How do I make nature sounds?
I'm doing a nature-y piece and I want sounds like wind, rushing water, etc. However, I'm new to experimenting with different sounds and soundfonts, and I'm not quite sure how to get my desired sound. Is this something I need another software for?
Comments
Yes, you need another software for creating soundfonts. Or search for one that contains the spound you need.
I don't know what your final goal is:
A) to play your score wholly within MuseScore - including all the music and "nature-y" sounds?
B) to create an audio file (with "nature-y" sounds mixed into the score) to be played on a music player?
Either way, consider the difference between 'sounds' and 'soundfonts'.
'Sounds' - like wind. rushing water, birds chirping, etc - are more suitably called 'sound effects'. They are distict and unmistakable compared to musical instruments.
'Soundfonts' allow MuseScore's synthesizer to transform music notation into sound. MuseScore comes with its own GM (General MIDI) Soundfont: MuseScore_General.sf3.
For info. on General MIDI, see:
https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/gm-level-1-sound-set
While most of the General MIDI sound set is comprised of families of musical instruments, there is a (novelty) section featuring 8 different sound effects. One is 'Bird Tweet' which can be selected from MuseScore's mixer.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/mixer
Here's a MuseScore file playing bird tweets (open in MuseScore):
Bird_tweets.mscz
You see? MuseScore 'plays' the music notation using the bird samples from the soundfont.
If desired, additional musical instruments can be notated onto that score to have 'real music' playing along with the birds.
For other than bird chirps (or telephone ring, gunshot, helicopter, etc.)...
You can search for (or record your own) samples for wind, rushing water, etc. and load into MuseScore's synthesizer:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/synthesizer
So...
To be played within MuseScore everything must be notated within MuseScore.
On the other hand...
If you want an audio file as final output, you can use MuseScore for the musical instruments notation and export it as an audio file.
Then search for sound effects "audio" files (not soundfonts), which can easily be mixed into the export from MuseScore using an audio editor like Audacity.
Regards.