Woodwind dominance and issue with solo Contrabass
I didn't have this issue in Musescore 2. In Musescore 2, I could also edit the names of existing instruments just by double clicking on the instrument name. I am writing an orchestral score that is supposed to represent a summer's day. And I used the Symphony Orchestra template and then edited it to subtract unneeded instruments(such as snare drum, bass drum, cymbal, and tuba). And what happens? Very early on, it is woodwind dominant. No orchestra is woodwind dominant in a forte passage. Maybe in a piano passage but certainly not at forte.
Here are the instruments in order of most prominent to least prominent in the starting phrase:
Bb Clarinet
Bassoon
Flute
Violin 1 and 2
Cello
Contrabass
Now I think this woodwind dominance at forte can be fixed by changing the strings so that they have the plural in the name instead of the singular(so Violins 1 instead of Violin 1, Contrabasses instead of Contrabass). But there is a bit of an issue with a solo contrabass as well. So if I were to compose a double bass concerto, it would sound wrong.
Here is the issue I have with solo contrabass. It gets a nasty buzz at A2 in absolute pitch. That is simply too high for there to be more of a buzz to the timbre, even if raised by an octave. The cello has no such issue, the only string instrument with this nasty buzz that I know of is the Contrabass.
I have heard of there being an extension to the existing soundfont in Musescore 3.1 Does the extension automatically install with the update that makes single note dynamics possible or do I have to add it? If it installed with the update, then the soundfont extension must be the issue. Here is the score where I am getting both the buzz issue and the woodwind dominance issue. If you just scroll through the notes in the Contrabass, you will hear a nasty buzz above G2 in absolute pitch. And if you play it, you can clearly hear that the woodwinds are dominant over the strings.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| A_Summer's_Day.mscz | 60.33 KB |
Comments
I believe you are correct and the symphony orchestra should have Violins as the sound rather than violin and so forth. I actually use a sound font that has violin I and Violin II sounds.
The contrabass is a difficult instrument to write a concerto for because it sounds wimpy against a symphony orchestra and takes great care to write a concerto that does not sound that way.
The MuseScore_General_HQ can be downloaded using the Resource Manager in the Help menu. You can use this with the default settings in version 3.1 or in the dynamics tab of the synthesizer set up CC events only..., CC11, and switch all patches to non-expressive and get single note dynamics on almost all other sound fonts.
It's almost always necessary to tweak volumes in the mixer to get the right sound for a new sound font. Unfortunately you must make these adjustments in every score. Be aware that version 3.1 doesn't remember mixer settings, but the bug should be fixed in 3.1.1 when it comes out.
Meanwhile, since you mention editing the instrument name - some earlier did versions did have a feature that allowed this by double-clicking the name rather than the originally intended method of right-clicking the staff and going to Staff Properties. But the double-click feature led to some crashes that couldn't easily be solved and thus it had to be scrapped. So it's back to the original method of right-click, Staff Properties.
In reply to Meanwhile, since you mention… by Marc Sabatella
On the bright side of the feature being taken away, there does seem to be some work being done that will allow more control over the labels on staves. The old method will probably not be implemented, but from the sounds of it, different will be better.
different will be better - I've noticed this for a few things. I initially didn't like some of the changes, but they have mostly led to improvements and more capabilities over version 2.