Free online BMP to MSCZ converter

A BMP usually contains a scanned or rasterized page of sheet music, while MSCZ is an editable MuseScore score. Converting it requires optical music recognition (OMR) to interpret notes and notation, not a simple image-format change.

What the BMP format is

BMP is a raster image format that stores pixels, commonly without compression. In music composition, BMP files usually come from scanners, screenshots, Windows Paint, graphic editors, or notation programs exporting a page as an image.

A BMP can show staff lines, clefs, notes, rests, lyrics, dynamics, and other symbols, but it does not contain musical structure. A note in the image is only a pattern of pixels; the file does not identify its pitch, duration, voice, or measure.

What the MSCZ format is

MSCZ is MuseScore's compressed score format. It stores editable notation such as instruments, measures, pitches, durations, voices, lyrics, articulations, layout settings, and score metadata.

MSCZ files are suitable for editing and playback in MuseScore, printing, transposition, part extraction, and export to formats such as PDF, MIDI, and MusicXML. The format is substantially more useful than a BMP for revising a score, but it cannot preserve a page image as musical data unless the image is separately attached or imported.

How to actually convert BMP to MSCZ

1. Prepare a clear BMP scan. Use roughly 300 dpi or higher, crop away empty borders, correct rotation, and ensure staff lines and noteheads are not blurred or clipped. For several pages, keep the pages in reading order.
2. Install Audiveris, an open-source OMR application, and open the BMP with File → Open book. Audiveris analyzes staff systems, symbols, measures, and musical relationships.
3. Run the recognition and inspect the results in Audiveris. Correct uncertain symbols, page segmentation, instrument assignments, and rhythm warnings before exporting. Audiveris can export the recognized score as MusicXML through File → Export book.
4. Open the resulting .musicxml or .xml file in MuseScore with File → Open. Review every measure, then save it through File → Save As and choose the .mscz extension.

MuseScore is the application that creates the final MSCZ file; Audiveris supplies the intermediate notation recognition. For an online route, 101convert.com can be used for free without installing software, but the result still needs musical proofreading if the service performs OMR.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

Recognition accuracy depends on scan resolution, contrast, skew, handwriting, overlapping markings, and the complexity of the notation. Printed single-voice music generally converts better than handwritten scores, piano notation, orchestral systems, tablature, contemporary notation, or pages with dense lyrics and annotations.

Check pitches, accidentals, tied notes, tuplets, beams, dots, rests, key and time signatures, lyrics, dynamics, slurs, and instrument names in MuseScore. A visually convincing page can still contain incorrect musical data.

BMP pages containing only a title, cover, or decorative artwork cannot be meaningfully converted into editable notation. If recognition is not required, the image can instead be placed in a MuseScore score as a graphic, but the resulting MSCZ will not contain editable notes. MuseScore versions may alter layout or unsupported symbols when opening MusicXML, so retain the original BMP and exported MusicXML for recovery.