How do I lessen the "attack" on choir Ooohs?

• Sep 24, 2022 - 17:47

Hi all. I just completed a large 20-instrument score. It turned out well except for the Musescore default choir "Oooh" sound. When I tried to use it, each note played in the voice started really strong with an OOoooh for every note. Thus, when placing 4 differing notes in a measure, the sound was OOoh, OOoh, OOoh, OOhh. What I needed was a soft blended oooh sound, merging quietly into the next 3 notes in the measure, just as a choir would do. I tried using ties, but the effect was still pronounced. As a result, I had to use a 3rd party free choir soundfont, which fixed the problem.

Is there a way (perhaps using Polyphone or Musescore itself) to take the Oooh sound in Musescore's default soundfont, and soften/quiet the first symbol so the attack is quieter and softer? I can then use Polyphone to replace the default soundfont with the softer one, or instruct folks who want to download the score how to adjust their own default soundfont.
Thanks as always
Frank


Comments

I also use a 3rd party choir font. You can modify the default font with Polyphone. I used it to change it to sf2, then deleted all the instruments I never use. There is a way to add to the font. I haven't done that yet.

In reply to by bobjp

Bobjp: Thanks. I suspect there is a way to attack the opening sound of an Oohh so it is softer and less "attacking". Maybe someone commenting on this post will tell us.
To add a new font in Polyphone, do this:
1. Launch Polyphone and Open the default sf2 default font
2. Go to the File menu, and open the 2nd font that you want to copy a font from
3. Click on the arrow next to the "Presets" menu in both fonts to display them all
4. Right-click on the instrument preset in the 2nd font you want copied and choose "Copy" from the menu
5. Right-click on the open default sf2 presets menu, choose "Paste", and the new instrument you copied will be pasted into the default soundfont.
6. There is a way to re-order the new font so it doesn't appear on top of the default font, but I haven't found out how to do that yet. Look for how to do it, since you generally have to position new instruments in a font lower down in the instrument list ... otherwise it will screw up all the other instrument assignments in your Musescore song chosen with the Mixer menu.
7. Click the Save button at the top of Polyphone. Your new font will now be part of the default font.

In reply to by yonah_ag

Thanks. When I opened Musecore's default sf3 file and examined the Voice Ooohs in Polyphone, there was no volume envelope entered. The space was blank. There was a "Volume Release" value of 0.850, but that does not seem to be what you are referencing. Which "Volume Envelope" field should I use (there are several), and if it is currently empty, should I enter a value into it (say 0.05)?

In reply to by fsgregs

A blank means that it's defaulting from somewhere else. Volume release is about the end of the note rather than the beginning. I'd start with the global volume env attack parameter on the instrument trying values of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and then fine tuning from there. The related values in the same row are the means of applying a different value to different frequency ranges in the instrument.

In reply to by fsgregs

First: The place you're looking at is the Preset section. Everything there is relative to the settings in the Instrument Section.

That is, every setting with an (X) next to it in the Preset section is multiplied by the ones in the Instrument section. Example: For the same Patch, if there is a value of 1.250 in the Instrument section and a value of 0.850 in the Preset section, it means: 1.250 * 0.850 = 1.062.
Values ​​without an (X) sign in the Preset section are added or subtracted. Example: If Ins: 1.0 Preset:. -1.0 the result will be: (1) + (-1) = 0.

Most of the default values (in the empty fields) ​​in the Instrument section are 0, 0.0 and 0.001 (except for Vib. and Mod. frequencies with default 8.2Hz, Root-key with -1, Scale-tuning with 100 cents and Filter-frequency with ~20005Hz). Therefore, it's not possible to reduce a long attack recorded in the sample by writing some values ​​to these fields.

PS: While some complex operations can be done by increasing the sample start point and then adding attack timings (in the Instrument section), this is more of an expert's job, doesn't guarantee perfection and it's nothing more than an artificial version of the original..

In reply to by Ziya Mete Demircan

Thanks. So, I may not still understand. Are you saying there is no value I can enter into the Voice Oohh font to change the recorded sample OOOooh attack to a soft oooo? If I still don't get it and there is a way, could you see what you can do with it, and tell me how to edit the default Oohh to make its attack quieter and softer? If not, I can import a new Oohh voice into the MuseScore default and call it a custom soundfont, but it would be nicer to fix the old one.

Thanks in advance

In reply to by fsgregs

Sorry; Somehow, I misunderstood. I thought you wanted to make the Attack quicker (sound starts faster). But now that I read it again, I realize that you want the opposite. I guess that's how I figured it out with morning drowsiness. Sorry again.

A quick fix for you:
In the "Instruments" section, select "Ooh Voices". // Not in the "Presets" section.
In the Global column:
1. Enter 1 in "Vol. Env. Attack" (and press Enter) //It will appear as 1.000.
2. Save.
What you want is something close to that.

Of course you can increase the value as much as you want.

// Since there is no value here in the Instruments section and the default value is 0.001, you would have to enter a value such as 1000 for 1s to do this in the Presets section.

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