Using MuseScore with organ SoundFonts - articulations needed for fixed velocity question

• Oct 10, 2019 - 15:48

Unlike keyboard instruments like a piano, organ key presses are defined in binary terms (key on, or key off). Velocity (ie. how hard you press the key) is not relevant to organ keys.

My question is:
What's the best way to define an instrument's keys as being 'on' or 'off' ie. without any velocity parameter.
I'm aware of the 'standard' articulations (eg. staccato) defines in the MuseScore instruments.xml binary, but am wondering, for a cusom instruments.xml file, how to achieve the effect of a key being either on or off. Currently, MuseScore responds to velocity, but I'd like to remove this characteristic and define keys as being either on or off, with MuseScore ignoring the key's velocity. A 'soft' press of the key should result in the same fixed velocity as a 'hard' press. I thought this might be something you could define in the articulation tag in the .xml file, and tried setting velocity to eg. 400% (ie. multiply the keypress velocity by 4) but am not confident this is the right, or even best way to achieve this effect. Another option would be to edit the SoundFont file in PolyPhone, and specify a fixed velocity (which I think it will do), but have not explored that option yet - perhaps the SoundFont is the right place to achieve this key on/off effect with no velocity parameter.

Thanks

Lofo

Comments

• Oct 10, 2019 - 15:55

"Velocity" doesn'tr really mean "velocity" except for the rare fonts that really implement it as that. It's really "volume", and if you just leave it alone, and don't use dynamics (which you shouldn't for organs), "on/off" is exactly what you'll get. No organ soundfonts i am aware of, including Virtual Pipe Organ systems, implement "tracker-touch-like" "velocity". It means "volume".

Reply

• Oct 10, 2019 - 16:31

Thanks BSG. In MuseScore am I right in saying then that you should 'switch off' dynamics (not sure how to do this, but have seen some settings in MuseScore I'll look into).
From a philosophical perspective, I guess this attribute of organs is something perhaps best defined in the SoundFont file itself. There are many settings there that may do the trick, one being 'Fixed Velocity', although I tried that in MuseScore and it seemed to override it, allowing me to press keys softly and hard giving varying volumes (which is not effect I was looking for).

Reply

• Oct 10, 2019 - 16:48

I hadn't thought about this, but that makes sense. I suppose some might nevertheless wish to include dynamics for the benefit of people playing the music on other instruments. So you could, after entering the dynaics select them all and use the Inspector to set their velocity be 0, which we traditionally interpret as, no change. Not sure if the single note dynamics feature might see this differently, but it shouldn't be relevant for organ. Unless, hmm, maybe it should be, as at least some organs have volume pedals?

Reply

• Oct 10, 2019 - 16:57

Hi Marc, yes I was thinking along the same lines: it's pretty straightforward to select all notes and revise their velocity to either 0 (no change), or a fixed level.
Thinking about this some more, perhaps what I'm asking is not really in MuseScore's bailiwick: it's only the live playing I was hoping to force a constant velocity, and I realise MuseScore is not designed as a software for 'playing' as opposed to composing music.
@BSG: As you state, ensuring no dynamics are entered into the score, you achieve the desired effect. When entering notes into MuseScore, the problem is solved as each note goes in by default at the same velocity. Volume pedals do complicate the whole situation, where the dynamics do indeed change on a real organ, but least that's what the composer meant I guess.

I'm pretty sure there's a way in the definition of the SoundFont file to force a constant velocity when playing the patch in MuseScore, although I haven't figured it out yet. I've been mucking around with PolyPhone editing, and there are some options that sound 'hopeful' e.g. fixed velocity for an instrument. But once in MuseScore, it seems it responds to live playing with the unwanted dynamics/velocity changes.

One thing I'm a bit confused by is the Synthesiser Dynamics settings. The 'Dynamics method:' CC events only (constant velocity) would appear to deal with the situation, and even the 'Advanced Settings' - 'To non-expressive' would appear to take care of things when creating a score, but it appears the setting takes no notice of live playing on a MIDI keybord, where the soft/loud dynamics can still be heard. Are these settings just for recording or editing scores you're creating by using keyboard recording?

@BSG - I just added a tutorial file (instruments_pipeorgan.xml) that self-documents an example of an organ instruments file (under keyboards, you can add 5 different types of staves - 'harmonium' 2 manual-type staves, as well as separate Swell, Great and Choir staves (with appropriate clef and pipe rank selections that of course can be changed)). I'm hoping someone finds useful my own little 'discoveries' on creating and editing these files for organ SoundFonts. It seems a very well designed piece of functionality: from a technical standpoint, 'merging' things like .xml files is not a trivial task, but it appears to work very well in MuseScore.
The fact your additional instruments.xml file is supplementary and merged with the primary instruments.xml file is a nice feature that helps keep your customized file size down to a small, clear file. The tutorial I made (really just a documented .xml file) is at:
https://musescore.org/en/node/295506

Thanks guys for your informative help on this!

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.