Unison notes are too loud due to matched phase

• Sep 9, 2018 - 18:22

In the real world, different singers and different instruments in general have non-correlated phase. With N parts on the same instrument the overall sound power will be N times as high. So the amplitude is sqrt(N) times as high. Two parts playing at the same volume will be 3dB louder than the single player and four parts 6dB louder, whether they're playing the same note or different notes.

In Musescore, when N parts join in the same note, they have identical phase, so the amplitude is N times as high and the overall sound power is N^2 times as high. Four parts at the same volume sound 6dB louder than a single part when they're playing different notes, but when they come in unison, suddenly they're another 6dB louder than that.

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Unison_trouble.mscz 5.76 KB

Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

That does seem to be the only way to try to work around it with present musescore. But it isn't a good way.

The fact that dynamics are interpreted as velocity, which is not the same as volume/amplitude, makes that problematic even if you tweak things manually. (No way to know what velocity correction is required to achieve the correct amplitude, and you're changing other aspects of the sound besides the amplitude.)

Plus, even if one could manually adjust amplitudes and knew the correct amplitude adjustments, requiring people to find every single instance of unison in their scores and make such an adjustment is not a particularly user-friendly way to deal with matters.

I have frequently this problem in Concert Band scores. If I realy want to hear a "good" audio I simply put severals of these instruments , for this sequence, in silent, with the inspector. I have'nt find a better way

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