playback pizz. for entire score
i found what i think allows me to make all the notes on a staff sound in pizzicato on the playback -"Mid-staff sound change (pizz., con sordino, etc.)"; is there a way to make all the notes in the whole score for that voice to sound pizz. in playback?
Comments
Apply the text to all instruments/staves that should do so.
In reply to Apply the text to all… by jeetee
thank you. do you mean to do this for that voice stave by stave? My question is whether there is a way to do it once for all the staves of that voice.
In reply to thank you. do you mean to do… by Philip Ellis Foster
As it is an instrument playing technique you indeed need to apply it per instrument.
If the instrument only plays pizzicato, you may prefer just selecting the pizzicato playback sound for it in the mixer (but that still is done for each instrument separately, so just copy pasting the text is probably much faster)
In reply to thank you. do you mean to do… by Philip Ellis Foster
No, this is staff text after all, so applies only to one staff
In reply to No, this is staff text after… by Jojo-Schmitz
i am getting confused. Can i use the mixer to set one instrument to playback pizz, for whole score or not?
In reply to i am getting confused. Can i… by Philip Ellis Foster
You can choose any playback sound for any instrument as you please in the mixer; including pizzicato sound for some instruments.
In reply to You can choose any playback… by jeetee
thank you. now i will try to find the mixer!
In reply to thank you. now i will try to… by Philip Ellis Foster
ok. i found the mixer and i was able to change the instrument via drop down menu to violin, but i don't know what to do next. i don't see anything there which tells or suggests me how to make the playback for the whole score sound pizz. I would be grateful if someone could list the steps. thanks again.
In reply to ok. i found the mixer and i… by Philip Ellis Foster
also, if i change it for the score i am working on and open a new score, do i have to reset it back to normal or does it start again from normal?
In reply to also, if i change it for the… by Philip Ellis Foster
Each score uses its own instruments/sounds.
In reply to ok. i found the mixer and i… by Philip Ellis Foster
Just scroll a bit further down the sounds list to locate "Violins pizzicato" for example.
In reply to Just scroll a bit further… by jeetee
thanks! I found that, now do i have to do anything else but close that window?
In reply to thanks! I found that, now do… by Philip Ellis Foster
No
Using the Mixer for this is a mistake. Human musicians don't see mixers; they only see the score. Simply add the "pizz" marking to the first measure of each staff you want to play pizzicatto. Then both MuseScore and human musicians will play it correctly.
In reply to Using the Mixer for this is… by Marc Sabatella
i'm not concerned now with playing but with hearing how it would sound. with no pizz it found bowed and that is VERY different!
In reply to i'm not concerned now with… by Philip Ellis Foster
now i have a real problem. this piece is for mezzo-soprano and violin. i changed the name in the box at the top from mezzo-soprano to violin. then found violins pizzicato below and then closed it. when i played it back the mezzo was pizzicato and the violin was bowed!!!
how do i undo it for the mezzo? and how do i get it to work for the violin.
In reply to now i have a real problem… by Philip Ellis Foster
If you attach the score, we can understand and assist. Probably you simply are using the wrong instruments for the staves. That's another reason to not use the mixer for things that are better handled other ways (eg, by actually choosing the correct instruments).
In reply to If you attach the score, we… by Marc Sabatella
i don't understand what you are saying. My question is whether there is a simple way to undo what i did with the mixer, and how to get it to do what it did for the violin and not for the mezzo-soprano. this is pretty straight forward question. is there a simple answer?
In reply to i don't understand what you… by Philip Ellis Foster
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mixer
Rechoose the sound you wish to use for the mezzo. Select the correct track for the violin and pick your choice again.
But as has been mentioned a lot by now, if the end result should be the pizzicato playing technique; then your really should be using the pizz text facility
In reply to https://musescore.org/en… by jeetee
thanks again. appreciate your help. am under time pressure.
i thought of what you said but could not figure out what to choose for normal voice. is that what is meant by Solo Vox? what should i use? is there no other simple way to undo or reset to normal?
second, what is meant by choose the correct track for the violin? there is a box at the top labelled "Name:". when i opened the mixer it said mezzo soprano there. i changed the word there to "violin" but evidently that had no effect as the pizz sound went to the mezzo staves.
In reply to thanks again. appreciate… by Philip Ellis Foster
That handbook link isn't there just for its good looks…
The time you spent on "figuring out the mixer" by now far supersedes the time required to look through that page and likely already have all your answers
In reply to That handbook link isn't… by jeetee
i have looked through that section three times. i do not see anything which says how to undo what i did with the mixer. it may be there but if so its in language i do not understand. There is also no explanation of what to do with the name box other than what i did and it didn't change from mezzo to violin when i closed it.
In reply to i have looked through that… by Philip Ellis Foster
It mentions how to change the sound for an instrument. So if you want the voice to change its sound, do so. Don't think of "undo"; think "I want to change the playback sound of this instrument without changing the instrument itself"
I think the screenshot of the mixer might be outdated or using a different translation than what I have currently, but even then... Where my mixer shows the "Sound" dropdown (to select a sound) the screenshot shows "patch".
And the description for patch is given as: "This is the actual Sound from the soundfont that is used to render your instrument."
> So we discover that the playback sound of an instrument can be changed by that dropdown in the details section (huzzah! exactly what we were looking for)
Now the first description of that details area states:
"The details area displays and provides finer control of the currently selected track."
Which hints back at the... track area, which was explained in the manual just above it; an area showing columns for each track/instrument in the score.
> So how to select a track? By clicking on it in the track area. (perhaps this is the information you are missing/find unclear in the handbook?)
With this information you can now always change the playback sound of any track/instrument in your score
Moving on to the "Name" field in that view; let me start by quoting the manual again:
"The name of the part this track is associated with. Both part tracks and channel tracks display the part name. Note: The part name is editable, but this only have effect for the Mixer. The channel name is not editable.
See that "Note" there? It explicitly states that this field has only effect on the mixer itself (so on nothing else). Why'd you then think it would?
In reply to It mentions how to change… by jeetee
thank you so very much. i will give this a try. what i don't understand is where you saw all this information about the mixer. i don't recall see it but i will look in the handbook again.
i did not know what patch meant when i saw the dropdown list, but evidently this will solve that problem.
i am sorry to take so much of your time, but most grateful for it.
In reply to thank you so very much. i… by Philip Ellis Foster
i looked through the drop down menu in sound three times and I cannot find "Patch"!!!
what word does it come after on your mixer?
are there different versions of the mixer?
Help!
In reply to i looked through the drop… by Philip Ellis Foster
Patch and Sound are the same word for the same thing, namely the label of that dropdown with all the sounds in it.
Really, click on through to that handbook page and compare the images in it to what you're seeing on your screen.
In reply to i looked through the drop… by Philip Ellis Foster
i did find the text which you have. i looked at it before but did not find a discussion on how to reset the sound. it says that Name is editable and i believe as i said i did that i erased the word mezzo and typed in violin but it did not go to the violin part and i guess that is because i also had to change the channel from mezzo to violin which i did not realize.
anyhow i am still stuck because i can't find the PATCH option. can someone help with this please?
In reply to i did find the text which… by Philip Ellis Foster
"Patch and Sound are the same word for the same thing"
Did you find the screenshot in the handbook?
In reply to It mentions how to change… by jeetee
i think i misunderstood. I thought you meant i could find Patch as an option on the dropdown menu whereas all you were saying was that i could use that to return to the initial playback sound, which i completely understood.
The problem is i don't know what option to chose to get back to the original sound for mezzo-soprano.Can you or someone else tell me which of the options on the drop-down menu i should select?
In reply to i think i misunderstood. I… by Philip Ellis Foster
Any of the Voice or Choir options would work.
By default MuseScore uses the "Choir Aahs Expr." sound
In reply to Any of the Voice or Choir… by jeetee
thanks. i thought this meant ti would sound like a choir saying Aaahs expresively. What does Solo Vox mean? does it mean single voice?
In reply to thanks. i thought this meant… by Philip Ellis Foster
It means that that is the intention of the sound yes. A single voice (literally solo vox).
The "Expr." part of those instrument names has nothing to do with how the sound is produced/sung, but everything with being able to perform single note dynamics or not (a cresc during a long note).
Many of our stock instruments come in both options, with and without the "expr".
And indeed the "Choir Aah" sound is intended to sound a bit like that. But those names are still just names given by the soundfont creator. And if the soundfont is general midi compatible (which ours is) then those names are defined by that standard.
To know which of the 6-ish vocal-like sounds (provided by default) you want to use, you'll have to listen to them in the context of your score. Depending on the genre of music, one might prefer one sound over the other.
In reply to It means that that is the… by jeetee
thanks again. i listened to the excerpt of Solo Vox and it sounds more like an instruent. I will try choir ahs. i guess I can keep trying the different ones as evidently there is none for mezzo-soprano or for any of the usual voices, e.g baritone, etc.
In reply to It means that that is the… by jeetee
the choir ahs sound was the default sound for mezzo; it is what i first heard before i mistakenly changed it to pizzz.
it is a shame that there are not sound fonts included for the normal voice ranges. i wonder why.
In reply to the choir ahs sound was the… by Philip Ellis Foster
MuseSvore follows the General MIDI standard for soundfonts, it’s what virtually all synthesizers etc use. There is no need for separate sounds for mezzo soprano vs alto or whatever, the sound simply samples whatever voice is needed to produce that note. At most there could be separate sounds for male and female voices, but General MIDI doesn’t define that, so standard soundfonts don’t include that. Most likely you can find a soundfont somewhere online that does if it’s important to you.
In reply to MuseSvore follows the… by Marc Sabatella
thank you.
In reply to It mentions how to change… by jeetee
trying now t change mixer from the mezzo voice to the violin voice to get the violin voice to be all in pizz. From what i understand about name being editable, is what i should do then is remove the word mezzo and type the word violin in the name box ? I think this is what i did before but the sound font did not change for the violin. is there something else i have to do to change the sound from the mezzo voice to the violin voice?
In reply to i don't understand what you… by Philip Ellis Foster
Almost certainly there is a simple answer. But until you attach your score, there is no way for us to know for sure what you did wrong or how to advise you on how to fix it. That goes for almost every problem you might have. If you attach your score when you first ask, you will usually get the correct answer within minutes rather than require hours or days of back and forth involving people guessing at how to help.
In reply to Almost certainly there is a… by Marc Sabatella
i don't know how to attach the score but i do know how to upload it to musescore.com.
In reply to i don't know how to attach… by Philip Ellis Foster
When you type your comment here, there is a section right below that says "File attachments" with a big blue button labeled "Choose a file". Click that.
In reply to When you type your comment,… by Marc Sabatella
i see that but i don't know how to find the file because i do't know where i put things when i set it up two plus years ago.
In reply to i don't know how to attach… by Philip Ellis Foster
see https://musescore.org/en/node/289899
In reply to Almost certainly there is a… by Marc Sabatella
i posted the score.
In reply to If you attach the score, we… by Marc Sabatella
i don't know what you mean by using the wrong instruments. when i set up the score i chose mezzzo-soprano and added violin.
In reply to i don't know what you mean… by Philip Ellis Foster
i just posted the score at https://musescore.com/user/22400121/scores/6209681. i beleve if you play the mezzo staves it will sound all pizz. and the violin all normal violin.
In reply to i just posted the score at… by Philip Ellis Foster
i looked at the score online. the tempo marking on my computer appears above the staff and below all text but when it appeared on musescore the tempo marking appears above the last line of text. What is wrong here?
In reply to i looked at the score online… by Philip Ellis Foster
i also see that the measures numbers are different on line and there is a measure with text at the beginning that does not appear.
In reply to i also see that the measures… by Philip Ellis Foster
i would really appreciate it if someone could help me out of this mess. i did what it said and there is a problem and there is no explanation how to solve it that i could find.
In reply to i just posted the score at… by Philip Ellis Foster
Like this?
In reply to Like this? by Jojo-Schmitz
i understand how to attach but i don't know how to find the file as i said before. i don't know where it is stored on my computer.
In reply to i just posted the score at… by Philip Ellis Foster
Hi Philip - those violin chords again. If the violin is tuned normally you can't play what you've written as the Db can only be played on the G (bottom) string. I assume you are using scordatura, with the strings tuned G - Db - F - Eb. You will then need to indicate the scordatura tunings at the start, and change the notes on the page to reflect the fingering. I don't know how you can do this easily in Musescore - maybe your violinist is happy to do the transpositions on the fly.
Here is an example of the usual way of writing scordatura:
In reply to Hi Philip - those violin… by Brer Fox
thanks. the notes on the draft are just there for rhtyhm purposes at this point. so i could put in the tet. i will be changing them in final.
In reply to i just posted the score at… by Philip Ellis Foster
So, since you want the violin part to play pizzicato, simply add the "pizz" marking from the palette to the first note.
For the voice part, it isn't clear what you actually want instead of pizzicato violin. Do you want it to sound like an actual voice? Or maybe like a bowed violin? The instrument is already set correctly as you can see if you right-click the staff and choose Staff/Part Properties. So all you need to do is go to View / Mixer, select that staff (the first one, on the left) and change the sound to whatever you want.
In reply to So, since you want the… by Marc Sabatella
thank you. We're getting their. What option in the Sound dropdown menu should i choose to get it to sound like an actual voice? is it the Solo Vox?? i think i asked this before but did not see an answer.
In reply to thank you. We're getting… by Philip Ellis Foster
"Solo Vox" (not sure, it is non-standard as far as I can tell and doesn't sound like a human voice at all) or "Voice Oohs" (or "Voice Oohs expr." for single note dynamics)
In reply to "Solo Vox" (not sure, it is… by Jojo-Schmitz
thank you. .there is a weird instrument called a solovox. anyhow what should i choose to have a human voice, this is the question.
In reply to thank you. .there is a weird… by Philip Ellis Foster
That isn't an instrument but a sound.
Pick what you like. I'd take Voice Oohs
In reply to Pick what you like. I'd take… by Jojo-Schmitz
thanks. i will try this one now!
In reply to Pick what you like. I'd take… by Jojo-Schmitz
i think voice ohs is closest to the ones i tried and will stick with this.
one suggestion for next revision, aside from adding fonts for different voice ranges, maybe better to list the options in alphabetical order
In reply to i think voice ohs is closest… by Philip Ellis Foster
one suggestion for next revision, aside from adding fonts for different voice ranges, maybe better to list the options in alphabetical order
While this might seem handy at first, it quickly turns out that in the current order (defined by General MIDI) it is very easy to switch to a sound from the same family. All guitar sounds are grouped for example.
If the list were made alphabetically, looking through all sounds related to one instrument would become way harder.
A trick you might not know yet is that once you've opened the list you can press the first letter of the sound you're looking for on your keyboard and the list will jump to the next entry starting with that letter.
In reply to one suggestion for next… by jeetee
thanks. That trick would have been good to know!
now am trying to change from the mezzo voice to the violin voice; is all i have to do is go to Name box and remove mezzo and type in violin? i thought i did that before but it did not change voices.
In reply to thanks. That trick would… by Philip Ellis Foster
Changing the name of something never changes its sound. If you want to change the sound, then change the sound, using the dropdown list right next to where it says Sound.
In reply to Changing the name of… by Marc Sabatella
i was trying to set the mixer to change the sound in a second voice; from the playback sound for the mezzo voice to the sound for the violin playback voice; i figures it out from trial and error. Thank you anyhow.
In reply to Changing the name of… by Marc Sabatella
in my opinion the setup for the mixer is counter-intuitive: a composer would first know which instrument or voice he/she wanted to change, so having the name box like that at the top, and making it editable, is an invitation to go down the wrong path, or a dead end.
In reply to in my opinion the setup for… by Philip Ellis Foster
Then you'll probably like the redesign proposal for MS4 better (see https://musescore.org/en/node/305002 for that proposal)
The current design is borrowed more from the DAW and real mixer world. On real consoles it is extremely common to have the details view on top and the track area on the bottom. But I can see how that would be less intuïtive for "normal" composers.
Then again, by the time you last posted that you changed the name in that label, it had already been pointed out twice that this was not an action you should be taken.
This has all become a very lengthy thread just because you for some reason refused to simply use the pizzicato text element; which would've never required you to even go into the mixer, as all of that is set up by default..
In reply to Then you'll probably like… by jeetee
very sorry if i missed something but i understood that adding pizz. to the text would not change the playback sound. i do greatly appreciate your help.
In reply to very sorry if i missed… by Philip Ellis Foster
Again, the handbook would've been your friend. Nowhere in the relevant chapter of https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mixer#mid-staff-change in the steps is there any mention of having to use the mixer to make this work.
And in the most recent releases, a staff text with these properties has been added to the palette (but that information indeed seems to be missing from the handbook)
In reply to Again, the handbook would've… by jeetee
i think i saw it could be added to a staff but understood i would have to add to each of the violin staves, so someone suggested the mixed to add it to all at once which i thought would save time and effort.
In reply to i think i saw it could be… by Philip Ellis Foster
You would need to add to each violin staff if you had more than one, but you don’t - there is only one violin staff here. Sure, it continues across several systems but it’s still only one staff. There would only be multiple violin staves if you had multiple
violins (eg separate first and second parts like in a string quarter or orchestra). And if you did have multiple violin staves, youd need to change them all one at a time in the Mixer, which is much slower than adding Pizz to all of them at once.
In reply to You would need to add to… by Marc Sabatella
This may have been semantics. I would say I have several violin staffs on each page. this is why I thought I would have to do it for each violin staff.
In reply to This may have been semantics… by Philip Ellis Foster
You have one violin stave, but several systems.
In reply to You have one violin stave,… by Jojo-Schmitz
ok. thanks.
In reply to thanks. That trick would… by Philip Ellis Foster
No, no, no
As pointed out before, changing the name field does nothing but change what name you get to see for that instrument in the mixer.
Go to the bottom area (the one called the track area in the handbook), and click on the column of your violin instrument; you'll see the details part update with that information and see the track color change to show it is now selected.
In reply to No, no, no As pointed out… by jeetee
Thanks. I think this is what I did and it worked. Thank you for all your help!
In reply to one suggestion for next… by jeetee
i figured it out, by trial and error; you have to do both: change the name in the name box and also change the chanel label on the bottom so it corresponds to the new voice.
In reply to i figured it out, by trial… by Philip Ellis Foster
No and again no.
Only in very specific instances would you ever need to change the name in the box. And the only time you need to do so is when you wish to change the name that appears at the bottom of that track area.
It has nothing to do with selecting a track or changing its sound.
In reply to i figured it out, by trial… by Philip Ellis Foster
To be clear: you do not have to change the name. You can if you want, it makes no difference. What you must do is change the sound. You didn't need to trial and error for this, we explained that in a dozen different posts here, and this is also what the Handbook explains. But I'm glad you finally figured it out!
In reply to thank you. .there is a weird… by Philip Ellis Foster
A human is the answer.
All of these sounds are merely possible approximations. In once score the "aah" sound will be a better(*) match, in another score the "ooh"; in yet another score the "flute" might be better, or the "alto sax" or the "solo vox" or the "whatever"
(*) better is of course a subjective thing.
Pick one
Playback
Don't like it? Pick another one.
Do like it? Done :)
In reply to thank you. We're getting… by Philip Ellis Foster
I tend to prefer the sound of woodwind instruments for voice part playback, personally (eg, clarinet or oboe). It's totally up to you. But FWIW, to get to the original default, you could right-click the staff, Staff/Part Properties, Change Instrument, and just select the same instrument again. This will reset the settings for that staff.
The Solo Vox sound is part of the General MIDI standard, I'm guessing it comes from a synthesized imitation voice sound included in some of the early MIDI synthesizers. So it's useful if you're trying to recreate some sounds of 80's pop music, etc.
In reply to I tend to prefer the sound… by Marc Sabatella
thank you.