MIDI Actions

• Apr 18, 2020 - 06:20
Reported version
3.4
Type
Functional
Frequency
Many
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
MuseScore

Currently the MIDI Actions dialogs are entirely non-functional.

Steps to reproduce:

1) Add a note
2) Add a staccato and select the staccato dot
3) In the inspector panel, at the bottom, there will be a "properties" button. Select "properties".
4) A dialog box will appear. At the bottom of the dialog is a section titled "MIDI Action" which is entirely unpopulated and has no function.

Here are the steps to reproduce a related by slightly different issue:
1) Add two notes of different pitches
2) Add a slur to connect the two notes. Select the slur
3) In the inspector panel, you will see that there is no "properties" button. This should be consistent between all articulations, however it is not.

Here are the steps to reproduce another related, but slightly different issue:
1) Add staff text, such as "arco"
2) Ensure the text is selected
3) Select the "properties" button in the inspector
4) Select the tab "MIDI Actions"
5) Again, the bottom portion of this tab is entirely non-functional

What I believe the correct behaviour should be is:
Users should be able to select a midi note (including the ability to specify velocity), CC value or program change message that is triggered by the specified text or articulation. Ideally MIDI actions could be triggered by text and articulations (as mentioned) but also as a property of any element on the page, such as dynamics, or a double barline at the start of a new section, for example.

In the case of articulations, it should also be possible to specify a secondary note, CC or program change message that is triggered at "note-off". For example, this would allow a keyswitch to be sent to an external device for a "staccato" note, but to ensure that following notes are performed with a "normal" or default articulation.

In an ideal situation, it would be great if this midi action could be set to be sent out a few milliseconds before the text, note, or articulation. This "look-ahead" time should be user adjustable.

Comments

• Jun 3, 2020 - 09:19
Frequency Many ⇒ Few
Severity S4 - Minor ⇒ S5 - Suggestion

Requested twice so far and not a bug, but something that has never been really implemented

Reply

• Oct 2, 2021 - 03:23

+1

Key switches would be helpful, but I'm thinking it should be handled gracefully since key switches are kind of awkward in that it's using an actual note that's not playable by the instrument. It's easy to get confused that you have it there. You probably want the ability to include key switches or NOT include key switches when exporting. or even exporting the key switches on a duplicate MIDI track with just key switches. You also may want the ability to hide/view the key switches (probably just as name of note shown above articulation text) to keep track of them on the score. It's also dependent on the plugin so you almost need the ability to create maps of your instruments with the key switches used if you wanted to swap out instruments.

Musescore does allow articulations and such by using a separate MIDI port/channel for the articulation. This does work, but it means you have to add another track in the DAW and load the plugin again for that track and change the articulation for it and match the MIDI channel to Musescore.

Reply

• Oct 2, 2021 - 17:45

I duplicate my musescore staves to put the articulations. It works great. But what I really want is to send my midi note for articulation keyswitches through the staff text.
Far more easy ! I think this is not possible yet...
Just put a text with staccato/legato/whatever and configure the text to send a midi note in one specific channel/port.

Best !
Looking forward to this simple solution. I don´t mind with exporting. I´ll use this just for writing, I can export in other ways, save the sound from the DAW, etc.

Reply

• May 8, 2022 - 08:57

Definitely a +1 here! This is a blessing for a midi arranger like me. I have solved staff text issues by adding new channel definitions to the xml files, but can't solve the problem when using staccato or any other single note articulation.

Reply