percussion sounds

• Aug 29, 2019 - 05:15

I realize this question has been asked a million times, but here goes: for most of the unpitched percussion instruments I select, all I get on my Windows 10 laptop is a cymbal sound, i.e., if I select "claves" or "wood blocks". What am I doing wrong?

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• Aug 29, 2019 - 23:30

How did you enter those notes? I'm guessing you maybe copied them from another staff that used a different sound. That won't work. Not, at least, without changing the pitch of the notes. But if you enter new notes onto that staff, they play correctly. Easiest wya to fix the notes you copied in from elsewhere - select them all, hit Up arrow (or Down) to "transpose" them all. Since the drumset definition for that staff has only one note, either way, they'll be forced to the right pitch for playback.

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• Aug 30, 2019 - 02:21

Marc, that worked! (And I recognize your name as one of the Musescore "gurus", so I deeply appreciate your help!) But isn't that a bit crazy, i.e., shouldn't all the notes entered on a given staff -- and yes, I had copied all of mine from elsewhere -- take on the voice of the instrument assigned to that staff?!?

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• Aug 30, 2019 - 02:43

Most percussion staves are configured to use several different sounds on the palette, often dozens. Each staff is capable of rendering the entire set of General MIDI standard drum sounds, even if some staves are deliberately set up to limit the number of notes actually presented in the palette, for simplicity of note input. There is no way for MuseScore to know which pitches of the original you want mapped to which pitches of the destination.

Plus, come to think of it, this ends up being a clever method of entering the occasional cymbal note on a clave staff without needing to customize the drumset definition.

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• Aug 30, 2019 - 20:25

And having now learned, Marc, that you are not only a Musescore guru but also a fabulous jazz pianist -- and I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but the name Lenny Tristano comes to mind when I hear some of your of your quartet's work! -- I am hoping that you will keep my claves project in mind until I have something to demonstrate as to what I am attempting to accomplish. (But having said that, let me next hasten to assure you that I am not a struggling musician who would love to have your help in advancing his own career; rather, I am an established kinetic sculptor and techno-art theorist who is attempting to add an Afro-rhythm sound track to his latest design -- a project that I think you will find fascinating in and of itself!)

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• Sep 5, 2019 - 05:08

Marc, I'll point you at my Musescore demo in a moment -- but first, let me give you some background.

I'm a kinetic sculptor and techno-art theorist (and actually becoming pretty well known in the latter field -- see my position paper here: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/4/3/75 ); and of course as soon as people hear the term "kinetic sculpture", they immediately think of Alexander Calder and his wind-driven mobiles. What's really interesting about this, however, is that Calder's degree was in mechanical engineering, and he was in fact experimenting with electric motor-powered sculpture before switching his allegiance to the mobile. And why? Because Calder -- like everyone who has come after him -- was never able to solve the problem of how to create some appeal on the part of a deterministic mechanical entity, and hence the attraction for him of the wind-driven mobile, with its random motion.

Fool that I am, I'm now throwing myself at the same problem, and I think part of the solution might be music -- but not just any music! Yes, I've had a video of one my pieces which was synchronized after the fact to a pre-recorded piano track ( https://vimeo.com/129177105 ), but this is ultimately problematical: on the one hand, as we both know, almost any movement can be given some gravitas -- i.e., the dancing hippos in Disney's "Fantasia"! -- if synchronized to beautiful music, but such music cannot be repeated over and over without ill effect.

My idea, rather, is to synchronize to some music which is at the same time so elemental, but also so ultra-sophisticated, that it can be repeated at length -- and which, if listened to with fresh ears, in fact sounds like the workings of some fantastic machine! I refer, of course, to African percussion music, and with this "World Masters" track ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDa-uJWQSts ) as a supreme example.

So with this background, I will shortly point you at the demo for which I've created the attached Musescore track -- but the first thing you will discover is that I'm not a musician. Instead, I hope this demo will give some idea of what might be possible if we were able to put together a really kick-ass track (and for the right help in doing so I could possibly pay a modest consulting fee, and with all credits and copyrights retained by the original composer); and note also that I can and will do a lot more work on the choreography (as per all of the other designs on my website, www.space-machines.com ), inasmuch as the synchronization is now indicated only by a brief pause at the end of each set of 4 measures. So without further ado, here ( https://vimeo.com/351064834 ) is the demo.

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• Sep 5, 2019 - 22:35

Nice! I checkout out the videos and the score, looks like you've got some great ideas. FWIW, I personally have more than enough on my plate already and would not be able to be involved beyond what comments on use of MuseScore I can give here, but maybe someone else reading this will be inspired!

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• Sep 5, 2019 - 22:54

Thanks, Marc, that's more than I could hope for! And in particular, maybe someone could give me a hint as to what needs to be done musically at the beginning of each 4-measure phrase, i.e., the point where the sculpture begins moving again after its brief pause? Perhaps something on the timbales?

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