Note: These are for version 1: version 2 is even better!
In March 2001 The German magazine C'T reviewed the music scanning and music notation programs Finale/MIDIScan, Sibelius/Photoscore, SmartScore, Capella-Scan, Lime, SharpEye and MIDI Connections Scan. Here is their reported accuracy for all the music scanning programs on three scores of increasing difficulty.
| SharpEye 1.22 | 100% | 92% | 88% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photoscore | 100% | 95% | 87% |
| SmartScore | 99% | 94% | 82% |
| Photoscore Lite | 98% | 79% | 68% |
| MIDIScan 3.0 | 98% | 89% | 71% |
| MIDIScan Light | 85% | 50% | 33% |
| Capella 2000 | 76% | <30% | <30% |
| MIDI Connections Scan | <30% | 61% | 60% |
C'T, issue 2001/6
Definitely the most exciting music scanning program we have so far encountered is SharpEye. It's level of accuracy is in a different league than anything else we've seen. We've been testing its Niff output files here in conjunction with MidiScorWrite almost exclusively on 19th century piano music, which we see as the greatest test of a music scanning program at present, as it has to read and interpret multiple voices on one staff in editions which are often cramped and rough. It has a very easy to use music editor which allows you to correct any errors it might make.
SCORE UPDATE - MARCH 2000, new notations london
I have gotten very positive comments about using SharpEye to produce NIFF, and then importing NIFF into Lime... you probably have the best music scanning software available anywhere
Lippold Haken, co-author of Lime
I just tried Sharp Eye for the first time, and it worked perfectly. A wonderful product. You have my gratitude. Thank you very much.
JF, Durham, USA
I find it to be a remarkable program. The accuracy is better than I could have guessed.
FP, e-mail
Coungartuliton for this super progam... Sorry for my English
VS, Macedonia
Vielen Dank und herzliche Gratulation zu Ihrem Programm!! Es ist das "beste". Ich freue mich bereits jetzt auf die nächste Version. Grüsse aus der Schweiz
AM, Bern, Switzerland
This program is great! I love it! Thank you very much for creating it. I was exceedingly happy when I discovered it on the Internet because I have been looking for something like it for four years.
RT, USA
I downloaded your demo version last night, and am suitably impressed - if not amazed! Fantastic stuff, and I will no doubt proceed to cough up the money in due course.
AL, e-mail
It's great, it recognized all notes and splitted the voices (that's what I need 'cause I play the lute continuo). And I compared about 4 other OCR programs the last 3 days with no better result but really more expensive.
JS, Heidelberg, Germay
I must say I'm quite surprised by the reliability of that software. Indeed, I scanned a reduction for choir and piano of the "Missa Sancti Hieronymi", written by J. Michael Haydn, 68 pages. Following the little problem related to the separated stave systems, I scanned the piece in two steps.
As a result, I reckon Sharpeye made less than 1 percent of mistakes, which, by the way, can be corrected in a smart and effective way.
PS, Switzerland
This is a very good music OCR. It has excellent algorithms. I tested it mainly with Guitar Scores and it works incredibly well.
JBT, Madrid, Spain
My piano students and I have been using your program for a few weeks and find it far superior to Piano Scan that we were using.
EK, Oregan, USA
I tested other music OCRs but SharpEye is the most compact, most accurate and most easy to use.
JVR, Belgium
May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on this fine piece of software. In terms of accuracy, speed and ease of use (and price!) its rivals do not even come close. It is so refreshing to find software which performs exactly as stated 'on the box' and is such good value
BN, Hampshire, UK
I am in France at the moment and do not have access to my regular equipment but scanning a scan with an old Logitec hand held B&W scanner produces almost perfect results - pretty impressive!
DB, Worcs., UK
SharpEye does its job extremely well and the release version is very stable. There are a couple of obscure problems but these are explained and can easily be avoided. With good quality images, single melody line scores require little or no correction. As the image quality deteriorates, or as the complexity of the music increases, the software begins to make more errors. Even so, when I scanned a well-used 1969 copy of the piano music to The Beatles' Maxwell's Silver Hammer which is quite complex, has split systems, awkward rhythms and missing rests, the time taken in correcting was nothing compared to the time it would have taken to enter the three pages of music into Rhapsody 4 by hand.
SharpEye makes an ideal addition to a Rhapsody 4 or MIDI music system by providing an alternative method of inputting music into the computer. In particular, for someone like me whose sight reading is poor, it is a real boon. A tune can be scanned, converted to Rhapsody 4 or MIDI and played back by the computer, at which point I can learn it by ear. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending it.
Archive Magazine, February 2000
I am very impressed indeed with its performance and its use is a genuine saving over manual entry for all but the most complex scores.
JOL, Shropshire, UK
I as a music teacher will both use the app and appreciate the labour saving qualities. The scan I used produced error free play back and a accuracy of 100%. Say no more!
CRC, Norfolk, UK
I'm (sorry?) to report that !Sharpeye is having a very bad effect on my workload! I'm so intrigued with it that things which ought to be done are being left, while I scan page after page of music and learn enough grammar to correct Sharpeye's occasional reading errors. I'm hugely impressed with it's capabilities.
JS, Herts, UK
It is wonderful to see and use such excellent software from small British developers which is not "bloatware", not overpriced and above all very efficient and usable.
JW, UK
... the scanning program is orders of magnitude better than anything I have tried before
DU, Herts, UK
What can I say? The new software is incredible. Thank you.
CM, Kent, UK
The MP Scan module! What a beaut!!!! Brilliant!
EP, Western Australia