A MusicXML file is how a melody leaves MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico and becomes a choir problem you can actually rehearse. CantuStudio reads that melody and writes soprano, alto, tenor and bass around it. The result is a draft you can hear, mark and export. It is not a finished anthem, it does not clear copyright, and it does not replace the notation editor you already use for layout and lyrics.

SATB arranger · English pricing · Export an SATB draft to MusicXML · MusicXML for worship, in Portuguese · Open the app

How a MusicXML file becomes the melody

Import starts in the app, from a score file the choir already exported. CantuStudio treats that file as the melody to harmonize. The point of the import is the tune, not a promise that every articulation, staff style and extracted part survives unchanged. Soprano, alto, tenor and bass are written around that melody, and the melody stays in the soprano. You still choose the key and the meter for the section you actually have, plus style and complexity. Style selection is a Pro feature, in the same gate family as the voice editor and the MusicXML download. The result is a draft you are allowed to reject.

There is no send-to-editor action and no shared login with MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius or Dorico. The file you export from those programs is the file you drop here. If the arrangement is worth keeping, save it on the account before any download. A visitor without an account can hear a short demo of up to 16 notes. A free account includes 10 harmonizations a month and 2 MIDI exports a month. Those limits, and the current Pro price, live on the English pricing page. When the tune is not a MusicXML file yet, the SATB arranger is the same drafting loop from a melody you type or paste.

Which score files the upload accepts

The melody upload accepts .xml, .musicxml and .mxl. The .mxl extension is compressed MusicXML. The same control also accepts MIDI (.mid and .midi) and MuseScore files (.mscz and .mscx). The format message in the app lists those extensions and rejects anything else. A photo, a PDF of printed music, or a hummed recording is a different input on the same screen, not a MusicXML file. A PDF or a photo uses the scan path and extracts a melody. If you already have a digital score, export MusicXML instead of photographing the page.

A compressed file that is not a valid ZIP fails as a corrupted .mxl or .mscz. The message asks you to export again, or to use an uncompressed .xml or .musicxml. CantuStudio does not open a native Finale .musx by itself, and it does not emit .musx, .mscz or a Dorico project on the way out. Finale can export MusicXML, and Finale can later import the .musicxml you download. The download button names MuseScore, Sibelius and Dorico because they open that file. The interchange format is MusicXML. Each editor keeps its own native package.

How the SATB voice leading is generated and reviewed

Once the melody is in, CantuStudio writes the four parts. The melody remains the soprano line. Alto, tenor and bass are the new writing. A deterministic check then flags parallel fifths, parallel octaves, voice crossing, range problems, and notes that sit outside the chord on a strong beat. Strong-beat problems come before decorative inner motion. If a downbeat pitch is not in the chord and does not resolve, treat it as a defect before rehearsal, not as color. The screen shows a music report you can act on. The report does not certify the arrangement.

That review is why this stays a drafting tool. Awkward leaps, spacing and unvocal motion still need a musician in the room. The published guides on voice leading and on parallel fifths and octaves explain those rules at more length. This page is the import path that feeds the same check. Listen while you read the report. A line that looks acceptable and sounds unstable should change before the choir learns it. Nothing in the report replaces the director, the teacher or a copyright review.

Playback and edits before anyone learns the part

Playback is how you decide the draft is even a candidate. Hear the four parts together. Mute one voice when you need to know whether the alto can find the note without the piano feeding it. Per-voice MIDI is the practice file for a single section: one voice up front and the others as backing, the vocal-exercise download. A free account includes 2 MIDI exports a month. Pro removes that monthly MIDI cap, together with the cap on drafts. Do not send a practice file of a line you have not heard yourself.

Changing pitches in the voice editor is a Pro feature, grouped with PDF and MusicXML export. The free account can still generate inside the monthly harmonization limit and listen before it spends rehearsal time. If you edit, save again so the stored score matches what you hear. An older MusicXML can lag notes that were edited before a fix. The export notice says to regenerate the arrangement or save an edit when the XML may not reflect those notes. In that case the new notes are in the MIDI and in the editor. Refresh the XML before you hand the file to another program.

MusicXML, MIDI, PDF and the rehearsal kit

Three files leave the draft, and they do different jobs. MusicXML is the score you keep editing. The saved extension is .musicxml. The MusicXML download sits behind the Pro lock. A free account sees Unlock with Pro and does not receive the file. The lock opens for Pro, for Studio, for an admin, or for an active trial the app treats as Pro. Nothing pushes the score into another company's cloud. You save the .musicxml and open it yourself. PDF is a separate Pro print path, from the browser print of the saved arrangement. MIDI can leave on the free account, inside the monthly cap of 2.

The export buttons need a saved arrangement. If you harmonized before you signed in, save on the account and export after that. The rehearsal kit is the share you send only after you trust the draft. Each singer can open one voice in the browser, including from a choir WhatsApp message, without installing an app. The plans page is where Free and Pro differ on the full kit, on PDF and on MusicXML. Paid Pro starts at R$24.90 per month in BRL, with yearly billing up to R$249.90. Sign in to subscribe. This page quotes CantuStudio prices only.

A choir-director week that starts from a file

A realistic week starts with a file, not with an empty staff. Someone sends a hymn the choir is allowed to sing, already exported from the notation program the pianist uses. You import it, choose a key the tenors can sustain, and generate. You listen once before anyone else does. You walk the report for parallels, crossings and range. You change what the section cannot sing. Only then do you export. PDF is what someone prints. MIDI is what a singer loops at home. MusicXML is what you open in MuseScore, Sibelius, Dorico or Finale when the folder needs engraving, lyrics and house style.

The SATB arranger is the same loop when the tune is a typed melody instead of a file. The app is where the upload, the playback and the export buttons live. English pricing is where you check the free monthly limits before you promise the choir a stack of new pieces. Portuguese worship teams who want this export story in Portuguese can read the MusicXML-for-worship page. The download rule there is the same Pro lock. The short citation for buyers is the answer on exporting an SATB draft to MusicXML. None of those pages ranks products or invents a user review.

Limits and habits that keep the MusicXML clean

Length is a hard limit. A signed-in melody can run to 64 notes in one block. Longer melodies, up to 256 notes, are split automatically into bar-aligned sections in the same style. Past that length the file is rejected rather than quietly chopped into an unusable hymn. The upload error says the melody exceeded 256 events, notes or rests, and asks you to split the score into parts of up to 256 events and import each part. A no-signup demo is shorter: 16 notes, enough to hear a phrase. Use the demo to judge the sound, not to process a full hymnal page.

Clean MusicXML is mostly an export habit in the other program. Prefer .musicxml or .xml when a compressed .mxl comes back as an invalid ZIP. Do not expect a photographed page to behave like a score file. Use the scan input for a PDF or a photo, and expect a melody extraction rather than a perfect engraving. Keep one musical idea per file when the tune is long. Pick the key before you generate, so you are not transposing a bad tessitura after the choir has learned it. Save before you export. Read the report before you print.

What the draft leaves in your hands

CantuStudio does not decide the liturgy, the text stress, or whether you have the right to arrange the song. The file does not create a license. A public-domain tune and a copyrighted chorus are different jobs, and only you know which file you were sent. The draft also does not replace a notation editor. Layout, lyrics, verse order, cues and extracted parts stay in MuseScore, Sibelius, Dorico or Finale after the MusicXML export. If the score you already trust is finished, do not regenerate it. Import is for a melody that still needs alto, tenor and bass.

What you do get is a first SATB pass in seconds, varying with the length of the melody, plus playback and a voice-leading report. You keep the musical decision. Public claims stay conservative until a musician has heard the draft and accepted it. When the free monthly cap is enough, stay on the free account. When you need unlimited drafts, PDF, MusicXML and the full rehearsal kit, Pro is the documented upgrade. A free account can open a 3-day Pro trial after it hits the monthly generation limit. There is no migration coupon. Check English pricing, then open the app and import the file.

SATB arranger · English pricing · Export an SATB draft to MusicXML · MusicXML for worship, in Portuguese · Open the app