How to enter a crescendo or decrescendo over a series of held notes for playback?

• Dec 18, 2019 - 00:45

I'm using the diminuendo hairpin over the notes to indicate a decrescendo, but there's no decrescendo in playback. I tried using the inspector, but there is no way to enter a starting volume and an ending volume. Here's what I've tried:
* placing a double forte marking at the beginning of the decrescendo and a triple-pianissimo marking at the end
* changing all the notes to quarter notes, then placing dynamic markings for each of them, starting with double-forte, the next one forte, the next one mezzo-forte, and so on down the line.

Playback plays everything at the same volume.

Help would be appreciated. :)


Comments

In reply to by alittlemusicality

Somehow things still seem confused in that file, when I look at the Mixer it says the voice is using Grand Piano. Are you sure you are not using a non-default soundfont? If so, probably it doesn't support single note dynamics. Anyhow, somehow something is off in this particular score with respect to instrument assignments. Anything unusual about how it was created?

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Honestly, I don't even know how to change the soundfont (or what that is). I don't recall doing anything unusual when I created the file originally, but just in case, I have completely recreated the audio score (attached) using a piano grand staff to start, then added 3 vocal lines: All, Part 1, Part 2, to which I assigned voices of Clarinet, Flute, and Tuba (respectively). This is simply to aid in differentiation between parts during playback.

I then added 3 percussion lines: sandpaper blocks, wood blocks, concert bass drum. I made no change to the voice assignment on these.

BTW, the sandpaper blocks voice plays sporadically in the previous version and doesn't play at all in this recreation. I tried restarting the audio/MIDI devices, but that didn't help. [Edit - In the Mixer, I changed the sound bank to Standard 6 and got sound.]

The decrescendo still doesn't work. I really appreciate you slogging through this with me!

Attachment Size
BOM Stories - NEW audio file.mscz 21.52 KB

In reply to by alittlemusicality

Sorry, I accidentally left out the important part: you are using sounds that don't support it. Had you stopepd with adding Voice, it would have worked. but when you changed the sounds to the non-Expr version of clarinet etc, that killed the single note dynamics again. You need to use the "Expr" (short for Expressive) sounds if you want to customzie sounds. These are used by default, so if you don't mess with things, it all works out of the box, but if you change sounds, you have to use the correct ones.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

In this case, what are the most correct instruments to use and what can be done to make the result of this dynamics work correctly?
That is, growing and decreasing work as expected!

Are there any settings in the synthesizer or inspector for this?
If so, which ones?
I understand this feature very useful for teaching purposes or even professional arrangements so I am very interested in learning correctly.
Thank you!

In reply to by mjbartemusica1

Any instrument that is capable of playing single note dynamics in real life should work in MuseScore also. The problem here wasn't about the instrument, it was about the use of the Mixer to change the sound of that instrument from its default to a non-standard sound (eg, adding a clarinet instrument but using the Mixer to change it to sound like a trombone). If you're going to do that, you need to use a sound with "Expr" in the name if you want it to respond to single note dynamics.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hello Marc!
I understand and understand everything that has been evidenced until the moment.
However, from what I understand my doubt is from most users.
See my attached example, I did everything you oriented in a very basic little snippet: Standard instrument, basic measure formula, extremely easy figures of rhythmic division.
Now I ask: Why do the growing and decreasing dynamics signals not work in this example, both in a small section and in individual notes?
What am I doing wrong and what can be directed by you so that the dynamics make the desired effect, that is gradually attenuate the volume and gradually increase the volume?
Hug!!

Attachment Size
Cresc e Decresc.mscz 5.18 KB

In reply to by mjbartemusica1

I don’t see any dynamic markings. Both MuseScore and human musicians benefit from seeings actual dynamics before and after each hairpin otherwise we don’t know how loud or soft to start or end. You can force MuseScore to change velocity a specific amount for each hairpin using the Inspector, but that doesn’t help human musicians, so better to use dynamics.

In reply to by mjbartemusica1

Well, not, they hairpins do have meaning, but it's incomplete without the dynamics. Dynamics on their own don't say to change gradually, they only tell you what to change to. Only crescendos and diminuendos tell you to make the change gradually. But they don't tell you how much to change. You need both the hairpin and the dynamic to give the whole picture.

Also say what soundfont you are using, and if you've changed any settings in View / Synthesizer / Dynamics. Not all soundfonts support single note dynamics. And not all instruments support it even with the soundfonts thst do (piano, for instance, doesn't, because it wouldn't make sense for it to).

BTW, "velocity change" is how you can set the change for the hairpin itself.

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