Request for SoundFont support on MuseScore.com

• Sep 22, 2011 - 14:07

Folks,

Although generally enamored with the capabilities of the MuseScore.com site, I have suggestion that would greatly enhance my ability to promote non-traditional music scores (e.g., English Handbell compositions). As you know, the standard SoundFont (I believe it is the “TimGM6mb.sf2” SoundFont) lacks support for English Handbell samples. As a result, other composers have resorted to third-party SoundFonts such as the "HandBells.sf2" SoundFont by FMJ Software (http://www.fmjsoft.com/siframe.html).

For me, the issue becomes one of audio reproducibility once the score is uploaded to the MuseScore.com site. As you can imagine, indices used within the "HandBells.sf2" SoundFont rarely map directly to indices used within the “TimGM6mb.sf2” SoundFont (used by MuseScore.com) producing at best, awkward representations of the composers intent.

My work-around has been to immediately construct a VideoScore using MIDI produced from the "HandBells.sf2" SoundFont, convert and publish the resultant Media File to “YouTube.com”, all in hopes that the listener would choose the VideoScore over the integrated MuseScore.com player.

My suggestion would be to allow SoundFonts used in the composition to be retained within the score to allow accurate playback on MuseScore.com.

Thanks,
Mike Magatagan

Comments

• Sep 22, 2011 - 16:09

Boy, that would potentially make scores *huge*, increasing disk space requirement for both you and for musescore.com. Maybe a better solution would be to simply support more soundfonts on musescore.com? Deciding which might be tricky, but it seems worthwhile to try.

Reply

• Sep 22, 2011 - 17:58

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting your suggestion. Fyi, it has been posted before in the Improving MuseScore.com group.

We acknowledge that having the same sound online as in MuseScore would make a great feature. We explored two ways to implement this: either render the audio with the right soundfont on musescore.com from the score file, either upload the audio file along with the score file to musescore.com. We think the latter is the best approach. There is no time of arrival yet, but let's say it's on top of our priority list after the upcoming upgrade of musescore.com.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.