Is there a way to delete unwanted sounds on the sound list?

• Feb 12, 2022 - 09:41

Hi,
I would like to delete some unwanted sounds on the sound list (Mixer > Sound), and hopefully would like to re-organize the order of sounds in alphabetical order if possible. Is there a way to do so?

Thanks,

Seishi

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Comments

This is the standard Genera MIDI list and the standard ordering, so no, it isn't designed to be customized. You could, I suppose, install a non-standard soundfont. but it shouldn't hurt anything to have sounds in there that you don't use. The standard GM order is quite logical - winds together, brass together - which makes it easy to find related sounds for the instrument you've added. You shouldn't generally be using the Mixer to change to unrelated sounds - eg, from trumpet to flute. For that, you should be changing instrument, in Staff/Part Properties.

All that said, the list in the Mixer works like any other dropdown list, just type the few first letters of the sound you want to go directly there.

In reply to by seishiunuma

More info. here...

This shows how the MIDI "families" of instruments are grouped:
https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/gm-level-1-sound-set
That reference may help you when scrolling through a standard GM soundfont.

For instance, pianos (grand, electric, honky tonk, etc.) always appear at the top of the list; brass (trumpet, trombone, tuba, etc.) are found in the middle.
This consistent ordering of the instrument sounds (patches) allows swapping among different GM soundfonts (e.g., for 'better sounding' instruments) without having to worry, for instance, that the piano sound will unexpectedly change to something else after the swap.
Non-GM soundfonts may have different ordering, so using such a soundfont in MuseScore may require opening the mixer to discover the arrangement.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

I understand the need for GM ordering of sounds. That doesn't make it any less a pain, sometimes. For example, regarding hitting the first two letters, I have part using a guitar sound. Let's say I want to hear it on banjo just to see if it is more the sound I want. I have to hit the first two letters 16 times to get to banjo. Or what I run into more often, MuseScore loads solo string sounds in the String Orchestra. I have to hit v+i 13 times to get to Violins expr. Same for the other strings. It's faster to just scroll wheel through the list. This is partially because we have to pass through all the trem, pizz, and mute sounds. Do those sounds have to be visible in the list? they get loaded as part of string sounds anyway. 99 times out of 100 I'm not going to write an entire part for trem violin. In any event, even if I did, it would be for violin with an instruction to play tremolo. There's more I'll add later,

In reply to by bobjp

I had written a reply but must have forgotten to hit Save. Anyhow, hopefully future versions will improve this. But meanwhile, note you aren't limited to two letters when typing into this or any dropdown list. "ba" may hit lots of different instruments, but "banj" take you directly to banjo. Also, indeed, for related sounds - like violin solo vs violins expr - they will normally be nearby in the list, so scrolling is the way to go - that's kind of the whole point of the grouping of related instruments.

Yes, it is possible and it is easy to do with a free soundfont editor like Polyphone.
https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/

You have a couple of options:

1) Remove the sounds that you are never going to use but don't change the order.
2) As per (1) but also change the order.

Option 1 gives a smaller list to scroll thru and preserves the remaining sounds in standard MIDI order.

Option 2 gives you complete freedom but no General MIDI compatibility.

If you want to have a go with option 1, (I really wouldn't recommend option 2), then be sure to work on a copy of the master font. This way you have a fallback, (in case of mistakes), and also a repository of all the master sounds in case you want to add some more back in at a later date.

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