Dynamics marks responding oddly

• Jun 12, 2018 - 19:37

Hi, in my first measure, the first note plays quietly, despite the "f" mark, then on the second note the music jumps to a louder volume. That was the initial problem. On the rest of it, I started playing around with the dynamic marks, trying to see the outline of the problem. I set the treble at "p" or "mf" and the bass at "ppp" and both played "ppp". I changed the bass to p, had the treble at mf and it played OK in both lines. I put the bass at p and the treble at f and the treble played more like mf. And the overall range of the dynamics seems askew, too: If I play it so that I can hear the ppp, the ff nearly blows out my eardrums. If I reduce the volume so that the ff is tolerable, I cannot hear the ppp. I hope I have included the first several measures. (It says it is there, but will not play for me.)
Beth

Attachment Size
test of Last....mscz 13.49 KB

Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

I don't understand your response, but I changed one thing I did understand, which was the superimposed pedal settings-- I un-superimposed them, but that had no effect on the playback. I have the dynamic marks set to Staff. I don't see what I can do in the link you sent that would clear up the problem. Can you go into more specific detail?
Beth

In reply to by Shoichi

The previous link that you just sent, the one where I was having some trouble, does not seem related-- in that one, I was under the impression that Velocity for dynamic marking was supposed to be set for zero. I did not do that in this case (having had it explained to me that zero means no sound). When I hit a dynamic mark and tell it to select all similar elements, it doesn't. I mean, it appears to, but if I set it to "staff", then come out and check each individual dynamic mark, a number of them will not be set to Staff, only the one I actually clicked on to set the command-- so the "select" command has no effect. But I don't know if that is related, because I went in and changed all of them individually to Staff and the music plays the same, choosing volumes that I don't want.

In reply to by Beths

It seems that the inconsistency is due to some dynamics have the dynamic range set to staff, while others are set to part. You can change this in all of the dynamics at once by right click a dynamic, choose Select>All similar items, then set the dynamic range to staff, which is what it seems you actually want. I do believe this is the bottom line of what Shoichi is trying to explain.

In reply to by mike320

When I hit a dynamic mark and tell it to select all similar elements, it doesn't. I mean, it appears to, but if I set it to "staff", then come out and check each individual dynamic mark, a number of them will not be set to Staff, only the one I actually clicked on to set the command-- so the "select" command has no effect. But I don't know if that is related, because I went in and changed all of them individually to Staff and the music plays the same, choosing volumes that I don't want.

In reply to by Beths

Sounds to me like your dynamic marks / notes have different velocities set than the defaults. Maybe look that all notes' velocity is set to offset and the offset value set to 0 by selecting all the notes (ctrl (Mac: cmd) + A, then click "Notes" in the bottom of the inspector). If it didn't work, please attach the score and report back here.

In reply to by Louis Cloete

The notes are set to offset and the value is 0. I changed the velocity of only one dynamic mark after I discovered the volume problems. I was trying to make that section louder because it was way softer than I had set it for. There is a copy of a troublesome part of the score, above, with the first letter I sent in.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Well, per a suggestion, I just cut the left-hand middle C out, as it was an impossible command that I gave the poor program. Oh, the "Select/All similar elements" does not seem to work. It appears to go through the motions, but when I go back and check up on other elements that I had not actually clicked on to make the selection...this is turning into a boggled sentence. Let's say I clicked on the first dynamic mark, did the Select thing on it (all similar elements) and changed it from Part to Staff. When I finish that and click on a different dynamic mark, this one is still set to Part. I have to go through the whole piece, dynamic mark by mark, and change each to Staff. And could you tell me what the difference is between "Part" and "Staff" is? I know what a staff is, but what is Muse's definition of a "Part"?

In reply to by Beths

As I mentioned above, I tried it on your score and it worked perfectly. Please try again, and if you still have trouble, give us precise step by step instructions (eg, attach the specific score you are trying it on, tell us exactly which dynamic you are right-clicking.

As for Part versus Staff, "Piano" is the part. So consider music for flute and piano, with a dynamic on the top staff of the piano part. Setting it to "staff" means just that staff. Setting it to "part" means both piano staves, but not the flute. Setting it to "system" affects everything.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Yes, now it is working again, the "Select all similar elements", I mean. It had been working, a month or so ago, but just quit. It was not a huge bother (haha, except on one huge piece), so I never got around to mentioning it. Hopefully, it has gone for good as a problem.
Thanks for the info on Part vs. Staff. --Beth

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Yes, thanks, I changed those a few letters ago, but unfortunately, although I can tell you about the change, it doesn't show up on the copy I already sent in. Wish it would. So, here in this computer, they are Staff, but it had no effect on how it played.

Sorry, my bad asking for the score when it's already there...

I've corrected your score with a workaround. The problem appears to be related to the fact that the first beat in measures 1 and 2 contains a middle C in the right hand played forte and one in the left hand played piano. MuseScore doesn't handle this well, apparently, so the right hand's forte C is played ppp and then p in the second measure. So I unchecked Play for the C in the left hand in the inspector.

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test of Last_1.mscz 13.55 KB

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Yes, got it and it is working great now. I just stuffed in some chords to see if I was writing in the right key for each measure (so I could add chords for a guitar-ing friend). Never noticed the duplicate note, not being in front of an actual keyboard. Thanks to all of you.

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