Real-time input while playing

• Nov 3, 2024 - 19:10

Request for "true" real-time MIDI keyboard input, record while playing, to score. Similar to Dorico and Sibelius capability.


Comments

In reply to by SteveBlower

My comment was poorly written. To clarify, MS does not presently have a record function that would record live playing with a MIDI controller and then convert the resulting audio file (eg WAV, MP3, OGG) to notation (eg MusicXML, MID). All in MS without the need for separate 3rd party software like Audacity. Perhaps this is a lot to ask for one program to do.

Hopefully a product that merges a good notation program with a good DAW is a possibility in the near future. Logic Pro does both with unsatisfactory results in the notation department.

In reply to by artoffugue333

Many notation apps have DAW-like real-time recording, but fortunatelyMuseScore does not.

Here's an interesting excerpt from an article on the origins of MuseScore:

"Werner Schweer is well known to the Linux audio community as the author of the excellent MusE MIDI sequencer. A few versions ago, Werner decided to cut MusE's notation capabilities out of the sequencer and rewrite it as a standalone notation editor with graphics based on the Qt4 GUI toolkit. Thus began the saga of MuseScore."

This is from Wikipedia's entry on MuseScore:

"MuseScore was created as a fork of the MusE sequencer's codebase. In 2002, Werner Schweer, one of the MusE developers, decided to remove notation support from MusE and create a stand-alone notation program from the codebase.

Too bad the MusE MIDI sequencer's real-time input code wasn't included in the MuseScore fork!

I've wondered if MusE's sequencing code would ever be available and become integrated into MuseScore. Surely that would be a step toward real real-time note input in MuseScore. And that would greatly improve my workflow!

Presently I have to rely on my DAW or other notation apps for real-time recording, and then transfer to MuseScore via MIDI or MusicXML.

The main advantages to true real-time input are well known:

• it allows a skilled player to perform freely (whether on piano, wind controller, maybe someday guitar ...)
• it captures nuanced expressiveness via note velocity and aftertouch
• it captures controllers data simultaneously on the fly: pedal(s), pitch bend, mod wheel ...

Sure there are challenges when a notation app interprets all that data. Fortunately the user can exert some control over the process. And I'd rather be in that position that tapping on a QWERTY keyboard or click-entering notes ... and only afterwards add note velocity, aftertouch, pedal marks, pitch bend, mod wheel to a score that has holds only the correct face values and no true concept of how I actually play durations—the lovely play durations were governed by the LEN property ... until MS4 which now ignores them.

Perhaps others will comment on their successes with true real-time input, mentioning the main things they like and need in using such a tool.

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