How to maintain volume of long held notes
I feel ridiculous asking this, but I've transferred a score to MuseScore, only entering the singular voice I will be singing, so I can unlearn years of radio listening and focus on the specific harmony I need to. I'm working with a particular score where notes are held for 16+ beats. After the first 2-3 measures, the notes had diminished so soft I can't hear it. I changed the piece to the Voice:Bass instrument and that maintained the volume of the note but I don't like the sound - I've been using the Piano instrument primarily. Playing with some other instruments made drastic changes to my staff.
My question is - how can I continue to use the Piano instrument, but have notes maintain their volume for their entire duration?
Comments
You wrote:
After the first 2-3 measures, the notes had diminished so soft I can't hear it.
So use an instrument sound that sustains. (Organ comes to mind.)
how can I continue to use the Piano instrument, but have notes maintain their volume for their entire duration?
MuseScore is primarily a scorewriting software. Over the years people have been clamoring for more "realistic" playback. The soundfonts used by the internal synthesizer for score playback are based upon samples of real life instruments. A piano in the real world cannot sustain for longer than its string(s) vibrate. The same holds true for other types of stringed instruments - acoustic guitar, for example. Since a human can sustain a note for longer durations, the singer should simply follow the music as written for the voice and not try to mimic the natural decay of the piano. In other words, if the note is written to sound for 2 - 3 measures, simply hold the note that long when singing regardless of what any other instrument is doing.
However, for whatever reason...
If you truly need an instrument to sustain longer than the piano, and for as long as actually notated, choose a different instrument sound from any of those (over 100) listed in the mixer. The sine wave sound in the mixer, for example, can realistically play a note indefinitely. Open the mixer and experiment by choosing any of the choices available in the 'Sound' drop down box.
Playing with some other instruments made drastic changes to my staff.
Drastic? How so?
You can change the 'Sound' in the mixer without having to re-write or change anything at all in the score. Simply use the mixer to "experiment" with different sounds to find your preference.
As mentioned in the other comment, don't bother changing the instrument: just use the mixer to change the sound of the voice part. I personally tend to use one of the saxophone sounds for vocal parts, since it can sustain indefinitely but also has a clear attack. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/mixer for more information about the mixer.
In reply to As mentioned in the other… by dragonwithafez
Thank you all. When I would change instruments, I'd find the music typically changed to a Treble Clef and the notes on very long staffs, and while it may have been a simple fix, - simply put, it freaked me out and I didn't mess with it. The mixer has effectively allowed me to do what I was looking for!
In reply to Thank you all. When I would… by lonadar
Changing instrument should change to the correct clef for the instrument in question, so if you circumvent that and change sounds instead, you'd just need to change the clef manually. It also changes other attributes like the name and transpisition automatically, so unless you prefer making those changes manually as well 9I can't imagine why), definitely far better to let MuseScore do them for you.
That assumes you are actually trying to change which instrument you are writing for. If the goal is playback only - you don't intend to hand the music to someone who actually plays the instrument in question - then the Mixer is the way to go=, precisely because it doesn't make those other changes that would be necessary in order for the music to be readable to a player of that instrument.