Some problems of instruments and notations

• Jun 12, 2020 - 05:00

Why do many exotic instruments sound as same as other classic western ones (e.g. Uilleann pipes and dizi become piccolo or flute, erhu becomes violin) ? Can I turn them into their original sound? How?
Why some notations are useless? For example, the volume won't turn louder after I put "<" on the sheet. Can it be solved? How?
Today I downloaded v3.4.2 and found the pianos sound very different to v2.0.2 (I've been used v2.0.2 for many years). They become much duller than the old version. Can I change it back to the original bright timbre? How?

Please help me solve the problems above. Thank you!

There are only different 128 sounds available In General MIDI soindfont, but many more instruments, so we use the closest match
Either have a dynamic before and after the hairpin or use the Inspector and change the hairpins velocity change property
MuseScore 3 issue a different and generally better soundfont than MuseScore 2, but you can a) use the one soundfont and b) change to different piano sounds using the mixer

Guo Zijie

So, musescore offers us the choices of those exotic instruments is just to let real human musicians know that the music is played with those instruments whey they read the sheet?
"Either have a dynamic before and after the hairpin" ← I used this method and succeeded, thanks a lot! However, I found a new problem: how to make it valid on a semibreve or a breve? I tried to divide them into several crotchets or quavers and "linked" them (sorry, I don't know the English of the notion), but it was useless. The music didn't turn louder or quieter.
I used to try the mixer, but I couldn't find the original sound (v2.0.2) of "bright grand piano" in v3.4.2. Maybe I should try other instruments like violin or flute, and I hope they really become better.

Yes
Single note dynamics don't (and can't) work for all instruments. Certainly not for piano.
Or use the 2.x soundfont