Musescore 4 Percussion Mapping

• Sep 6, 2023 - 23:00

I've been banging my head against a wall trying to figure this out:
What is the midi mapping for the percussion drumset on musescore 4
The documentation page for that part (https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/drumset-customization) seems unfinished and so this has been painful trying to figure out the sounds.
On that page the little bit of text it has is talking about the general midi mapping for percussion, but interestingly musescore doesn't exactly use the gm mapping, as it uses key# 27,28 and 29 for hi hat and also has 934850385 different toms where some important percussion instruments should be.
So, does anyone actually know, or do I need to try every single key and then document it somewhere?

Edit: Just found out the drumset has different mappings from the "Percussion" Instrument? when does that make sense?
Tbh i feel like musescore needs a percussion revamp because why is it THIS difficult to put some instruments on a stave? This isn't just a percussionist issue either; how are composers going to write Mallet parts and Percussion 1, 2, etc parts, if the only feasable thing to do is to just make a different paper for each instrument (absolutely ridiculous).


Comments

The normal General MIDI standard for drumset pitches wasn't intended for orchestral sounds - it's more, like the name suggests, for actual drumsets. The orchestral mapping is indeed different.

A percussion revamp is being worked on, But, General MIDI remains what it is, so I still expect that distinction - normally drumkit versus orchestral - to be maintained for compatibility.

Sounds like you might be experiencing some other issue with mallet instruments also? That woukldn't be related of course. Best to start a new thread and explain that problem in more detail. Sounds like maybe you're having trouble figuring out how to combine multiple instruments onto a single part? That's perfectly doable. In your new thread, attach your score and we can show you how.

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