Misc. Ideas
I like to write for jazz ensemble, and the number 1 thing I cannot stand about musescore is the trombone sound. it sounds perfectly fine, save for the fact that its so dang QUIET. It takes 2 trombones in unison at fff to balance out one trumpet at f. This drives me absolutely crazy. Can we make the trombones a bit louder?
Second order of buisness. I know that you must've heard this a billion times, but things like crecendos, slurs, marcatos, falls, "2nd x only" markings, tremolos, and accents should be heard in playback. Some things, like marcatos and accents, would be pitifully easy to implement. (Accents would simply be the current dynamic level +1, and marcatos would be +1 dynamic level and staccato.) I can understand that it wold be really difficult to add some things, like glisses and falls, but finale manages to do it, so it's quite possible. (And it just drives me crazy that some of these things aren't heard in playback.)
I know that i've said this before on the forums, but i'll say it again. Musescore needs a way to change the instrument on the staff mid-score. I.e., A mallet percussion part that starts off as chimes, but changes later to become a glockenspel in playback. A reed part for a pit orchestra, that changes from flute to clarinet to tenor sax, all on the same staff. Or (This would be nice, but it would still be a novelty) maybe we can evn have un-pitched and pitched instruments on the same staff. (Timpani changes to tambourine) I figure this wouldn't be too difficult to add.
On the subject of multiple instruments on the same staff, I think it would be great if we could have an "Auxilary Percussion" staff option that contains all the miscellaneous percussion. And you could assign a percussion instrument to each voice, like assigning tambourine to voice 1, wood block to voice 2, cowbell to voice 3, and bongos to voice 4. That would be neat.
And this one above all is kind of ttrivial, but I think it would be neat If songs could switch between straight 8ths and swing mid-song. (James Bond theme, lookiong at you.) Like, it starts off in staright 8ths, and at measure 20 or so, it switches to swing. I think you should be able to do this in musescore.
Ok that's all. I'm out. Peace.
Comments
Thanks for your suggestions!
Regarding trombone volume, I assume you are talking about the default soundfount? Be aware you can load other soundfonts with different characteristics, and you can also use the Mixer to change the relative volume of the instruments. See Soundfont and Change and adjust sounds in the Handbook.
Regarding playback in general, keep in mind the primary purpose of MuseScore is notation. not playback. And also keep in mind that this is only version 1.3 of MuseScore. Finale's playback when it first started 25 years ago wasn't very sophisticated either. I expect MuseScore will get better. Already in the development version that will become 2.0, much of what you list is implemented. More will doubtless come. But the focus will remain notation, I'm sure. In particular, mid-score instrument changes will be supported in 2.0, as will crescendo, tremolo, etc.
Meanwhile, even in 1.3, it's possible to do some of this. You can do a mid-score instrument change by using two staves and the "hide empty staves" option, or by customizing the instruments.xml file to list the changes you want to make available (much as is already done to allow switches between open and muted trumpet).
And you can already have the percussion staff you described. Create it as drumset, then right click and choose the "edit" option to customize the behavior of the various notes.