Stage Positioning In MuseScore
One of the greatest challenges of mixing with certain virtual instruments is proper spacialization. There are plugins built for this purpose, which generally work as follows; the plugin or software present a virtual stage/studio, on which the user can move instruments around as if arranging an orchestra pit. The reverb (or at least the early reflections) is then adjusted based on the instrument's position. There are some problems with the current offerings, however.
For one, the options I'm aware of are abandonware or a bit unwieldy for someone looking to write notation with as little setup as possible. Furthermore, the technical details of allowing the user to see every instrument on the stage vary from plugin to plugin - often, it's required that the plugin is able to share memory across every instance of that plugin, which doesn't work in every DAW and I'm unsure if that works in Musescore.
Secondly, a lot of them have far more controls than most people need (this is fantastic for expensive professional software, but for people who just want to put instruments on a stage...).
One example is being able to point those instruments in any direction. Generally speaking, instruments tend to all be pointed towards the same point; the center-bottom of the 'stage', or conductor. The one exception is that sometimes someone might direct brass instruments to face backwards, to hear more of the hall than the direct sound, for which I'd provide a quick-to-use 'backwards' switch rather than make it take longer to arrange every instrument.
The point being, I think it'd be fantastic if Musescore had an easy and quick-to-use stage positioning tool built into the software - doubly so if it were able to work well with multi-timbral plugins (plugins with multiple stereo or mono outputs - percussion kits come to mind). It'd save a lot of time and effort on the user's end, as well as reduce the reliance on plugins that may or may not work well in the software, or have just been abandoned by the developer, or are complicated to get working for the average user (IRCAM SPAT comes to mind here), or... well, you get the idea. Another option I'm aware of even requires loading two separate plugins.
Comments
Ain't that way beyond the point of music notation software?
"The Musescore Editor is an easy-to-use application that helps musicians to learn, create, and edit musical notation." (https://musescore.com/about)
I am sure there is a reason why such thing is not readily available for free, programming and maintaining this is way more complicated than writing a feature request for it...
In reply to Ain't that a bit far-fetched… by the_mnbvcx
MuseScore is a bit beyond just being 'notation software' ever since they added a mixer. Ever since they recorded, and developed Muse Sounds. Ever since they made a set of simple plugins to use in Audacity and MuseScore.
Writing and maintaining features will ALWAYS be more complicated than writing a feature request. If one isn't supposed to make requests just because it would be more work writing the code than writing the request, then nobody should post here.
EDIT:
And, by the way, before Muse Sounds - sample libraries of the same quality were never free and always costed hundreds of dollars.
In reply to Ain't that a bit far-fetched… by the_mnbvcx
I feel like I should speak more specifically about the feasibility - the reverb effect itself is pretty much already taken care of, given that there are plenty of free, open source implementations of early and late reflections available (the numerous available effects available under freeverb, for example - Zita in particular is highly praised). You would essentially adjust the delay/panning based on the position of an instrument on the stage, and the length of the reverb based on the size of the room. And, of course, you'd change the panning and stereo image - binaural panning seems to be popular for spatialization, but causes problems when summing to mono.
To be fair, these commercially available programs use much more advanced techniques. One combines hundreds of impulse response samples for a complex convolution reverb setup. IRCAM SPAT uses a particularly detailed algorithmic reverb simulation that isn't just 'early and late reflections'. But there is one relatively popular one I'm aware of that simply simulates early reflections. I'm not requesting something like SPAT or the other. There is certainly a reason those are expensive.
The problem, given using pre-existing reverb effects, would mostly be that of the GUI - and granted, that takes a huge chunk of development time. But that's nothing new to introducing any new feature to MuseScore. Take a look at how long the piano roll is taking to come back, despite having visible progress before release (there are some videos that show beta versions in action).
And - or so I'd like to think - a piano roll isn't exactly a music notation feature.
Sorry if double posts are frowned upon, but I felt like this was a bit long and on a different topic to just add in an edit.
In reply to I feel like I should speak… by Feldspar
Sibelius has had almost all the features you talk about for many years. It is notation software. They sure would be nice to have in MuseScore. But not very likely. Doesn't hurt to ask.
First they have to get MuseSounds working.
In reply to Sibelius has had almost all… by bobjp
Definitely; I've already read they're keeping any major new/returning features at bay for a 4.1 update. But I figured it doesn't hurt to get the idea out there; there are a lot of advantages with integrating this sort of thing directly into the host software itself, rather than relying on 3rd party plugins.
In reply to Definitely; I've already… by Feldspar
MuseSounds has too much reverb. Once that is fixed, users can add the amount they want. That along with panning will help with stage location.