Request for MuseScore to understand GM Level 2 alternate drum kit mappings
I've not been able to test every sound in every kit, but the several Orchestra Kits (plus Symphony Kit) and the Marching Drums seem to be the ones with the problem, which is that most of the notes are completely scrambled in relation to the sounds they play back. Things like a crash cymbal playing as a kettle drum (anything by the name of Orchestra Kit), a closed hi-hat playing as some kind of bass drum roll (that's what it sounds like—Marching Drums), and so forth—all mixed up. Meanwhile, most of the notes in Latin Percussion have no sound at all.
This all applies no matter what the SoundFont. Something is messed up inside MuseScore. What is it?
Comments
This is not a bug per se. The "Orchestral" kits are not defined by the original General MIDI Level 1 specification; it was added for Level 2, and the program number mappings in the Standard and Orchestral drum kits are simply defined differently. So you'd have to customize the drum set within MuseScore based on knowledge of the Level 2 spec if you wish to use a Level 2-compatible soundfont's Orchestral kit.
Yes, obviously, it will be nice if MuseScore figured this out on its own, or at least provided a ready-to-load orchestral drum set definition (.drm file), but it's not exactly "messed up". It is sending exactly the program info it was designed to. It just doesn't know about the different program assignments in the Orchestral drum kits, and in any event, it wouldn't work to simply reassign existing drum sounds, because the Orchestral kit as defined by General MIDI Level doesn't even define sounds for most of the drums used in the Standard kit.
The drumkits conform to the General MIDI Level 2 standard.
In the original GM specification there was only one drumkit
The GM level 2 spec includes the 9 GS Drumkits.
The key mappings for these can be found here:
http://www.voidaudio.net/percussion.html#set2
If you are habitually using the Orchestral drumkit then you will need to define and save a drumset for it and load it for pieces using this.
I'm not sure I quite understand the reason for this whole different key mapping thing, but I now have three major questions:
1. If I just figure out which notes are associated with the sounds I want and put them on the staff, will normal percussionists be able to read it?
2. Assuming that that would work, why can't MuseScore just display a different set of tooltips in drum input mode if in an alternative type of drumset?
3. Even now, I keep finding new things to learn about MuseScore. How do I "define and save a drumset"?
For the Orchestra kit, see http://musescore.org/en/node/41521#comment-235136