Euphonium uses tuba sound by default, no playback above C5

• Sep 25, 2021 - 11:24
Reported version
3.6
Type
Performance
Frequency
Few
Severity
S3 - Major
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
MuseScore

As noted by some forum posts (and mentioned in a comment on the Our Progress on MuseScore 4 but which does not show up under "What Links Here") the Euphonium, which should be very close to Trombone in terms of range, does not play above C5 (see attachment for playback of Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba and Baritone horn), even though these notes should be in (albeit uncomfortable / pro) range.

Reason for this: Euphonium does not have its own Sound, but uses the “Tuba expr.” sound (as can be seen in the Mixer. This sound does not have notes above C5.

Possible workarounds:

  • Trombone: has its own native sound
  • Baritone: uses the “French Horns Expr.” sound

I don't know what is the correct severity; it can be very jarring to have these notes just missing. I have seen Jojo's comment at https://musescore.org/en/node/203491, "None of these a part of GM, so would need some specilized and additional soundfont."

Attachment Size
euphonium playback.mscz 16.77 KB

Comments

• Sep 25, 2021 - 13:59

So should Euphonium use the Trombone sound instead? Or the French Horn sound?

That'd be a rather easy change.
Or is Trombone just similar in range, and the current Tuba sound is OK, just not going high enough?

Reply

• Sep 25, 2021 - 15:58

If it were me, I would change it to trombone. Either option has its issues. To answer your other questions,

a) Or is Trombone just similar in range: Yes
b) and the current Tuba sound is OK: Probably yes. It is better than trombone.
c) tuba just not going high enough?: Yes

I asked the question on the forum, Euphonium sound does not exist, keep on tuba or change to trombone? and will point user on Discord to it.

Reply

• Sep 25, 2021 - 16:47

If this is something that was done in the past with other instruments / instrument families with a reasonable amount of success/acceptance, it would be more preferred than the other two suggested workarounds.

Reply

• Sep 26, 2021 - 09:06
Title Euphonium uses tuba sound by default, no playback of C#5 and above ⇒ Euphonium uses tuba sound by default, no playback above C5

Amateur and professional ranges for reference:

https://musescore.org/en/instruments/euphonium
aPitchRange: 40-70 Bb4
pPitchRange: 40-74 D4

https://musescore.org/en/instruments/trombone
aPitchRange: 40-71 B4
pPitchRange: 36-74 D4

We have 3 options:

1) looking at an online reference

https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/1337-euphonium
Bb4 normal
F5 extended/pro

= add 5 semi-tones (C# - F5)

2) Same playback range trombone

The Trombone sound plays up to C7, which even though that seems totally outside of actual playable range, if we are going to treat euphonium sound analogous to trombone sound, I would say add/create C#5 - C7

= add 24 semitones

3) The alternative would just be to pick a number of semitones inbetween. 5 and 25.

My vote is for (2)

Reply

• Sep 26, 2021 - 11:16

a) Are there instructions (howto / tutorial) for extending the sound range. I assume this would be called resynthesizing? If not, and someone can provide some guidance, I could document it properly for the next instrument in a similar situation.
b) I assume one would extend the tuba soundfont upper sounding range, and not create a clone and call it euphonium (since it is still a resynthesized tuba, and not a sampled euphonium). This will also make it clear what people are listening at, make it easier to choose a 3rdparty euphonium sound from the mixer, if they are not happy with the native (to MuseScore) sound and are ok to go through the effort of installing a 3rd part euphonium soundfont.

Reply

• Sep 29, 2021 - 06:30

I have extended the upper range of the tuba for MuseScore_General 0.2.1 (and also the HQ version). In doing so, I have also generated new samples for the upper range for a better sound when used as the euphonium preset.

Until MuseScore_General version 0.2.1 is included with MuseScore, you can download the SoundFont here:

If you have trouble uncompressing the files, you can use 7-zip for Windows or The Unarchiver for Mac. Linux users should be able to use their built-in archive manager.

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• Jul 20, 2024 - 18:42

Hi @s.chriscollins,

Sorry to post here, but I know you have been involved in the soundfont development for MuseScore.
Do you happen to know the exact origin of MS Basic.sf3? I have looked all over, including github, read the .md files, and cannot find essentially MS Basic.sf2. None of the MSGeneral and HQ files align with the numbers of samples, instruments, presets, or file size.

I would like to fix a nagging problem and offer my solution to the final included soundfont, but cannot find where to start.
https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/23659
Thanks

Reply

• Jul 23, 2024 - 10:18

I'd like to somehow include that (and newer and further improved versions, should they exist) in my MuseScore 3.7 Evolution, I'm just not sure how to go about it

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