description of instruments.xml structure - where to find?

• Jan 4, 2011 - 11:24

Hi,
does anybody know some document describing an internal structure of instruments file (instruments.xml)?
Trying to get such info bit by bit comparing this file structure against musescore behaviour - it is time/effort consuming task and probably not including all possibilities.

Thx
Ruda

Comments

• Jan 31, 2011 - 09:09

David,
thanks for it. I already solved all issues with instruments definition. When I was going further I found that the sound produced by MuseScore for percussions (djembe, bongo, traditional base african drums - I mainly focus on them) is a VERY poor quality (comparing to Percussion Studio that has limited possibilities for notaion but much better sound). I decided to use MuseScore for playng the soprano recorders only (duets - sometimes with my daughter sometimes with Musescore) and stick with Percussion Studio for percussions.

Regards
Ruda

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• Feb 7, 2011 - 18:35

Note the sounds produced by MuseScore are entirely dependent on the soundfont you are using. The one shipped with MuseScore tries to be a decent general purpose soundfont that doesn't take up much space, but you are welcome to downlaod another soundfont and use it instead.

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• Feb 7, 2011 - 18:58

Hi Marc,
I was not talking about a quality of particular notes but rather about non-fluent sound in general. Every single pause causes finishing the sound of previous note an unnatural way. It does not seems to me so bad for normal melodic instruments, but it really irritate me for percussions. Note that using different 'space parameters' like echo did not help to much.

Anyway, thanks for your reply...

Regards
Ruda

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• Feb 15, 2011 - 19:56

Ruda,

I empathize completely with your situation... I have found that the note-on/note-off function leads to inconsistent sounding flams, even though the timing is technically correct. I have posted about this topic previously, but it appears that there is not an "easy" solution on the programming side.

In other news, I also did a lot of work to decipher the xml file so I could implement my own soundfont. So, if you have any xml related questions please ask. Its a lot better than re-inventing the wheel.

Sincerely,

Mike S.

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• Feb 16, 2011 - 08:45

Mike,
As soon as I proof (by myself on my notebook) the new MuseScore version regarding sound quality of unpitched percussions, I come back to my original idea of building ful soundfont file for West African percussion group (djembe, kenkeni, sangban, dundun, bells, shekere). I tried only the djembe yet, succeed with it, but due the very poor sound (in the MuseScore version I am using) I stopped that activity. After I am happy with the sound I will contact you to refine some particular parameters in the soundfont file.

Thanks
Ruda

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