Usually, when we talk about files in PDF format, we refer to those with contents such as personal and professional presentations, which you will try to read them. However, although many users are unaware of it, we cannot lose sight of the fact that there are also musical scores in PDF, and if you want to read them, you will need a specific program, such as PDFtoMusic.

PDFtoMusic is a platform different from almost everything you have known before, considering that it has been developed so that you can reproduce all those scores in PDF format on your PC without even requiring previous knowledge. If you intend to listen to these scores' melodies and even the lyrics, you will only have to install this paid trial version application and put it to work.

How it works

PDFtoMusic then converts your PDF into musical writing, offering all kinds of functions that you might find interesting, such as exporting the different PDFs, those scores, to MIDI, WAV, AIFF, or MYR. This is essential for the most expert users and speaks a little of this service's enormous versatility.

On the other hand, undoubtedly, one of the most striking elements we have seen in our experience of using PDFtoMusic is the Virtual Singer module, which offers us a kind of virtual singer of the lyrics of the different scores. If you want to make music from a PDF, listen to the results, and thus be able to make the modifications you consider necessary, there are few better tools than this one.

Of course, there is also the possibility of disregarding PDFtoMusic's singing system. Still, it is the most advantageous point of this utility, considering that it is the one that differentiates it from any other similar program. In normal conditions, if we have a score in PDF, we will first have to convert it to another format, so thanks to this software, you can save a reasonable amount of time.

If you are learning to play a particular instrument, PDFtoMusic can also be of great help because you have to play the score with this application and then try to play it with the instrument, comparing the results. In this way, you will have the chance to corroborate that you are doing it right and that there are no significant differences between both interpretations. In these cases, serve as a tutor.

And what if you want to generate your PDF scores to be able to read them with this application? Well, then, you will need some famous complementary tools in the segment. We recommend the following: Encore, Finale, or Sibelius. Of course, all of them belong to other developers, but we didn't want to leave them out because you will surely want to improvise a bit when the time comes.

The user interface of PDFtoMusic is not bad at all, taking into account that although it is noticeable that it has been some time since it has received an update at the design level, then it does offer a spirit of its own. The organization of the menus from tabs is very simple to the eye. In any case, we regret that it is only available in English, although we can already tell you that this does not detract from the user experience for those who don't understand English.

Keep in mind

As we said at the beginning, PDFtoMusic is not a free application, but we will have to pay to use it at the end of the trial period. You have to know that this evaluation version also has some limitations that do not appear in the Pro edition, such as the possibility of exporting the results to MusicXML so that you can play them later in any professional editor you want.

The best

As we said during the review, and without any doubt, the best thing about PDFtoMusic is that we will be able to listen to the scores in PDF that we have at hand, both in music and in lyrics, without having to perform a format conversion beforehand. In this way, you will be able to know the content of each of these scores, compare your interpretation with the program, etc.

The worst

PDFtoMusic has some quite evident weaknesses, the first of them being the fact that not only is it a paid program but also that its trial version has certain limitations of use. To this, we have to add that in our tests, when loading heavy content, it took quite a long time to do so, so its upload speed could be improved.

Rating

PDFtoMusic is a tool that should be installed on the computers of all those users who, for different reasons, have to read PDF scores daily. It is a perfect service in terms of functionality, with few concrete rivals, which nevertheless has an unavoidable handicap: the investment required to use it definitively.