Instrument Previews
I understand this may be a bit too vague for very precise programming, but there are many moments where I'm trying to choose instruments - especially synthesizers - and I don't know what sound to expect from them. MY solution so far has been to add many synthesizers right off the bat, enter multiple notes in each staff, and delete any that don't fit, which takes a while to load and taxes my processor. Is there any way that while selecting an instrument in the Score Wizard, we can have the option to preview a middle-register sound from it?
This won't work with options like Drumset, where there's too much timbral diversity to really get any information out of only one of the sounds, and many instruments share the same basic envelope restricted to different ranges, but I believe a partial implementation would be extremely helpful. Is this a possibility?
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Comments
If its about sound, I simply start of with a single instrument, enter a few notes from the piece/for testing. Highlight that measure/those measures and turn on loop playback.
You can now test out/change sounds using the mixer during the looped playback.
In reply to If its about sound, I simply… by jeetee
That is exactly the method I use now that taxes my time and my computer
In reply to That is exactly the method I… by VitalEXess
But it's not the method you've mentioned in your earlier post… There you stated having to add many instruments, my method only adds a single instrument.
I also fail to see how playing back this single instrument and choosing a single sound for it in the mixer would be more taxing for your time and/or computer than doing the exact same thing (but possibly in a pitch range you won't be using) upon selecting an instrument. It remains a single instrument and a single sound for it.
Which actually brings me to the 2nd issue with your automatic playback during instrument selection problem. If the instrument you select is a Piano, which of the 8 piano soundfont entries I have currently installed should be used for this sample? Or how should I switch/select between them.
Or which of the 5 trumpets (muted? dark? from musescore soundfont? from yet another one?)
In reply to But it's not the method you… by jeetee
Well yes, you said to add a single instrument, but if the instrument is wrong, like with the synthesizers, then I have to replace it in the same menu.
In reply to Well yes, you said to add a… by VitalEXess
Not quite.
Even when I'm unsure of which instrument to use I usually have an idea of in which direction it should be (brass/wind/strings/strummed/synth) which makes me start with one of those. Although it doesn't matter at all, because the choice of instrument is entirely unrelated to the choice of playback sound.
So after having chosen any single instrument and having jotted down some notes, the sound choosing process is as follows:
1. Select the range of notes
2. Turn on loop playback
3. Start playback
4. Open the mixer
5. Browse through instrument sounds
6. After having found the desired sound, stop playback.
If that sound is the sound of a different instrument than the one I started with, then open up the staff properties and use the Change Instrument… function to change into the new instrument.
Then possibly reselect the desired sound bank in the mixer (as that might differ from the one MuseScore selects by default for said instrument).
I'm still curious as to how you'd solve the issue of having multiple possible sound banks for a single instrument in your proposal.
This issue may be relevant: #291962: Unable to play a staff instrument live from MIDI keyboard or on-screen piano?