Possible/how to create a new dynamic?
For example, sfzp? (I read the Dynamics section in the manual, and it's not really clear about this, at least, not to me.) Thanks!
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You'd need a custom palette in a custom workspace
In reply to You'd need a custom üalette… by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks! Ok, once I create the custom palette in the custom workspace (I assume I can use a custom workspace I've already created and am using), what do I do?
In reply to Thanks! Ok, once I create… by OlyDLG
Take an existing dynamic, e.g. sfz or sfp (as found in the Advanced workspace) and apply it to a score, change it to sfzp, i.e. append that p resp. insert that z, taken from F2 > Musical Symbols > Dynamics, change its velocity and esp. its velocity change setting as per your needs in Inspector, then drag into the custom palette
In reply to Take an existing dynamoc, e… by Jojo-Schmitz
Is this still possible in the latest version of Musescore? I could not find a way to change the velocity setting of the dynamic in the Properties. All I want to do is add custom dynamics with values like velocity = 56.
In reply to Is this still possible in… by danny_pkr
I don't think it is in Mu4, it was in Mu3, 5 years ago ;-)
In reply to I don't think it is un Mu4,… by Jojo-Schmitz
So you mean Musescore has lost this functionality in the latest version 4? Can anyone suggest a workaround to create and use dynamics with intermediate velocities like 56? Note velocity is a hassle and is prone to human numerical error when there are a lot of dynamic changes, even though it has its own uses.
In reply to So you mean Musescore has… by danny_pkr
MuseScore no longer uses the old-style MIDI “velocity” as the primary control over dynamics. It shouldn’t normally be necessary to invent new dynamics - humans won’t understand them either. But when you do wish to make subtle shifts, note velocity is the way to do it. Future versions of MuseScore will include a much simpler method of doing so via “automation lanes”.
In reply to MuseScore no longer uses the… by Marc Sabatella
If humans couldn't understand intermediate dynamics then Musescore's note velocity feature wouldn't have existed at all and the common dynamics alone would've been sufficient. I'm glad it's available. The difference is easily perceptible, especially when we're talking 'mid dynamic' velocities like 56, which lies between 'p' and 'mp'- looking forward to the proposed auto lanes feature update.
In reply to If humans couldn't… by danny_pkr
"mp" is the dynamic between "p" and "mf", understood by humans and MuseScore alike. Maybe you mean between "p" and "mp"? There is indeed no standard / human-understood dynamic marking in between those. But if you want to hear some notes played in a transition between those, just select as many as you like and change them together.
In reply to "mp" is the dynamic between … by Marc Sabatella
Yes I meant between 'p' and 'mp'.
It can be agreed upon that there is no standard dynamic between these in theory but note velocity customization feature and hairpins playback stand as a proof that humans can perceive intermediate loudness, most can. Otherwise these utilities would've never been programmed into Musescore. Can you explain automation lanes a bit?
In reply to Yes I meant between 'p' and … by danny_pkr
Yes, humans can perceive more nuance than just p and mp, obviously, Iuf they couldn't there would be no need for crescendo. The question is whether people would understand a dynamic make telling them to play between those two levels, and if the results would be consistent enough to be worth the trouble of inventing the notation.
MuseScore had features like that because it began life decades ago as a sequencer, not a notation program. And thus it had all sorts of remnant of the old 1980's MIDI standard baked into it that really don't make a ton of sense outside of that context. Pretending there is a dynamic marking that humans would understand between p and mp just doesn't make sense from a notation perspective. If the goal is to improve the realism of the playback by introducing subtle shifts here and there, no need to add fake dynamics to your score - just change the notes directly. Relying on fake dynamics for this was never really more than a hack.
Automation lanes as I understand them would work as they so in DAW software - a way to "draw" a curve representing the desired dynamic shifts directly.
In reply to Yes, humans can perceive… by Marc Sabatella
True. From a notation perspective it is unnecessary to invent new dynamics which will complicate the music, anyways. Although enumerating individual note(s) with velocities is as much a 'hack' and hassle as creating and using artificial dynamics. It would be great to see Musescore become as efficient and powerful as DAWs. The scores are beautiful and workspace is way simpler and intuitive. Musescore has the potential to become the go-to application for all professional musical needs.
In reply to True. From a notation… by danny_pkr
Cluttering a score with tons unnecessary invisible dynamics just to tweak playback is not good design, and I don't you'll see MU4 return to the bad old days of hacks like that. Providing easy ways of tweaking the overall dynamic that don't involve resorting to invisible markings (or that minimize the need for it) is the way forward.
In reply to Cluttering a score with tons… by Marc Sabatella
What makes these necessary at all in the first place is the requirement of a more customisable playback. Maybe lack of that kind of detail in playback acoustics differentiates Musescore from DAWs, because the latter makes such "tweaks" possible. Tweaking the overall dynamic is quite simple and straightforward by design. However, the plans for features like auto lanes is apparently aimed at expanding Musescore's ability to provide the user with these easy ways of tweaking that according to you is the way forward. When exactly should we expect this new feature update coming up?
In reply to What makes these necessary… by danny_pkr
Right - the goal of tweaking playback is what is important;. the old hack of achieving that that by awkwardly adding a bunch putting nonsense invisible text into a score is not. The current method of setting velocity directly via Properties works just fine for now (for soundfonts, anyhow, which is all that was supported before MU4 anyhow). It's objectively better in that it can do thing dynamics can't, like affect different voices different, etc (although 4.4. will support that in a few weeks). The new automation lane design is probably a year or so out but that's really just a guess.
In reply to Thanks! Ok, once I create… by OlyDLG
There is a little secret that I haven't seen documented. To add any letter to a dynamic press ctrl+alt+ letter and it will be added to the dynamic. This is much easier than copy and paste. You can also set the velocity and velocity change in the inspector for the custom dynamic before you ctrl+shift+ drag it to your custom palette and these settings will be remembered.
In reply to There is a little secret… by mike320
Thank, you Mike, that worked splendidly!
In reply to Thank, you Mike, that worked… by OlyDLG
That is a really useful skill to have (for achieving a personalized, specialized dynamics vocabulary): thank you very much!
In reply to That is a really useful… by OlyDLG
I have a couple of custom dynamics in my palette. It's unfortunate we can't put them in the master palette for later projects.
In reply to I have a couple of custom… by mike320
That's what I use the Custom Workspace for: once I decided I was going to be doing this on a regular basis, I made myself an "AdvancedBasic" Workspace, populated it w/ everything I knew or thought I'd need, made that my default workspace,,and now I just add stuff as it comes up (that's why this custom dynamic knowledge is such a boon).
In reply to That's what I use the Custom… by OlyDLG
I have my custom dynamics in my custom workspace. The thing is, I don't need the ffz for any of my current projects so I would prefer to remove it from my workspace, but if I do I will be forced to make it from scratch later. My list of dynamics keeps growing with each project and I would like to be able to move them out of the way for later when I will probably need them again. Of course there are other workarounds but in the case of Time signatures, you can create a new one and it will stay in the master palette until you delete it from there. So I have my 4/8 time signature I need right now, but I don't have it in my Time signatures palette because I'll rarely use it. If I have a project in the future with several 4/8 time changes I can put it in the palette for the project and then remove it when the project is done. I won't have to recreate it from scratch.
In reply to I have my custom dynamics in… by mike320
Interesting issue! Would it work to create your own "Custom Master" palette and save that (separately from the workspace)? What about a "master palette score" you can place all your symbols in?
In reply to Interesting issue! Would it… by Marc Sabatella
create your own "Custom Master" palette
Are you talking a new feature or create a workspace called "Custom Master"? If you mean a new workspace, that and a master palette score are the two main workarounds I vaguely referred to. I would prefer to be able to drag the symbols to the master palette, perhaps a subsection of the Master Palette called "User" or "Custom" where all custom items could be stored for later.
This would be especially useful for my custom text palette. I have mute, con sordino and sordines in my text palette for my trumpets depending on language that I don't use much, but in scores where I do use them it's far more convenient to create a text, put it in a palette and apply it to all 3 trumpets with the channels selected at once as needed. The same goes with Open, senza sordino... to remove the mutes. These are only a few examples. There are far more than these. Being able to move these to and from a master palette as needed would be very nice.
In reply to create your own "Custom… by mike320
I mean, create palette (not a workspace) you can Custom Master, add all of your additionals to that as well as the project-specific workspace, and save just that palette as an MPAL file (right-click the palette title). Then load that MPAL into the new project-specific workspace you create. Seems like this would accomplish the same result as if the actual master palette were editable - an easy way to share symbols between workspaces.
In reply to I mean, create palette (not… by Marc Sabatella
I only use one custom workspace. If it were a matter of creating a workspace for each project, it's easy enough to put the symbol on a score then move it to another palette. I could of course make the bottom or top palette in my custom workspace a dumping ground for items not currently needed, then copy them to the appropriate palette as needed.
In reply to You'd need a custom üalette… by Jojo-Schmitz
I got some trouble with the 4.0.2. Is there any difference? Because nothing happens when I double click for instance on "Cresc." and I want to change it into "Crescendo molto"
In reply to Why this doesn't work on 4.0… by tormyvancool
This isn't a change in MuseScore 4, it's just that "cresc" isn't a normal dynamic - it's a line. So, you don't edit the text directly, you do it in the Properties panel, in the text section.
In reply to This isn't a change in… by Marc Sabatella
In the text section there is not any "cresc." Indeed it is into the Dynamic section as I said. hence I'm not able to change i t or even to add it as I want.
BTW: putting "Cresc" the volume increases gradually as it should. So it's dynamic.
In reply to In the text section there is… by tormyvancool
MuseScore makes a distinction between "hairpin" (a gradual change in volume), and "dynamic" (a specific volume that takes effect immediately). Dynamics are types of text and you edit them by double clicking, but hairpins are types of lines and you edit them as I explained previously, using the Properties palette. I'm not saying to add cresc from the Text palette - I'm saying that after adding the cresc marking, see the Text section of the Properties panel (un the left sidebar) to edit the text.
This hasn't changed in years, BTW - except the Properties panel used to be called the Inspector and looked different.
But, to be clear: you only need to mess with the custom palette if you want to use that new dynamic a lot. If it's just for one use, added the closest thing you can find (eg, fp), double-click it to edit, type what you really want (with Ctrl+Shift to get the special font), and you're done.
In reply to But, to be clear: you only… by Marc Sabatella
It doesn't produce a satisfiable result. For example, if I type "ffz" (with Ctrl+Shift) there will be a visible space between "ff" and "z":
![2021-02-01_01-37.png]( "2021-02-01_01-37.png")
Compare it with "fz":
![2021-02-01_01-39.png]( "2021-02-01_01-39.png")
In reply to It doesn't produce… by Slava Andrejev
The font used for dynamics includes lots of special kerning and ligatures to create good looking results in the cases it was designed to handle. Cases that were not specifically anticipated will not. You can try different fonts to see if one happens to anticipate this combination better. For example, try Emmentaler Text.
In reply to The font used for dynamics… by Marc Sabatella
Emmentaler is a symbol font, you can't use it when you edit text, and there is no "ffz" symbol in it. I am not aware of Emmentaler Text. I tried to look for it in Google, but only found Emmentaler with musical glyphs. Of course practically any text font will handle kerning of "ffz", but the result doesn't look like a music sheet. I guess the problem is not solvable in the current version of Musescore.
Update. I got it. I have to choose “Emmentaler Text” in the style dialog. I guess I have to file an issue against Leland font.
In reply to Emmentaler is a symbol font,… by Slava Andrejev
Strangely enough, sffz works fine for me in Leland Text (e.g., add sfz, then insert another f).
Internally, Emmentaler is called MScore. So you might see (I do) "MScore Text" listed as an available font in the regular font dropdown menus. So you could still with Leland Text as the overall setting for the score but fix just these if you like. Or, add ff & z separately and position them manually.
In reply to Strangely enough, sffz works… by Marc Sabatella
Yes, “sffz” works, “ffz” doesn't. It's weird. Anyway, I have filed an issue.
In reply to It doesn't produce… by Slava Andrejev
Try this:
First, add the 'fz' dynamic from the Dynamics palette, then place another f into it using Ctrl+Shift.
In reply to Try this: First, add the 'fz… by Jm6stringer
The result of this is demonstrated in the picture above. “z” will be far apart from “ff” (if you are using Leland or Bravura).
In reply to The result of this is… by Slava Andrejev
Use fz from the palette. The 'z' is not far from the 'f'. Then add the (second) f:
EDIT: Emmentaler is used above.
In reply to Use fz from the palette. The… by Jm6stringer
I am aware that the result is different with Emmentaler. I have stated above that the problem is with the new Leland font.
In reply to I am aware that the result… by Slava Andrejev
Thanks for #316818: Add kerning/legature for “ffz” to Leland font.