Volume in 2.01 and dynamics

• Jun 16, 2015 - 21:22

This question only affects learning (voice) and playback. I can't work out what the volume is as standard in any given piece - i.e.before adding any increases or decreases such as P or FF or crescendo lines etc

To explain: At the start of a certain piece, I use text only directions for volume (this is my choice) At that point the volume is just about right without my doing any adjustments and it plays correctly too -so happy with that. Later in the piece, I go on to use P and crescendo and dim lines and various dynamics which do then affect volume.

If I want to return to the 'standard' volume achieved at the start - later on in the piece - how do I find out what that is? If I could work out what it is likely to be, say, mp or mf or some other volume, I could insert one of those dynamics and hide it - so as to get the correct volume at that point for playback and voice learning purposes?

It seems to me that it is easy to see from the Inspector what your tempo is at any point in a piece but I can figure out the same for volume?


Comments

The default dynamic happens to be mf, but you should never depend on that. A human musician won't know what volume you want and might start louder or softer than that when reading your score. And some future version of MuseScore might also decide to play it differently. If you want mf, place an explicit mf in your score.

I suppose there are 2 things happening (or sought after) here - the visual score and the hearing score. If I start with an instruction such as dolce or mezzo voce, singers will know visually exactly what that means. For me, it is not always a question of always using FF or PP (I am of course exaggerating). I am trying to achieve relative volumes in the score. And if I choose to use text to explain the sound I would like to hear, I can always use and hide dynamic markings (such as P or F) .

Of course volume can be turned up in the play panel (temporarily) but that's not my point. It is a question of achieving a relative balance on playback. My knowing that the default volume is MF, does help me. So thank you for that.

Knowing what the basic default volume setting is important for me, It helps a great deal to achieve a visual score and a hearing score which are close in concept.

You can place a dynamic from the usual palette then double-click on it and then change its text. You can then drag that dynamic to a custom palette and it will remember its velocity (volume setting). You can also make a set of dynamics that appear below the stave and a set that appear above it that takes your fancy (I've done it for piano/vocal pieces to avoid clashes with lyrics).

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