Best soundfont for exporting choir practice mp3 ?

• Feb 18, 2023 - 22:10

TL;DR - both MS Basic vocals and Muse Sounds vocals are bad at articulating, because they all sing "ah", while actual lyrics might be more like "ta-ta-ta". This is especially a problem when several ta-ta-ta in a row have same pitch, and it is very hard to tell them apart.
Looking for replacement.

I am quite new to MS4, but computer-literate.
My goal is to create a nice set of choir practice mp3s for every part so people can simply learn their part at home (>50% of people can't even read rhythm on the scores - we are low-effort choir).
For MOST of our songs we have bought professionally prepared practice mp3s recorded in a studio. Currently I have a song with no practice mp3s, but I have MuseScore4 file.

Muse Sounds Grand Piano is GREAT AT ARTICULATING and almost perfect in everything and everything, except that it cannot hold sustained notes. I think this detail is important for practice for people that cannot read scores.

After wandering around Muse Sounds I have found that Violin 1 (Solo) is both good at articulating (not as great as Grand Piano but ok) because bow strikes provide strong enough "strike" at the beginning of every note, it plays staccato well and also can sustain. Viola (Solo) is also good, while Violoncello (Solo)'s bow work is more heavy and slow, so some short notes barely get articulated. Non-solo versions are generally less articulated. This all would work well, but Muse Sounds versions have limited range, Viola (Solo) flat out refuse to play anything that (apparently) real viola cannot

Now, I don't want to reuse MS Basic instruments, as this would require to change instrument on a score itself (rather than changing a sound in a mixer). As I understand, I just need to find a good enough SoundFont and try it.

My routine is the following:
Open the score as is (5 voices - 5 parts).
Enable Metronome in playback
In the mixer set target part to +12, other parts to -12 to -0 (have to play with it for each part).
Set target part Sound to, say, Muse Score Grand Piano, other parts Sound to MS Basic (let them sing default vocals, they provide some kind of background harmony reference, but I don't care about articulation there, also they are pretty quiet).
Export to MP3.
All this works BRILLIANTLY except for the fact that Grand Piano cannot sustain.

Now, I am brand new to the world of SoundFonts and don't have an idea how to navigate it at all. I don't have anything installed on my PC yet (except for MS Basic, and "Muse Sounds" library).
What I think I need is something like Violin 1 (Solo) or Viola (Solo) from Muse Sounds, but without range limitation (no matter how unreal it is going to sound). I don't need it really to be realistic as Muse Sounds are.


Comments

i'm not experience in ms4

articulate in one click: select vocals, add staccato (shift+S)

> sustain
workaround : add pedal marking, can make invisible
also try "new age synth" for warm chorus support

if you want to get to the bottom of sf2/sf3 ie ms4's MS Basic , ms3's MuseScore_General.sf3
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/soundfonts-and-sfz-files
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/developers-handbook/references/instru…
https://www.google.com/search?q=attack+decay+sustain+release

> range limitation
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/staff-part-properties

"Muse Sounds" is proprietary format, computer literates work and discuss differently

In reply to by msfp

Thank you for your comment, I will review the links you provided.
> articulate
Maybe I am using wrong vocabulary here. What I mean is, when I have a quick vocal phrase, when I use MS Basic choir instrument for it, it becomes very sloppy and lags behind metronome significantly. Simply being nature of dynamics of how sound is produced by MS Basic choir. When I do the same with Grand Piano (from Muse Sounds), it plays in perfect sync with metronome (because at the beginning of a note a piano sample has a sharp strike that is delivered at the very beginning (similar to "metronome"), while choir starts its samples with rather low intensity and picks it up after some time (say, 50-100 ms).
I have no problem with staccato, I can add it to score and it is being observed by both Piano and Choir instruments.

> pedal marking
I have thought about it, but I don't believe it will work, as the problem of the piano is that if a note is explicitly "whole", piano won't hush it, unless I add staccato to it or something similar. But, simple nature of the piano is that it fades out after initial strike, as the energy delivered to the string is being delivered only in the very beginning. It is natural to piano to fade out even if you hold sustain pedal.
Compared to this, violin can sustain a note perfectly for the whole length of the bow, and intensity of sound will be the same at the end of the bow as in the beginning.
But I will try to do this if MS4 allows me, though my intention is - I don't want to change my score from choir score to piano score (which might be required to add pedal markings).

> "new age synth"
Can be useful for me, but can you elaborate how to enable it?

> "Muse Sounds" is proprietary format, computer literates work and discuss differently
Don't quite understand your point. Do you mean that "computer literates" stay away from proprietary formats?

HI Yan
Very interesting question.
My way of driving out of this issue is to use two instruments at a time : piano and flute most often. The piano gives precision, the flute adds length and breath.
So I have two staves in unisson for each singer voice.
When it comes to low voices, I often use bassoon instead of flute.
I hope that helps!

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