Percussion set question

• Jun 20, 2018 - 17:46

Hi, gang!!!

I want to know if the MuseScore standard soundfont file follows the international MIDI percussion set patches..., always.

My doubt is about, specifically, the orchestral percussion set.

Even the fact we can select Triangle and Castanets directly from the "Instruments" main menu, when I select "Orchestral Instruments", and then "Percussion Set" (inside "Instruments" menu), and then I select "Orchestral" into the Mixer, when I input notes, wanting to get Triangle and Castanets... I can not to get it!!!

Why is this???

Into my very old Casio CTK-601 (1997), the drum percussion sets are based, always, into the bank 0 "Standard Percussion Set". Which means that, if there is no a new sound into the next set (or bank), at the same note, the final sound is the same sound we get from the bank 0 (See the added image).

Maybe it is not the same with this soundfont file???

Can we add sounds into the Percussion Set sound options palette??? How???

Blessings & Greetings from Chile!!!

JUAN


Comments

I'm not quite sure what you mean. If you select the "Triangle" instrument in Edit / Instruments, it should already be set to use the "Orchestra Kit" (you can verify this using View / Mixer), and the sound seems as it should be to me. The default for the castanets (both wood and metal) use the Standard kit, but even if I switch to Orchestra, the sound still works as expected for me. I tested this on 2.1, 2.2, and the current beta of 2.3.

Triangle is MIDI pitches 80 & 81 (mute & open). So assuming your keyboard send those notes - which it appears it does - you should not be seeing any problems.

Can you post a sample score and steps to reproduce whatever issue you are perceiving?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, Marc!!!

Yes, you're absolutely right about we get triangle, castanets, and other percussion instrument directly from the Edit/Instruments menu. Yes.

I'm talking about the follow scenary:

1) I choose a new percussion instrument, from the Orchestral set, with "Percussion Set" (5 lines staff).

2) I want to input notes on that staff.

3) I have to select from the down screen line (The part that is marked as "This options" in the added image).

In that part is where I can get all the percussion instruments I expected to get!!! Not only a few of them.

If I selected "Orchestral set", in that part there is not the triangle sound.

If I click on "Edit set" button... I can not to get triangle and/or castanets.

Did I explain my point???

In reply to by jotape1960

If I understand correctly, it appears you have added the wrong instrument. The language difference is perhaps getting in the way a little. But there are two different instruments in the list under "Orchestra" - at the top is "Drumset", which is the standard jazz / rock configuration, and at the bottom is "Percussion", which is the one you want. It appears from the picture that you added the first. Just add the second instead. This will be what you want. Not only will you find triangle already present (and already assigned the shortcut "D"), but the sounds will be what you want as well (eg, the bass drum will be a big concert bass drum hit with a mallet, not a kick drum played with a foot pedal).

But for the record, you certainly can add triangle to the "Drumset" instrument. You just need to know it is MIDI pitches 80 & 81.

In reply to by jotape1960

I'm trying to figure out how the mixer works with percussion instruments by reverse engineering. This thread has given me some clues - but I'm not there yet. I couldn't get the triangle to work at all in one score.

It might help if the drop down instrument menu in the mixer had a search feature, or if the instruments were organised in groups.

In reply to by dave2020X

If you explain in more detail what you are trying to do, ideally accompanied by a sample score, we can understand and assist better. I would not that what is being discussed in the comment to which you are responding is not really about sounds in the mixer, it's about the drumset definition. Triangle definitely works when added as a note within a drumset (pitch 80 & 81 as noted), even if there is no separate sound for it defined as a program unto itself in the General MIDI standard.

There is no instrument menu in the mixer, but there is a sound (aka program, in MIDI-speak) dropdown. The list of General MIDI sounds is far smaller than the list of instruments in the world, although also, some of the General MIDI sounds don't corresponding to a single instrument - or multiple sounds to one instrument (eg, the isntrument is guitar, but there are a number of sounds associated with it).

As mentioned, triangle isn't defined as one of these because General MIDI puts percussions sounds all in a single place and has you reference them by pitch, but as separate programs. So you won't find traingle when searching the list of General MIDI sounds. But, for the record, if it were there, you'd find it the same way you find any element in any drop-down list - by typing the first few letters of the name.

Also, FWIW, the sounds in the General MIDI standard are grouped by family.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks - but there are oddities.

Re the GM standard grouping sounds - yes - that's correct, but the drop down menu in the mixer - at least as I see it - doesn't have obvious grouping - or GM numbers.

Initially all I wanted to do was to have a triangle, but I cheated and just copied a part of another pitched instrument line, and put it onto the triangle line. I have done this with other percussion instruments. Sometimes this picks up the rhythm - which may have been all that I wanted. However in the case of the triangle (and possibly others) I found that some of the notes - which are actually hidden - do cause sounds to emerge. It was at that point that I discovered also that there are different configurations in the mixer, so that the Orchestra Kit for example does provide a triangle - but still has the "spurious" notes. I think what I have referred to as an instrument menu is indeed what you have called a sound dropdown.

Also one other thing which I don't know, is what happens if the whole score is saved. I thought that sometimes the Mixer configuration would also be saved with the score - which could be useful or important if sending the file to a web siter or via email to another user, but sometimes that seems to upset the configuration and then the instruments seem to be replaced by a Grand Piano.

Are there any conventions about setting up the sounds, or is one playing in the dark, as I seem to be right now?

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