I have a problem with dynamics in Musescore 3.6

• Aug 28, 2021 - 02:32

In the picture below, i set both ppps to have effect in one staff only, the first ppp has a velocity of 16, and the second has a velocity of 9. But the playback audio show that all ppps still sound like they has a velocity of 16, even if i change all of them to 1 or 100 ,.... Please help me! Thanks in advance!


Comments

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

You added two identical ppp dynamics to those notes, so when you click on the dynamic to change it, you're only changing one and the other is still affecting the dynamic. If you select the dynamics and press delete, you'll see that there is still one dynamic there in the same spot. Since you have hidden notes that are doing the actual playback, you'd need to make sure that you're changing the dynamic attached to the voice 2 notes, not the voice 1 notes. Here's the score, updated so the dynamics should work how (I think) you wanted them to. In the future, make sure you're only selecting the notes you want the dynamics to be attached to when adding the dynamic.

Attachment Size
Tone_Poem.mscz 16.2 KB

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

Please attach the updated score where you tried setting things correctly but still are finding it not working, then we can understand and assist bette.r Also explain what you mean you about hidden notes and disappearing note,s also with a specific sample score and precise steps to reproduce the problem.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

To reproduce the problem, in the cello and double bass, type in the notes like in the score and add ppp dynamics, then change the velocity of the ppps on the upper staves of each instrument to 9. You can see that when the notes on the upper staves play, notes on the lower ones will die out, even if they're only played for 1 beat and they're dotted half notes. That's where the invisible second voice comes from, to fix this problem. But doing so makes the upper staves sound like the ppps on them have velocity 16, even if I change the velocity of the ppps in the question to anything. Do you know how to fix it?
* Tone Poem.mscz is the original file
* Tone Poem 1.mscz is the edited file I downloaded from the first person to have entered this forum topic, but it didn't work

Attachment Size
Tone_Poem.mscz 16.29 KB
Tone_Poem_1.mscz 16.2 KB

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

I've loaded your score. Which specific notes should I listen to in order to perceive a problem? I see crazy dynamics here - places there you have a ppp but the velocity set to 100, etc - but I'm not sure if that's in itself is the problem or what you were expecting when you made that customization.

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

Not just 2 string instruments linked by a bracket. It's when the same string instrument is linked with a bracket. I have no idea why.
You score has, for example, 2 string bass parts linked with a bracket. This is probably how it should be done if you were handing out parts to a real orchestra. However, in Muse Score the same patch is trying to reproduce two different parts at the same time. You would think this would not be a problem. But I guess it is.
When I set up a score with two independent bass parts (not linked) and enter your notes, the problem goes away. Again, no idea why.

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

Probably one can fix it, but we need a more precise description of the problem in order to understand. Please give precise step by step instructions to reproduce the problem. RIght now I can't tell which notes you mean, or if when you say "disappear" you mean the appearance or the sound. I'm kind of guessing maybe the latter, and you might be talking about a fundamental issue with MIDI being a single stream of information per channel so you cannot have two notes of the same pitch playing on the same channel at the same time. But depending on the specific - hence the need for you to be explicit about which notes you mean - it should be possible to tweak the playback parameters to make the overlapping notes behave as you wish.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

When I look at your score, in addition to the problem of duplicated dynamics on the same stave I also see that the cellos and basses have been set up as single instruments with two staves - like a piano. The range of the dynamic on the lower stave in each case is set to "part" and therefore affects both staves. Having two staves for the same instrument is really only useful for instruments that have parts that look like that - piano, harpischord, organ, harp etc. Dynamics added to such an instrument have their range set to "part" by default and therefore affect both staves. Normally, if there are two instruments of the same type - e.g. flute 1 and flute 2 or in this case cello 1 and cello 2 and contrabass 1 and contrabass 2 you would set up two instruments each with its own single stave. Then any dynamic you add to a stave would affect only one of the instruments.

To fix your problem either:

Create a single stave for the second cello (and the same for the contrabass) and copy the lower of the two existing stave to that and then delete that existing lower stave. This will result in you having two Cello staves, each having independently controllable dynamics. You can add brackets from the pallet to group the staves in the way you prefer.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/create-new-score#add-instruments for more information on how to set up instruments with one with more than one stave.

or,

Leave the staves as they are and select all the dynamics attached to those staves and set the range to "stave" rather than "part" in the inspector. But note that any further dynamics will be added with their range set to the default of "part" which would need to be reset to "stave" later.

See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/dynamics#adjust-range for more information on setting the range of dynamics

In reply to by SteveBlower

For the record, my understanding is that the basic issue with dynamics being set to part versus staff was solved some time ago already. What is less clear is what is meant by the statement: notes "Also if I remove the hidden 2nd voices, at the moment notes on the upper staves play, notes in the lower staves just dissapear. Is there a way to fix that too?". Here is where I think my guess might be relevant, but it isn't clear. Almost certainly, though, it has nothing to do with range on dynamics.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

  1. Create a string instrument with 2 staves ( i used the cello)
  2. In 4/4 time, on the upper staff, make a half rest, then a half note, on the lower staff, make a quarter rest, and then a dotted half note
  3. Apply ppp dynamics to each staff, change their area of effect to staff, then change the velocity of the upper staff's ppp to a different value ( I changed it to 9)
    As you can see, in the playback audio, the moment note(s) on the upper staff play, the sound of the already played notes on the bottom staff will instantly dissapear, so I:
  4. Add an invisible 2nd voice to both staves, with the exact same notes, at the same duration, start on the same beat with the notes in the 1st voice, on the corresponding staff, but those notes are inputed as tied quarter notes, with total duration equal to the notes in the 1st voice, for example: behind notes on the upper staff, there are 2 invisible tied quarter notes, ...
  5. Mute notes in the 1st voice, on both staves
    Doing this solves the first problem, but in audio playback, the upper staff sounds like its ppp has the velocity of 16, even if I change it to anything else. That's the problem. And I changed dynamic setting to staff too

In reply to by Abmaj13#11

It doesn't disappear at all for me - it simply lessens in volume. That's because even though in principle the ppp/9 dynamic marking on the top only applies to that staff, the reality is, for instruments like cello that support single note dynamics, dynamics aren't actually implemented using MIDI velocity at all, but using control change messages, which are per channel. So indeed, dynamics will affect the entire channel.

The "staff" setting for dynamics was never really designed to work for instruments that support single note dynamics. It was intended for piano and keyboard instruments, which are normally the only ones to use multiple staves to begin with. I'm not sure what you are trynbg to do that involves multiple staves for a single cello instrument, but that doesn't really make musical sense in most cases. If you need two physical cellists to play the music, it should be two instruments in MuseScore as well. After all, you'll also want to hand them separate parts as well - no reason the first cellist should need to see the second cellist's music as well.

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