Using Musescore to create a virtual choir
Thanks for the previous help on OSC Remote Control. Yet another thing to learn but I'm up for it.
Here's what I'm trying to do- I want to have our choir (remote, of course) be able to sing under the direction of our director, "Dir" . We would all have MuseScore installed, with the score we're working on. The director would send a command to start at a certain point, and we'd sing with the other choral voices. Dir would hear all the incoming tracks resynchronized with Audacity or some mixer console. Dir could stop us, playback a section, or voice or group so we can all hear, then restart us. Dir could even update a score globally with markings.
It isn't perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than what we have now, and if I can get OSC working, much on the Singer side is already done. I don't know about the Dir side.
Any thoughts would be welcome. If you want to see what we've already done check out SharimVSharot on YouTube.
Max
Comments
I think the online collaboration feature planned for version 4 will be useful. I'm not sure what can be done today to make the edit quickly option available. See https://musescore.org/en/MuseScore4 for everything I know about this feature.
In reply to I think the online… by mike320
This sounds very interesting. And VSTi, if I understand it may handle the director's side. Very exciting. Of course by the time this happens, G'd willing and by modern science, Covid will be over. I have to think it will still be very useful.
In reply to This sounds very interesting… by MaxYaffe
I think Covid will make us look at life in a new way, even after it's over. I think virtual rehearsals like this will remain more common than before.
We use Musescore individually. Each chorister learns the music by singing along until she is comfortable with her performance. The Mixer makes this particularly easy. Next, she records her contribution on Audacity with a pre-loaded track of the Musescore accompaniment. (Adding a few leading measures of 'tap', 'tap' plus two quiet measures to the accompaniment helps later with alignment and noise reduction.) After a few iterations and satisfied with her work, she deposits the Audacity project in her online cubbyhole, open only to her and the choir director.
The choir director’s assistant (usually an alto or a bass, never a diva) pulls all the tracks together into the choir’s Audacity project. This is worked over by the director and assistant until they are ready to invite the choristers to assemble online for a virtual ‘choir practice’, ‘dress rehearsal’, or ‘performance’. Critiqued and iterated, the project concludes in a ‘performance’ which transfers to mp3 format. If all goes well, the performance will be good enough to play during a service.
Each chorister has the pleasure of singing in the music and the satisfaction of contributing their voice to the parish. Moreover, the skills acquired in using Musescore during these virtual performances will likely translate into improved singing when the pandemic storm passes.
In reply to We use Musescore… by Flaneur
Very similar to the approach we're currently using. Except that we a) record a Zoom session and b) ourselves via our mobiles as an MP4 or MOV. And that the cutters are a Soprano and a Tenor ;-)
In reply to Very similar to the approach… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thank you. We will now record our Zoom sessions for the same reasons we use Audacity to hear ourselves sing. To encourage our aged choristers we have promised not to sing on camera. Should video be required, we will happily sing accompanied by a liquid montage so long as it doesn't distract from the music. (I can't hear properly with eyes open.)
I stand corrected on sopranos and tenors. In fact, our lead soprano doubles as 'Choir Director', which occasionally involves painful labor.
In reply to We use Musescore… by Flaneur
FWIW, I've been using BandLad - a free online DAW platform - for this sort of collaboration. It's not exactly seamless, but a lot more so I think than having people record individually on Audacity, managing their own uploads/downloads, etc.