muse sounds percussion doesnt play properly
this most commonly happens in instrument change. Tam tam, suspended cymbals doesnt play at all. (measure 151) in measure before many instrument changes, suspended cymbals used to play. it just quit playing around the measures I have recorded. glockenspiel plays just fine in that same staff. no its not the tremolo because the tam tam's entrance has no tremolo.
this file and arrangement itself had gone through hundreds of revisions and have branched off multiple times with the "save to cloud" option. i have at least 8 files in the musescore cloud thing. I got this version from my november 2024 revision i think and reuploaded it. somewhere in the line, this version has gone through a downgrade to musescore 3 in xml format too. I have so much revisions i cant keep track of them. could that be causing the issues? this playback is not the only issue i have. key signatures kept appearing, especially in new staves, when i have deleted them beforehand. incorrect key signature (measure 197) I also wasn't able to add a key signature in the same glockenspiel part. so i had to make a new staff, copy the notes, and delete that staff. i dont know if this is the musescore 3 conversion problem too but measure numbers quit showing in huge portions of the score(measures 27-41. i have deleted these too, and replaced with system texts. so basically there are no "true" measure numbers left). could have i deleted them manually? i dont remember. but i thought changing the increments were gonna bring them back, well it only brought back some part of the score measure numbers.
screen recording here too:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DR8KIGY7klsPx7HFDVEcqKRM0360eK0L/view?…
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Alpha - copy.mscz | 1.36 MB |
Comments
On my system, I can't hear the Muse glock at all. I had to change it to Basic. Then it was fine. No idea what that means, It seems to me that this score may be a mess because of going back and forth between MU4 and MU3. You've spent a lot of time trying to fix problems that shouldn't have happened. Consider sticking with one or the other until the end. A fresh start might even be in order.
I see you have some parts open. I hope you aren't working in them and counting on changes making it into the score. Usually safest to finish a piece first.
In reply to On my system, I can't hear… by bobjp
you think starting over would be better bro?
i got so much crap in this score i dont think i could do it again
One other work-around I see is to separate your Glockenspiel, Cymbals and Gongs into separate new staffs through your Instruments panel.
It seems when I created the tam-tam instrument, for example, I could hear it within those measures (i.e. 151 - 158).
The beginning of the piano music in this piece reminds me of part of one of the Minecraft theme songs!
In reply to One other work-around I see… by smittyVanilli
Thank you for this. I will try it.
When I do want to export parts, I just combine the parts back right? That staff is one percussionist.
It is a minecraft arrangement! It's an arrangement of minecraft's end credits song (called "Alpha" in the volume beta album) expanded instrumentation for full orchestra and electronics with saxophones. Initially transcribed for the original instruments piano strings percussion 2 synths 1 french horn and clarinet.
I also made the piano part way more difficult to be treated more as a concerto. I will hopefully get to play this with my high school band my senior year, hence for all the winds (including saxophones)
In reply to Thank you for this. I will… by mikechadyt
Thank you for sharing about that. I was mainly a percussionist in high school. Those were interesting times! In fact, I played the keyboard as well. I was the only one that was multi-talented in the percussion section!
Recently, since I am also into generative AI, I have asked one of my local LLMs about combining parts (I.e., Large Language Models). Here's what the response was:
"In MuseScore 4, when you copy and paste the individual percussion instruments (Glockenspiel, Suspended Cymbal, Hand Cymbals, and Tam-tams) into separate parts, it's generally best to leave them as separate parts.
Here are a few reasons why:
Flexibility: By keeping each instrument separate, you can control their volume levels, articulations (e.g., legato or staccato), and other performance characteristics independently.
Realistic scoring: In real-world orchestral settings, percussion instruments like these often have distinct roles in the overall sound picture. Keeping them separate allows for a more nuanced and realistic representation of how they would be played by individual musicians.
Easy editing: If you need to make changes or adjustments later on (e.g., adding dynamics, articulations, or other effects), it's easier to do so when each instrument has its own part.
That being said, if you want to combine these instruments into a single "Percussion 1" part for some reason (perhaps for simplification or convenience), MuseScore allows you to merge them. However:
You can create a new percussion staff and then use the "Merge Parts" feature in MuseScore's Edit menu.
Be aware that this will combine all four instruments into one, so you won't be able to control their individual characteristics anymore.
If you do decide to keep each instrument separate, it might look something like this:
Part 1: Glockenspiel Part 2: Suspended Cymbal Part 3: Hand Cymbals Part 4: Tam-tams
This setup allows for more flexibility and control over the individual instruments."
Where it went wrong is that this feature is not in Edit -> Merge Parts in MuseScore 4. It is in Tools -> Implode ... That combines your parts into one staff.
One way you could experiment with that is saving your score in another file. On the Instruments Panel you can hide all the instruments except for the staff you want to work on. And try combining the parts. One thing I know it doesn't copy over is the instrument changes, and recently I learned multiple voices are funny copying over as well! I hope it helps!
Combining parts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DwIhWNmWH4
Minecraft has, in my experience, been one of the most popular and well-known games out there. I really like the music they created for it.
Well done! It is my hope your school loves the score!