Multiple insturments in untuned percussion
Hello again, everyone.
I am probably doing something wrong here, but can't seem to figure it what it is. Hopefully someone can help me. I am writing a score for a concert band arrangement, and want to have a percussion part that includes both the Tamborine and Claves (possibly more, but let's leave it at this.). My score has a 5 line untuned percussion line in it already. Here is what I have tried so far.
1. Regular drumset - does not contain the instruments I want, just drumset stuff (doh) like snare, bass drum, and cymbals. Not good.
2. Tried to edit staff properties with a right mouse click. This was promising, as I was able to pick out Tamborine from the untuned poercussion list, and was able to enter notes - all on the top line of the staff. OK, but when I wanted to change the part to claves, I selected change instrument, the information continued to be entered on the top line of the staff. Not good, as I will need to have both instruments playing at one point. (I know - but I have 2 players that can share the part).
3. I then tried to used the drumset editor. After a bit of study, I was able to figure out how to define different instruments, assign each to a line, give them names and shortcuts. I then tried to enter the parts I wanted. Selected Note entry - got the drumset entry mode, and my just defined instruments showed up, waiting for me to select the one I wanted. This looked cool, until I tried to enter them - notes went where I wanted them, as expected using the drumset editor, but there was no sound from the playback.
4. Ah, I thought, I need to assign an actual sound to the instruments in my drumset. But I didn't see any way to add a sound to the line in the drumset editor. So I went to the staff editor, and added the tamborine sound in. This was a mixed result. I was able to get the sound that was appropriate, but the instruments defined in my drumset were missing, and I was back to the 2nd step noted above.
What am I missing, or doing wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Jerry
Comments
The drumset editor is indeed what you want. You just need to pick the irght MIDI pitches for the sounds you are defining. If you do a search on the term "General MIDI", you should find a list of the standard pitch definitions. You need to use the right ones for the sounds you want. Note that some lists start with 0 and others with 1, so if you don't get the sound you expect, try the numbers next to it.