Upload soundfont issue... am I missing something?

• Dec 28, 2016 - 22:36

I wrote a piece in a fit of need to compose something yesterday. I tried to upload it last night, and it wouldn't keep the correct instruments, adding extra instruments to the list on the side.

Today I've spent many hours trying 3 different soundfonts. My prefered is Sonatina_Symphonic_Orchestra.sf2 as it is an orchestral piece. I've used this in the past with a previous piece uploaded here. I deleted other soundfonts from the Synthesizer in each case, in order to be sure that it it was definitely using the soundfont of choice.

I have tried uploading 3 versions, using:

GeneralUser GS
https://musescore.com/user/64537/scores/3143416

Sonatina_Symphonic_Orchestra.sf2
https://musescore.com/user/64537/scores/3143471

FluidR3Mono
https://musescore.com/user/64537/scores/3142191

In each case, I have set the correct instruments in the Mixer and saved each one as an .mscz file and made sure they sounded right before uploading.

Only the version using the GeneralUser GS soundbank retains the instruments, and they really aren't very good for the piece.
You can see that I used one of the other soundbanks last year on https://musescore.com/user/64537/scores/1934796 which uploaded fine.

Can someone help?

Mike


Comments

The online player uses a GeneralMidi-compatible soundfont; if you use a non-GM soundfont, then yes, your channels will be non-standard in the program. This means that your soundfont uses the same channelnumber (ID) for an instrument that has a different definition in the standard.

In reply to by Mike Coppock

If you want the instrument list to be 'correct', then yes.

Also be aware that the online player uses its own soundfont and only its own soundfont. So the playback there will not use your local soundfont. You can work around this by exporting your audio with your desired soundfonts, then use send to Youtube for your uploaded score and use the audio sources facility to add (and synch) that audio with your online score.

Two of the reasons for the online player to use its own soundfont are:
* Size tradeoff; playback must work on as many devices as possible, including mobile devices
* License issues: we can only provide truly free soundfonts.

In reply to by mike320

Hi Mike.
No, none of those things. I started the piece from scratch by selecting MuseScore's 'Orchestra' template which is offered amongst all the template options when opening the program. I deleted the staves of instruments I didn't use when I got to the end of composing it. Nothing was rehashed from anything else. Nor was anything imported.

In reply to by Mike Coppock

The template should be just fine, I have a feeling the problem is whatever you mean by "all sounds reassigned in the Mixer"? If you mean you messed with the Mixer settings, then my guess is you somehow did something wrong - like maybe you don't have Fluid first in your soundfont list or you are using one of the other soundfonts in your list for some of the instruments, so that the sound you selected simply isn't available on a system in which Fluid is the first and only soundfont. Because if you don't mess with anything, it works fine, template or no. Can you be more precise about what you are doing, like step by step instructions? Then we see where things are going wrong.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks Mark! You sorted it!!
Even though I had Fluid GM at the top, had 'Set as default' and had reselected instruments in the Mixer, it seems that the instruments ffrom the other soundfonts were still available to select in the list.

I have removed the other soundfonts and the list of instrument options in the Mixer has changed.
I've uploaded this version and the instruments selected have remained.
https://musescore.com/user/64537/scores/3147401

It's just unfortunate that there aren't decent orchestral string sections available, which is why I prefered Sonatina_Symphonia... which I realise isn't a GM soundbank.

I'll try and work around it by using Youtube and making a video of a .wav and the Musescore score.

Thanks again. It's still very much a big learning curve for me, as I don't get much chance to get time to work on music.

Mike

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