XML is the general abbreviation for EXtensible Markup Language . . .

THOUGHTS

[NOTE: If you already know all this stuff, then let it be something that might help other forum members who might not know it . . . ]

NOTION supports MusicXML and exports it and imports it . . .

Lots of computer programming applications use flavors of XML, and the Bulletin Board Software for this forum uses a flavor of XML, which you can verify easily by looking at the BB code for a YouTube video . . .

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[video][/video]

The delimiting characters vary, but they tend to be left and right arrows, although they can be square brackets and whatever else a Software Engineer decides to use . . .

Inside NOTION, pairs of left and right arrows ("less than" and "greater than" characters) are used . . .

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<tag> data </tag>

These can be, and usually are, nested, which makes it like outlining in English grammar, where the rule is that these things need to be in pairs in the format shown above for tags . . .

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Each beginning tag "<tag>" needs to have an ending tag "</tag>", where "tag" is the generic
abbreviation for some type of data.  For example, there might be an XML variable that 
denotes the key signature, in which case the tag-pair might be "<key-sig> data </key-sig>",
where the "data" aspect might be "C Major".

Specifically "<key-sig>C Major</key-sig>" or something similar . . .

In fact, in Computer Science terminology, XML is a grammar, and it has syntax . . .

There are applications that examine a scanned PDF of sheet music and then convert it to music notation . . .

Some of the forum members use this type of software, so they can provide more insights into the way it works when the music notation is intended to be input to and used in NOTION . . .

I have not done this and at present have no plans to start doing it, in part because while I am conversant in music notation, I tend to prefer doing everything primarily "by ear"--although in NOTION via music notation . . .

Other than thoroughly enjoying touch-typing and composing treatises on just about anything--although especially on music topics, science fiction, conspiracy theories, advanced but non-standard theories of particle physics, cooking, and a few others--my focus in this reply is explaining the software engineering perspective that XML is a general thing, hence as a rule should not be presumed to be identical and equivalent from one flavor of XML to another flavor of XML . . .

I have the official transcripts of all the Beatles songs, and it's useful at times, but mostly for chords and lyrics if I cannot remember something . . .

It's generally good, but it's not accurate in every respect; so I have it mostly because I like having it, not because I actually use it very often . . .

If you look behind the scenes, for example, the text you see in this reply is a flavor of XML and most likely involves "HTTP", "CSS", and a few other primarily web-based languages . . .

I am connecting a few dots arbitrarily, but among other things I am a Computer Scientist and Software Engineer, which maps to being able to connect a few dots in one way or another with some level of accuracy . . .

I did a bit of research on the matter, and NOTION does not do the conversion from (a) PDF of music notation to (b) MusicXML . . .

This is done by another application like "ScanScore", and it's not completely accurate in every instance . . .

[NOTE: There are other such applications, but this is the first one I found. It looks good, and there is support for manually correcting conversion errors, which is important, as explained later . . . ]

ScanScore

Scanning is not always so perfect, and in some instances there are no one-to-one mappings, where the best example is MIDI and music notation . . .

MIDI is digital, but music notation is analog in the way I use the terms "digital" and "analog" . . .

There is no one-to-one mapping of MIDI to music notation and vice-versa, so converting from one to the other is as much an art as a science . . .

Consider my favorite Rammstein song, "Du Hast" . . .



Best wishes on transcribing the drum and rhythm guitar parts . . .

Why?

They are syncopated, and it's virtually impossible--or at least very difficult--to notate highly syncopated instruments with music notation . . .

Based on what you wrote in your post and the focus on tuplets, I think you understand this very well . . .

I play electric guitar, and while I can play the rhythmic chord patterns to "Du Hast", it would be very difficult for me to transcribe them using music notation . . .

My perspective on the analog aspect of music notation is that it's mostly what I call "binary" in the sense that note durations mostly are multiples of two {whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and so forth} . . .

If you need an odd duration, then this is where tuplets become vital; but even then there are things musicians can play easily but are difficult to notate, no matter how much you resort to using tuplets and other such devices . . .

Making it all the more absurd in some respects, NOTION converts the music notion to MIDI; and when you are using VSTi virtual instruments, NOTION sends MIDI to the respective VSTi virtual instrument engines . . .

No matter how you are converting sheet music in a PDF to XML, it's probably not going to be perfectly accurate, which is what intrigues me about ScanScore, since ScanScore has the ability for you to make manual corrections when there are conversion errors . . .

For reference, one of my Software Engineering specialties is designing and programming Parsers and Syntax Analyzers, which I do the way it was done in what one might call the "Dinosaur Days of Mainframe Computing" when mainframe computers were about the size of a house and had thousands of vacuum-tubes . . .

I do this in low-level C, and it's all hand coded, where nothing happens unless I allow it, which I suppose makes me a bit of software dictator, but so what . . .

In some respects, it takes long, but my parsers and syntax analyzers are highly accurate . . .

For reference an Apple Watch is more powerful than a 1950s mainframe computer and is a vastly tiny physical package . . .

Technically, a big part of the overall problem is that Software Engineers are not always so musical, although as a rule musicians tend to be excellent Software Engineers . . .

Specifically, when there are no absolute one-to-one mappings, how well one handles the "art" aspect depends strongly upon how well one understands the nuances of the "art" and how well one can devise strategies for determining the "best and most accurate fit" when there is no obviously absolute rule . . .

Yet, I suggest that there are absolute rules, but only when one allows more than the obvious set of rules . . .

SUMMARY

The "workaround" is to print the sheet music and then to transcribe it to music notation yourself by inputting the music notation in NOTION one note and articulation, dynamic, and playing style at a time . . .

Using a conversion application like ScanScore can make it much easier--provided the PDF is scanned accurately and the sheet music is accurate . . .

One more example is fitting . . .

NOTION has a library of scores, and one of them is "Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Act 2, No. 12c - Chinese Dance" . . .

A few years ago in 2016, I used this NOTION score with the native NOTION bundled instruments but enhanced them with some VST effects plug-ins from IK Multimedia and FabFilter Software Instruments and did a new mix . . .

I am licensed to use all that stuff, and after doing it, I posted the result to my YouTube channel . . .

A few days later, a supercomputer in France decided that I was a Russian Symphonic Orchestra and was violating their copyrighted performance recording . . .

YouTube gave me two ways to respond to the copyright violation claim:

(1) agree to let the French company have whatever money was generated from YouTube views, thereby admitting that I violated their copyright

OR

(2) protest and defend my work

The problem with (2) is that if my protest had been unsuccessful, then I could have lost my YouTube channel privileges . . .

Since I did not violate anyone's copyright and am not a Russian Symphonic Orchestra, I chose to protest . . .

I was successful in the protest--of course--but the way this is relevant to the topic is that it's a real-world example of what sloppy software engineering and artificial intelligence algorithms can do in what one might call the "Skynet (Terminator)" part of reality, which is very real . . .

This is the protest and my detailed response, as well as YouTube's determination:





[NOTE: This is the song done in NOTION with native NOTION bundled instruments and VST effects plug-ins, mostly for reverberation. One of the flute notes sounds flat, but it's probably because I set "Concert A" to 440-Hz, the generally accepted standard reference tuning pitch, but the NOTION London Symphonic Orchestra (LSO) samples are recorded at 432-Hz reference pitch, but so what. Everything else sounds correctly tuned, so perhaps it's a "flute thing". Of course, it's possible the aforementioned Russian Symphonic Orchestra has a lead flutist who is tone-deaf . . . ]



On the good side, I think a Skynet (Terminator) supercomputer in France deciding I am Aleksandr Kopilov conducting the National Bolshoi Orchestra is indisputable evidence that NOTION is fully capable of creating professional quality symphonic audio--noting that the National Bolshoi Orchestra recording is available on Apple iTunes, while my version made with NOTION 5, LSO sampled sound library, and assorted VST effects plug-ins is available for free on my YouTube channel . . .

Lots of FUN!

Interesting replay. I assumed folks would know I meant MusicXML, but I'll be more specific from now on. I should know better.

Thanks for all the info, and yes, it appears the only solution at present is to hand-enter notes. The MusicXML file does give me a head start, completely accurate or no.

My actual issue is that Notion's tuplet tool doesn't appear to have the smarts to convert a quarter and eighth note to three eighth note triplets, etc. though there appears to be an allowance in MusicXML for such a pattern.

But this post was to confirm that this is the case, and that I'm not missing a trick or doing something wrong.

This is actually an understandable oversight but it would be handy you were able to tuplet-ize disparate note durations that still added up to the overall duration of the desired tuplet.