Allowing guitar harmonics in selected notes during audio playback
First post of mine so excuse any incorrect form...
I am trying to use the "guitar harmonic" audio sound for just certain notes in a score when the main instrument sound is "Nylon String Guitar" (Classical Guitar). I found the post "How to change instrument sound (e.g. pizz., con sordino) midway through a score": https://musescore.org/en/node/50196
However, this doesn't work for a classical guitar - the only option in the pull-down menu is "Normal." i have a piece that has some harmonics and it would be nice to have the audio be a nylon harmonic as opposed to a normal pluck. Not a major issue but I though I would ask (MuseScore 2.1).
Thanks.
Comments
You will need to enter an instrument that has more than one midi channel. You can use something like the C trumpet since it is easier to change the transposition on. Rename the Trumpet you Classical guitar. In the Mixer (F10) change sound of Trumpet to Guitar and Muted Trumpet to Guitar Harmonic (these may not be precise names, but I'm guessing you will recognize the correct words). You can then use the methods in your link using normal for normal guitar and muted for harmonics. The disadvantage of this is that there is no string data and you cannot use tablatures.
There is something undocumented in the string quartet template. The instruments have string data on them and 3 midi channels so you can use tablature. Create a string quartet from the template, delete the extra instruments use the above instructions and can choose the pizzicato or tremolo channels for Guitar Harmonic. You will also need to redefine the strings and add a couple for the guitar.
In reply to You will need to enter an… by mike320
Thanks for the help @mike320. Really appreciate it.
I will state for the record that I think a future version of MuseScore should have the various guitar "instruments" upgraded to have more than one MIDI channel themselves as opposed to the workarounds you listed. I view the variations for trumpet to be very similar to guitar - "standard trumpet" and "muted trumpet" are analogous to "standard guitar" (Nylon Guitar standard plucking or Electric Guitar standard picking, etc.) and "guitar harmonics." Ideally, I would love to see all of the guitar sounds (Nylon, Electric, Jazz, etc.) get MIDI multi-channel support and offer the corresponding harmonic sound for that particular type of guitar (a harmonic played on a nylon classical guitar sounds different than a harmonic played on an electric "rock" guitar). But that is really a nice-to-have. :)
In reply to Thanks for the help @mike320… by jeffguitardavis
That is up to the people who run MuseScore. As I understand, computer music standards do not allow for multiple midi channels on guitars. MuseScore is intended to export other formats that follow these standards and the developers have little desire to cause problems for others importing scores created by MuseScore. Feel free to either wait (maybe forever) for someone of authority to respond to this post or submit a feature request that will more likely get some sort of response here.
In reply to That is up to the people who… by mike320
Fair point. The developers certainly want to stay within the appropriate boundaries. I don't know much about MIDI channels so I need to learn more about that. However, I am surprised that "standard trumpet" and "muted trumpet" are supported as separate MIDI channels since you can play trumpet in a standard fashion, pick up a mute and play a view notes muted and then put it down and play without a mute (typical jazz styles come to mind) all within the same song - completely analogous to plucking some notes on guitar and then playing some notes as harmonics.
Anyway, thanks for the quick and helpful responses and thanks for the hint about feature requests.
In reply to That is up to the people who… by mike320
I don't think any music standard disallows this. I once created a sample score which had several channels, it got to be attached to some forum post
Welcome aboard.
For faithful reproduction of guitar mute, harmonic, fret noise, etc. there exist software more geared toward producing such a 'polished recording'.
MuseScore is primarily a notation software. It produces printable scores that can be read by human musicians. (You will often read this mantra throughout these forums ;-)
Anyhow, all is not lost.
As already mentioned, General MIDI does not allow for the different guitar timbre channels and so one workaround is to use the violin channel(s).
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mixer#mid-staff-change
Also, here's a couple examples of what's possible:
Guitar sounds.mscz
Guitar_timbre_example.mscz
(Open them in MuseScore)
You can instead use mid-staff instrument changes:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mid-staff-instrument-changes#add-inst…
and choose a different instrument for the new sound/timbre.
Finally, if playback's important to you, and you need better guitar samples - e.g. better 'nylon' guitar harmonics vs. the default 'electric' guitar harmonics - then you can try a different soundfont.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfonts-and-sfz-files
Regards.
In reply to Welcome aboard… by Jm6stringer
"However, this doesn't work for a classical guitar - the only option in the pull-down menu is "Normal." i have a piece that has some harmonics and it would be nice to have the audio be a nylon harmonic as opposed to a normal pluck."
Indeed, you have pressed where it hurts. And you've noticed in the same way that workarounds with the "Guitar Harmonics" sound do not work, are completely unusable for classical guitar / nylon strings, and even for acoustic guitar / steel strings.
To date, there is no satisfactory solution.
And if you try a new soundfont for guitar, with a better rendering, please, share it, so far, I do not know any.
Note however that the word "Harmonics" is included in the roadmap for the future 3.0 version: https://musescore.org/fr/handbook/musescore-roadmap#Playback
I do not know exactly what it covers, and given the list length, I fear that it will come out (if it comes out a day) very late.
So, for the moment, I do not find better to note these harmonics, and to not to move overmuch away from the expected sound, by using various stratagems: invisible ottava lines, fix to line feature, and in addition for the playback, just systematically to place a dynamic, invisible too (eg, mp, depending the context), and possibly a bit reverb to try to simulate a little the natural resonance (of a harmonic sound). Howewer, this reverb may be don't expected for the rest of the score.
Below: a first file, with the Guitar Harmonics sound. So: to forget for classical and acoustic guitars (it's only for electric guitar): Harm.mscz
Then, with a mp dynamic and a little reverb : Harm'.mscz
Finally, in the same way, but more complex (ottava line and fix to line), an excerpt (the end) of the famous arpeggio study of Villa-Lobos for guitar: Harm HVL.mscz