MDL Drumline Note Heads Wrong
I started a score using the marching band instruments, but then removed the battery instruments and replaced them with the MDL drumline instruments (snare, tenors, bass, and cymbals). When I go to input notes I noticed that the note heads for some of the tenors are wrong. For instance, the note head for rim clicks is supposed to be an x, but it shows as a regular note head. The duts, agogo, cowbell, jamblock, etc are all wrong too. The snare also has a bunch of the wrong. I didn't check the bass and cymbals, but I assume they also have some that are wrong. How can I fix this? Hopefully you can see the pic I attached. From the top down: Correct tenor, correct snare, wrong tenor, wrong snare.
Thanks,
Scott
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Comments
It's hard to say much from a picture - that actual score would be needed. But assuming you entered these notes for a non-MDL instrument than changed to an MDL one, it's kind of to be expected that the notes won't be right, because MDL uses totally different MIDI pitch assignments from the General MIDI standard used elsewhere. So you'll probably need to re-enter some or all of those notes.
In reply to It's hard to say much from a… by Marc Sabatella
Marc, sorry if I didn't explain myself very well, but you didn't understand what I meant. I added the MDL drumline instruments to a score that I have. The note heads are wrong. The sounds are fine, just the note heads are wrong. The rim clicks are supposed to be "x" note heads, they are just regular note heads (as one example). I tried to show that with the picture I attached. Attaching the score won't help. I could re-enter notes all day long, but that's not going to change the fact that the note heads are wrong. I'm still not sure I'm explaining properly.
In reply to Marc, sorry if I didn't… by sday88
Again, we really need to see the actual score in order to reproduce what you are seeing. For me in my own score, it works exactly as I said: when changing an instrument, any existing notes using pitches appropriate for the old instrument will need to be re-entered to use the pitches appropriate for the new instrument. And when I do this, it works perfectly. If it isn't for you, there must be something unique about your particular score, or something unique about the specific process you are following. So in order to understand and assist further, we need you to attach your score along with the precise instructions. Like this:
1) load attach score
2) select measure 1, staff 1
3) enter note input mode
4) double click the rim shot icon in the palette
5) see that even though the palette shows a an "x" head, a normal head got entered into the score
For me, though, it works perfectly with my own scores if I do exactly that.
In reply to Again, we really need to see… by Marc Sabatella
Marc, I'm not sure we're on the same page. It's frustrating because it's times like this that I wish we could share screens so I could show you what's happening.
1) load attach score I'm not sure what this means. Did you intend to attach a score that you want me to open in Musescore?
2) select measure 1, staff 1 Which instrument?
3) enter note input mode
4) double click the rim shot icon in the palette The "rim shot" note heads look fine, it's the "rim" note heads (along with a bunch of others) that are wrong.
5) see that even though the palette shows a an "x" head, a normal head got entered into the score The palette DOESN'T show an "x" head, it shows a regular note head. This is the problem.
Also, you keep talking about "pitches". The pitches, or sounds that the note produces, is fine, nothing wrong with that. It's the note head that is wrong.
Maybe this will help. I have attached two files:
SD Test: I created this score by going through the New Score Wizard and chose "Small Marching Band" as the instruments. I then went in and added the "MDL Snare Line", "MDL Tenor Line", "MDL Bass Line", and "MDL Cymbal Line". If you click in the first measure of "MDL Tenor Line" and then click on the note input button near the upper left, it opens the available choice palette across the bottom (at least that's how it works for me). You will see that the choices for "Rim Drum 1", "Rim Drum 2", etc (NOT Rim Shot) are shown as regular note heads. If you actually put those notes into the score the sound is still a rim, but the note head is wrong.
SD Test Also: This is a score in which I chose "MDL Battery" under "Musescore Drumline" in the New Score Wizard. If you go through the same process as I described above to enter a rim (NOT rim shot) note for the tenor part, it shows the note heads properly.
A lot of the other "sounds" have wrong note heads also, like I mentioned in my original post. For instance, agogos, jam block, cowbell, etc show the wrong note head, but the sound produced is correct. This is where I'm confused about when you keep talking about pitches.
Hopefully I've explained this properly. I appreciate you working with me and trying to help.
In reply to Marc, I'm not sure we're on… by sday88
If you take the one from the Battery template (SD Test Also) and open the Staff/Part properties for the Tenor Line and "change instrument" to the "MDL Tenor Line" you'll notice that Rim Drum X is reset to the full note heads as well.
I don't know enough about the expectancy here to know which one is "correct"; the instrument definition or the altered definition embedded in the Battery Template.
I do agree that one of them should be changed to match the other.
You can try reporting it to https://github.com/musescore/mdl/issues , but since there hasn't been an update to MDL in over 3 years I'm not overly optimistic that it'll be fixed soon (perhaps they'll rework/update it after MS4).
In the meantime you can in your scores press the "Edit Drumset" button and change the notehead definition for those notes. It is by design that you can't apply noteheads from the palette/inspector in drumset instruments, due to the nature of the linked playback sounds.
In reply to If you take the one from the… by jeetee
Yeah, the "Edit Drumset" fixed the note heads. Thanks for the help. I shouldn't have to go through all of that, but it did work.
In reply to Marc, I'm not sure we're on… by sday88
To be clear, I didn't attach a score, nor did I mean for you to literally follows the steps I listed. They were meant as an example, to show you how to write up a good problem description that will allow us to understand and assist you better. I was asking you to provide me with something just like I provided you, except of course, yours should actually contain a relevant score, and the steps to follow should be the ones that actually cause a problem.
Screen sharing, videos, and pictures - they are far less useful, because they don't let us know what's actually going on under the hood. It would be like asking your mechanic to diganose problems and fix your car just by showing him a picture of it.
So, I see you've now attached a score. If the answer given already above doesn't solve the issue for you, please follow my example and provide us with clear step by step instructions to follow like the sample ones I gave you. Then I can follow those same steps and see if there is a problem, or if you're doing something wrong.
In reply to To be clear, I didn't attach… by Marc Sabatella
Marc, the answer above did get the note heads changed, but one shouldn't have to go through all of that. The note heads shouldn't get changed by themselves like they do. Screen sharing would actually be completely useful. If I were able to share my screen with you I could literally show you what the problem is step by step without losing translation trying to explain it in writing. And I thought I did provide you the steps I took to get where I was with the problem. Yeah, I didn't type Step1 "do this", Step 2 "do this", etc, but my explanation was step by step instructions on what I did:
SD Test: I created this score by going through the New Score Wizard and chose "Small Marching Band" as the instruments. I then went in and added the "MDL Snare Line", "MDL Tenor Line", "MDL Bass Line", and "MDL Cymbal Line". If you click in the first measure of "MDL Tenor Line" and then click on the note input button near the upper left, it opens the available choice palette across the bottom (at least that's how it works for me). You will see that the choices for "Rim Drum 1", "Rim Drum 2", etc (NOT Rim Shot) are shown as regular note heads. If you actually put those notes into the score the sound is still a rim, but the note head is wrong.
SD Test Also: This is a score in which I chose "MDL Battery" under "Musescore Drumline" in the New Score Wizard. If you go through the same process as I described above to enter a rim (NOT rim shot) note for the tenor part, it shows the note heads properly.
In reply to Marc, the answer above did… by sday88
It would have been good indeed if the General MIDI standard included definitions for more drum sounds, but it didn't, and that's why MDL had to invent new ones, that are then necessarily different from / incomaptible with the standard ones. I suspect if there had been a way to make it compatible, they'd have done that. but if you do an investigation of the relevant standards and come up with a technical proposal for how it could be done different in MuseScore 4 now that the MIDI 2.0 spec is on the table, now woukd be a good time!
In reply to Marc, the answer above did… by sday88
As for screen sharing, I've been supporting MuseScore here for over ten years. It can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times mere pictures ended up being easier to follow than a score and a simple text description of the steps to follow. Please believe us when we say, it's far more helpful to us when reporting problems if you always include a score and precise steps. And that also means, we can be far more helpful to you, just as your mechanic would rather actually have you bring your car in than do a screen share. Plus, it takes less of your time to do, less of our time to respond to. It's really a win al around.
In reply to Marc, the answer above did… by sday88
> "The note heads shouldn't get changed by themselves like they do."
To be clear, they don't. The entered notes are entered exactly like how they are defined; that in itself is working perfectly and correctly.
Now for some reason the MDL Tenor Line definition in the template is a different instrument compared to the MDL Tenor Line instrument defined in instruments.xml. That's all there is to it; no bugs in note input, no automatically changing notes; just two different instruments with different definitions that just so happen to have the same name.
So the only thing that might be considered a bug here is that those instrument definitions differ. Nothing more, nothing less.
In reply to > "The note heads shouldn't… by jeetee
(The 'standard') instrument.xml or (MDL's) mdl_1_3_0.xml? I guess you mean the latter, as the former doesn't have any MDL entries...
BTW: MDL 2.0 had been announced 'to come soon' more than a year ago. and to be in the works, 1 1/2 years ago.
And to be in closed beta more than 10 months ago...
Still no release in sight though.
In reply to (The 'standard') instrument… by Jojo-Schmitz
And no movement on the repository for the past 3years either... :'(
In reply to And no movement on the… by jeetee
2 years actually, if you count in the change to the readme ;-)
b01159c
In reply to It's hard to say much from a… by Marc Sabatella
I even tried this: Created a new score and chose the MDL Battery in the score wizard. As normal, the note heads were correct. After the blank score opened I right clicked on "Tenor Line" next to the staff and then clicked "Staff/Part Properties". Under "Part Properties" I clicked "Change Instrument" and changed it to "MDL Tenors" under "All Instruments" / "Percussion - Marching". I then did the same thing and changed it back to "MDL Tenor Line" and the note heads were then wrong. Not sure if that made any sense.