actually involves. For most notation work, MusicXML is the easier starting point. Our guide on music export formats covers when MIDI makes sense instead.
How to Export from Songscription
Upload your audio to Songscription and let the transcription run. Songscription works from an MP3, WAV, or other common audio formats, and the transcription usually comes back quickly. Once it's done, review the result in the on-screen editor before you export. The review step is worth doing: catching an error here takes a few seconds, whereas finding it later inside your notation app means hunting through a built score. It doesn't need to be a perfect pass, just a quick check for anything obviously off. If you want the cleanest possible result before you even reach that step, our guide on getting accurate AI music transcriptions is worth a read. Then export as MusicXML.
Using Songscription with Sibelius
Sibelius is one of the more widely used professional notation editors. For anyone already working in Sibelius, Songscription fits into the start of the process: upload a recording, get a MusicXML file back, and open it as you would any other score.
One thing worth knowing: older, perpetual-license versions of Sibelius can display a version warning when importing newer MusicXML files, and import fidelity can vary depending on which version you're on. In most cases the score still imports if you continue past the warning. Users on a current Sibelius subscription are less likely to hit this at all.
Using Songscription with Finale
Finale was for a long time one of the main professional notation editors, used widely in film scoring, education, and publishing. MakeMusic discontinued it in 2024, so it's no longer sold or updated, but existing installations still run, and Songscription's MusicXML export imports into them without issue in most cases, so the workflow holds up.
A lot of people have years of templates, custom libraries, and muscle memory in Finale, and there's no particular reason to abandon it just because it's no longer for sale. For anyone starting fresh, MakeMusic now points users toward Dorico, which handles MusicXML import cleanly.
Using Songscription with Dorico
Dorico is one of the more actively developed professional notation editors around right now, and it handles MusicXML imports cleanly. If you're choosing notation software for the first time, it's worth looking at. Our guide to free music notation software covers the broader landscape if you're still weighing options.
Dorico treats the imported file as musical information and lets its own layout engine handle the rest, which tends to produce a cleaner result than carrying over every formatting detail from the original export. The score may look somewhat different from what other editors would show, which is worth knowing going in.
Final Thoughts
Bringing AI transcription into a notation workflow mostly changes where the work starts. Instead of spending the first part of a session figuring out what's in a recording, you open your editor with something already on the page. That's a more useful shift than it might seem, because a lot of the friction in notation work isn't the engraving or editing. It's the gap between having audio and having something you can actually work with.
It also changes which projects feel worth starting. A recording you've been meaning to transcribe, a reference track you want to study, a melody you hummed into your phone: any of these can be a starting point rather than something you keep putting off. Our MP3 to sheet music guide walks through how that process goes if you want a closer look.
The transcription won't always be perfect, and some cleanup is normal. But cleaning up a draft is different from building one from nothing, and it tends to be faster. Whichever notation software you use, the starting point is the same: upload a recording to Songscription, export MusicXML, and open it in your editor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I export MusicXML or MIDI for notation software?
MusicXML for most notation work. It carries the written score (how notes are grouped, marked, and laid out), so it opens as something close to a readable score. MIDI is a performance format that records which notes play and when but little guaranteed notational structure, so importing it into a notation editor usually means more cleanup before it reads like a score.
Will a Songscription file open in Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico?
Yes. Songscription exports MusicXML, which Sibelius, Finale, and Dorico all import. Older perpetual versions of Sibelius can show a version warning when opening newer MusicXML files, but the score usually still imports if you continue; a current Sibelius subscription is less likely to hit it.
Is Finale still usable for MusicXML import in 2026?
Yes, if you already have it installed. MakeMusic discontinued Finale in 2024, so it's no longer sold or updated, but existing installations still run and import MusicXML in most cases. MakeMusic now points users toward Dorico, which also imports MusicXML cleanly.