Unpitched percussion
I have created a score that includes piano, claves and maracas and have successfully created notes for the 2 unpitched percussion instruments. The claves notes play well, but I am unable to obtain any volume from the notes placed for the maracas. I have spent several hours trying to figure this out on my own without success. Any ideas?
Comments
It could be a problem with your speakers or headphones not producing that frequency very well. But you can adjust the relative volumes of different instruments with the Mixer (under the View menu).
In reply to It could be a problem with by Isaac Weiss
Thanks for the suggestion. I did increase the volume on the maracas in the mixer, but there was no change. Interestingly when I increase the volume on the claves there is little increase in volume - but if I change the "sound" on the claves from "Standard" to "Standard 7" the volume of the claves increases. Changing anything in the mixer on the maracas does not bring out any sound.
Any other thoughts?
In reply to Thanks for the suggestion. I by mjsauber
Do I understand that you're getting no sound at all from the maracas? That would suggest that they're muted—see the checkbox under the instrument name in the Mixer. If that box is checked, just uncheck it.
Here's a test you could do if it's an issue with your speakers struggling with the specific frequency that the maraca sound produces: check the "Solo" box for the maracas (effectively muting the other two instruments), then open the Synthesizer and/or the Play Panel (both also under the View menu) and increase the overall volume all the way. Then try again. You should be able to hear the maracas at least a little bit then. If not, I really have no idea what could be going wrong. Could you attach the score here?
We're unlikely to be able to help here unless you attach the score in question in mscz format.
Information about MuseScore version and Operating System would also help.
In reply to We're unlikely to be able to by ChurchOrganist
I appreciate your efforts regarding my problem in getting sound from the maracas. Wondering if you've had any luck since I resent the file .... CHO-CO-LATE-2.mscz. Thanks again - Mike Sauber
In reply to I appreciate your efforts by mjsauber
I can not explain why but if I use regular note heads seem to work.
In reply to I can not explain why but if by Shoichi
I greatly appreciate your efforts to help. Unfortunately the change that works for you does not seem to work for me. I also opened the file you returned (20.67 KB) and when I play this, no sound plays for the maracas line. I will try totally deleting the maracas and the re-defining them.
In reply to I appreciate your efforts by mjsauber
How did you create this score? A maracas staff would by default define only a single note: "A" enters MIDI pitch 70. However, pressing Edit Drumset on your maracas staff shows two notes defined: A, which enters 70 as per usual, and "B", which enters MIDI pitch 1. Your staff is using note "B" exclusively. So somehow you must have told MuseScore that was something you wanted to do, but it was a mistake - MIDI pitch 1 has no sound defined.
Replace the notes with "A" instead of "B" and all is well.
In reply to How did you create this by Marc Sabatella
I greatly appreciate your efforts to help. I defined the claves first and somehow that became a shortcut defined as "B". I then added the maracas and they became A as the shortcut and I defined "X" as the note-head, and thus far I am not able to get any volume from the maracas. The shortcut for maracas is already A, with claves as B; claves play well and maracas do not play. Another person said if they changed the note-head from X to a regular note-head it worked for them, but this does not work for me. I will delete the present maracas and try to redefine them.
In reply to I greatly appreciate your by mjsauber
I don't understand why you are trying to define anything at all. Why not just add staves for claves and maracsa normally, using the default definitions? They both work fine. But if you must define your own for some reaosn, just be sure sure to use the right pitches. Again, in your posted score, you simply need to delete the existing notes for the maracas staff and reeneter them using "A" instead of "B".
In reply to I don't understand why you by Marc Sabatella
It seems I'm getting lost in terminology. I am not trying to "define" anything new - I am simply trying to place maracas sounds as already defined by MuseScore. The claves sounds are fine when placed in the same way the maracas sounds were placed. Interestingly I created a score with ONLY maracas, and no sound came out when played. Scores created using other unpitched percussion played the expected sound, so I can only assume that my sound system will not play the maracas sounds. At this point, unless there are other ideas, I will give up on maracas for now until I can try a different speaker/sound system. The score sounds OK with only claves. Thanks for your time and effort.
In reply to It seems I'm getting lost in by mjsauber
No, there is nothing wrong with your sound system. Your score doens't play for me either - but again, that is simply because it was *created* incorrectly. I don't know how you created that Maracas staff, but apparently you didn't do it the way that works - simply selecting Maracas from the list of instruments.
Here, for example, is a Maracas staff created correctly. I did exactly the following:
1) File / New
2) Press "Enter" to skip the first window of the wizard
3) Click "Choose Instruments" in the second window of the wizard
4) Switch to "Ethnic instruments" in drop-down menu at top of window
5) Click "Unpitched Percussion"
6) Click "Maracas"
7) Click "Add"
8) Click "Finish"
At this point, you have a working Maracas staff. When you go to enter notes - click a measure, press "N" - you will see only one note icon in the drum input toolbar: "A". Type "A" or double click that note icon and you will enter that note and hear the sound just fine.
Again, you must have done something different from the above, because when I open your score, I see *two* notes in the drum input toolbar. I see the "A" that is supposed to be there, but I also see a "B". And all the notes in your score are "B", not "A". If you enter drum input mode and press "A", you will hear the sound correctly, just as you will if you follow my steps above.
In reply to No, there is nothing wrong by Marc Sabatella
You nailed it! Thank you. I'm still not sure exactly what I was doing differently, but I am now getting sound from the maracas when adding maracas using your instructions. I did find that the initial volume of the maracas was quite low (barely audible) and I had to adjust the mixer to raise maracas volume to maximum and also lower piano and claves in order to balance the overall sound. Again, thanks.***Addendum - I did find that if I used the mixer to change the "STANDARD" TO "STANDARD 7" on the maracas the sound changed very slightly but the volume increased enough that I was able, using STANDARD 7, to lower the volume of the piano and claves to a reasonable level compared to the very high level I required using STANDARD on the maracas. I still need to place the maracas volume at its highest in order to balance all the instruments.***