How can I fix this situation with Musescore? (File Included)

• Apr 18, 2020 - 22:27

Hi, so I have some situations with Musescore that I'd like to fix.
I thought of uploading every situation individually,
but I prefered to post them together, I'll just numbered them.

I wrote a piece of music for orchestra. It's for a contest.
I made a "Mixdown" of all the Instrument's MIDI files.
Then I imported it to Musescore and that was it.
I have the song written and it does sound like the MP3 version I originally did.
I had to fix some stuff, but nothing too "extreme" or "difficult". It was easy.

But, there are some things that I couldn't fix, so, here we are.

  • Situation 1:

The Violin 2 has a percussion clef. I can't change it.
I tried selecting it like the site suggested, but, it doesn't work.
How can I change it to its correct clef?

  • Situation 2:

The Harp starts with one clef, then changes, and then goes back to normal.
Is that good? I mean, I did wrote the Harp parts in different parts of its range.
So, that's the only reason I can think of to understand this.

I've seen that some Harp parts are written like the Piano, the usual G & F clefs.
But, others it has 2 G clefs, 2 F clefs. Is that normal? Should I change it?

  • Situation 3:

In the "Contest rules" says that I can only use up to 3 percussionists.
I'm using a Timpani and the rest of the Instruments can be played by one percussionist alone.
I need that Percussionist to play 3 or 4 instruments. 1 for each movement of the piece.

How can I correctly and professionally write this on a score?

I need Shakers on the Bridge of the first movement and a Cymbal at the end of the first movement, to transition to the second movement.
Then he/she goes back to the Shakers and uses a Snare (Mainly rolls) on certain parts of the movement. Unison with the rest of the orchestra.
Movement 3 is just shakers and Movement 4 is just tambourine. That's it. Nothing complex or difficult.

Can I write that on a single pentagram or Do I have to use several? I've never written for an orchestra before and I have my doubts.
I'm reading books about Orchestration and Film Scoring, they have helped me a lot, but even so, I still have some doubts.
How can or should I write the 3 Instruments on the Score?

  • Situation 4:

The Shakers and Tambourine is written like this after I imported the MIDI file.
Is that the correct place for that specific part?

  • Situation 5:

I need a Cymbal to play as a transition between the first and second movement.
It uses creccendo and then fades away. How can I write that?
Is it well written on the image that I sent here?

  • Situation 6:

I need a Snare to play some rolls, should I just add the symbol for it?
I've never done this before. That's why I'm asking.

Technically the song is finished, I just need to make this little things right and it's done.

Also, I need a General Sheet of the Score for the Contest.
I exported the PDF File and it's over 100 pages. How can I make it shorter? Like 30 to 40 pages?
Because it exports it and it's incomplete, or cropped if you will. I don't get to see the complete bars
of the sheet I'm working on. Let's say, if I'm seeing 6 to 9 bars on Musescore, I only see 4 to 5 on the PDF.
How can I fix this?
The piece has around 305 to 310 bars total. What can the "normal" number of sheets for it be?

Last question, I saw some Square Brackets, my question is, When can or should I use them?
Is it for Instruments that play similar parts or different parts?

Anyway, I hope you guys can help me out with this one.
Thanks for your time and for reading.
Peace. (:

Attachment Size
EV - Musescore Complete Situation.png 219.66 KB

Comments

• Apr 18, 2020 - 23:28

Did you write this in a DAW? Mid. is not the best. Can you export as a musicxml. MuseScore will read that better. That will probably take care of most of your notation problems.

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• Apr 19, 2020 - 18:33

Posting the score is easy, just click the "Choose a file" button below where you type your response. We'd love to help, but it's impossible given only a picture. There is no law that prevents you from posting a score to a Support forum. It's your own original creation presumably, and even if it weren't, there is no issue with posting examples to a support forum. You can delete most of the measures if you have further concerns.

I can suggest, though, that if the contest involves submitting sheet music, there is almost no chance that what you get from importing a MIDI file will be even remotely acceptable. It's roughly similar to if you were entering a contest for writing a novel, and you tried to dictate the entire thing to Siri. You'd get something, sure, but chances are it would be almost completely unreadable. If the goal is to submit sheet music, you're going to need to spend time (probably a considerable amount of it) editing it to make it actually readable.

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• Apr 19, 2020 - 20:04

I posted only the parts that are giving me a "headache" I honestly don't see the point of watching the whole song, no offense. I don't trust uploading my written music, yes, it is original but we don't know who might end up downloading it, right? But, you got a point. How many bars do you need to see or do you need each part at a larger size to be able to read it?

I'm attaching a part of the song that is already Copyrighted. Just to be safe.
I think you have an issue with MIDI. To me that is pretty readable. It's pretty "basic stuff".
I do get your point, but, I've been comparing it to the Original Piece in MP3 with the sound mix that Musescore provides of the score and it sounds exactly the same. Just the bits that I'm pointing out are the ones that don't match.

Anyway, Thanks for Reading. (:

Attachment Size
EV - Song Sample I.png 69.47 KB

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• Apr 19, 2020 - 20:22

Nobody has any issue with the fact that you post only part of the song.
What is said is that by posting a MuseScore file instead of an image the quality and precision of help that can be given is significantly better (and actually often only a true score allows to give the correct help).
(Again: not a full MuseScore file, just an extract with the problematic measures will do)

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• Apr 19, 2020 - 20:55

Indeed, it has nothing to do with how many bars - it's that we can't help from only a picture, we need an actual score in order to see what is going on. In your case, might be best to attach the MIDI (again, just a few bars worth will do). We need to investigate for ourselves exactly what is going on, and a picture won't help us any more than a picture of your car is enough for a mechanic to be able to diagnose it.

In general, MIDi import works as well as it can, given the fact that MIDI is entirely unsuitable to the task. It lacks such essential basic information as whether to spell a note G# or Ab. It lacks essential information about how to notate rhythms for any but the simplest of rhythms, etc. What you end up seeing on screen might look like music, but it's not likely to actually be very readable. But MuseScore does do its best in general given that there isn't much to work with.

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• Apr 20, 2020 - 20:46

I get it now! Sorry, you have a point. I used Cubase 8 and exported the MIDI a sort of a "mixdown".
I can't export them in any other format. MP3, WAV, MIDI no Musescore file or any other format appears.
How can I select the file with just the few bars?
I can send you the part of the song that is Copyrighted. But again, How can I do it? A step-by-step could help me a lot.

Yeah, MIDI has it's thing. To me it worked because it did imported all the instruments in their actual range. Yes, I had to lower the octaves in a couple of them (Violas for example) and fix a thing or two. The song itself it's done. I just need to fix those things I mentioned and add some dynamics and symbols to it and that's it. I appreciate the help. (:

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• Apr 20, 2020 - 21:11

Not sure what you mean about "the part of the song that is Copyrighted". Are you saying part of the song was not written by you? If so, that's the part you shouldn't necessarily post, although realistically it's not really a problem. But if you wrote the entire piece, you already own the copyright, 100%.

As for how to export just a section of a MIDI file from Cubase, you'd have to ask that on a Cuibase forum. but I'd guess it would work to make a copy of the project, then delete all but the first few measures (or whatever it takes to demonstrate the problems) and export that the same way you exported the original MIDI.

Still, I'm guessing there is no way that an imported MIDI file of a long orchestral piece would actually be readable without pretty extensive editing - way beyond just adding dynamics and symbols. MuseScore is good, but it's not magic.

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• Apr 20, 2020 - 22:31

I wrote everything. It's a 4 movement piece. But, 2 are copyrighted (I have a certificate), the other 2 are not, they're new. That's what I meant. The thing is, being totally honest, I had a bad experience with an ex-class mate stealing my music once. So, I don't like the idea of uploading something to the internet that I don't have a certificate of.

Ok, I can do that! I can select the first or the first two movements and share them here.
I'm sharing the MIDI file of the first movement here. If you want the second one, do let me know, please.

I just found something! I was listening to the individual tracks in the MIDI version of the song I have and I realised that the Violin 2 it's the only one inside a MIDI Percussion Track. If that makes sense? I don't know how that happened. I remember I chose the option in Cubase to add MIDI tracks and that's it. I started adding each individual file in the track of the instrument I wanted and that's it. How can we change it in Musescore?

I already showed you an image of the score. It looks pretty decent. It's readable. And I have played back the Isolated instruments in Musescore one by one against the original isolated instruments of the original piece.
It sounds the same. Except the Second Violin and the sound of the Shakers/ Tambourine. Everything else is perfect. That's why I said I need some symbols and dynamics on it.

My Method Is: All I did was, exported the MIDI file from Cubase. Imported it to Musescore. Minutes later I had the whole thing in there. Yes, there were stuff that needed correction. Everything I had to fix I did it by looking it up in Google and follow the instructions given. Nothing more.
If you follow this method, the MIDI file will have a "Piano" sound by default once you open it in Musescore.
I had to change every Instrument one by one to get the correct sound. Just to give you a heads up.

That's why I'm asking about this specific stuff. Because, I can't fix it or maybe I can I just don't know how.
I do appreciate the help and your time. Thanks!

Attachment Size
EV - Orchestra First Movement MIDI 20042020.mid 22.99 KB

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• Apr 20, 2020 - 22:49

Whether you chose to take the complete optional step of registering your copyright has no bearing on whether it is protected by copyright law or not. If you wrote it, it is protected, period. That's how copyright works, according to international treaty and by law in virtually every country on earth.

Anyhow, regarding your MIDI:

It appears to use non-standard assignment of channels and sounds, which is why you are having to work so hard. Can you set up Cubase to use the General MIDI standard for its sounds? Also be sure not to use channel 10 for anything not intended to be percussion - your MIDI uses it for violin 2, which is why it is the way it is.

Regarding the clef changes, when you import the MIDI, you see a window that lets you customize settings. Uncheck "Clef changes" from my staff where you want to manage those yourself.

It's pretty typical to use multiple staves for multiple percussion instruments but then just indicate which percussionists play which. The timpanist usually won't play anything else, but the other percussionists might each have two or three staves (each one line normally), so there can potentially be up to seven percussion staves here if you're allowed to have two percussionists plus a timpanist.

So just add all the staves you need, then use Format / Style / Hide empty staves so only those needed at any given time are displayed. It's also possible to use the Percussion instrument to put multiple parts on one staff (usually five lines) if you like, see the Handbook under "Drum notation" to learn more.

For drum rolls, the tremolo symbols (strokes through the stem) from the palette is the usual way.

I can't really answer more about the shaker or cymbal without seeing that part of the score. Nor can I easily suggest how to reduce the overall length without seeing the whole thing. But, it's possible "Hide empty staves" will accomplish some of that. And of course, simply choosing a small staff size in Format / Page Settings.

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• Apr 19, 2020 - 21:30

You wrote:
I wrote a piece of music for orchestra.

Did you write it using a music notation software?

You wrote:
I made a "Mixdown" of all the Instrument's MIDI files.

Why use MIDI?
A MIDI file lacks (nor does it need) certain information which is crucial to proper music notation.
That is why you see key signatures on the percussion staves (e.g., cymbal, tambourine), a percusiion clef on violin, harp notes with large numbers of leger lines placed onto the wrong staff (or using the wrong clef).

As already mentioned, if you can export your score as MusicXML, then importing that into MuseScore should yield better results.

See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/file-formats#musicxml

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• Apr 20, 2020 - 20:55

You wrote:
Did you write it using a music notation software?
I used Cubase and my keyboard to play the parts of every instrument. I can do the score on Cubase but, something's wrong with it right now and instead of re-installing or troubleshooting stuff, I'd rather use another software and figure my way around. Which, I did. And it worked! I just need to fix some stuff and I'm done.

You wrote:
Why use MIDI?
Because Musescore allows you to import MIDI and since it has some properties than can save me a lot of time when it comes to music notation. I gave it a try. You have a point in there. The thing with the Harp I think, it's because I used different ranges of it. That's why it starts with those clefs. And later on it "goes back" to normal. To me, it makes sense. If this experiment I did with MIDI had more than 10 Instruments in the wrong clef, other mistakes or so on, I would consider it a fail. But, it worked. 80 to 90%. That's a win. Thanks for replying.

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