Changing velocity explicitly in Musescore 4
I've got a piano score written out with dynamics included that sounds a little over-bashy as-is. I could go through and change each of the dynamic markings to one or two slots quieter (mf-p, f-mp, ff-mf etc) but that would be time-consuming and result in a score that doesn't look the way I want people to read it. To get across the hurdle of the piano being a little more heavy-handed than I was hoping in the new playback engine, I thought I'd just select the whole score and change the velocity of every note by 16 points or so.
Is this the correct way to achieve this, and the fact that it is having no effect simply a bug that needs reporting (we are still in beta, after all) or is this a feature of the new playback engine where it ignores anything except for what's explicitly written on the page and I need to find another way of telling it to hold back a little?
On a related note - I used to add staff text to set different voices within a score to different soundfonts by setting them to specific midi channels - but now I can't seem to do that anymore, and it doesn't seem to matter as the new playback engine doesn't seem to offer this granular control. Again, something I might have used for pizz. and the like, and I believe the new engine just sees the instructions and interprets them... (though I use it for organ manual registrations too).
Comments
The beta from a couple of weeks ago doesn't have velocity working, but the nightly builds do. So, download a nightly (see Download / Software in the menu above, scroll down to the development builds, and grab the nightly for architecture, being sure not to be fooled by the fake "beta" that is actually nothing of the sort).
It works a bit differently than in MuseScore 3, but does work. Instead of setting the velocity offset to 16, the "base" velocity is always listed as 64 regardless of dynamic (I know, makes little sense, but just go with it), so you'll need to set the velocity to 48 (64-16).
And yes, you don't need to mess with setting staff text properties anymore,. pretty much everything you used to need that for is now built into the palette. But if you're using a custom soundfont that relies on this, you'll need a different method - like instrument changes, or better yet, VST instruments with key switches (which do work well).
In reply to The beta from a couple of… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc,
The instructions on the beta release said that I needed to install it via musehub for musesounds to work - does this mean that I won't be using musesounds if I'm using the nightly builds?
In reply to Thanks Marc, The… by IsaacReefman
You can’t use builds older than the beta with Muse Sounds, but the nightlies builds are newer and work fine, plus they include bugs fixes and other improvements made in the weeks since. So, I recommend using Muse Hub to install the sounds themselves but don’t bother with the beta of MuseScore itself and instead head straight to the nightlies.
In reply to You can’t use builds older… by Marc Sabatella
Awesome, great tips, thanks! I wonder if the issues I was having with repeats causing sections of my score to play back over whatever was currently playing a few seconds after the repeat was observed will go away with the latest nightly... If not, I'll be sure to try to get around to posting a bug report.
In reply to Awesome, great tips, thanks!… by IsaacReefman
The repeat bugs are known and still being worked in. So, not fixed in the currently nightly build but probably will be by next week.
In reply to The repeat bugs are known… by Marc Sabatella
So this is probably not the place to ask but I can't find the right place - where can I see the current bugs with nightly builds so I can see if what I'm experiencing is expected (and when are we expecting sustain pedals to work properly again?)
In reply to So this is probably not the… by IsaacReefman
Bugs are reported on GitHub, as per the announcement, Just click the issues tab and you'll see a search box as well as a button to create a new issue.
Pedal works already for the built in soundfont. Should be working for Muse Sounds within the next few days.
In reply to The beta from a couple of… by Marc Sabatella
That didn't work...
I've got the latest nightly now, and ctrl+A selected the whole score, and in the properties tab, clicked the playback button in the General section. Under note there is a velocity spin box, I changed that to 32 (so I could be 100% certain of the very obvious difference) and hit play again. No change to playback. Did I miss something?
In reply to That didn't work... I've got… by IsaacReefman
If you selected the whole score, I wouldn't expect to really notice a difference; everything is just a little softer. Try selecting just a single note, or a few notes within a passage. Not sure if it's working for Muse Sounds yet though.
In reply to If you selected the whole… by Marc Sabatella
The change of velocity only works when I select one note. When select by ctrl+A the velocity does not change even I change the value in the playback tab. (It just becomes back to 64 when I deselect.) Am I missing something? Or can the velocity be set as 0 on default?
In reply to The change of velocity only… by MOCH
In MuseScore 4, velocity 0 doesn't make sense, that would be silent. Changing velocity works no matter how many notes I select, though. If you continue to have trouble, please open a new issue, attach your score, and give precise steps to reproduce the issue.