Per-instrument tuning for playback?
Currently all we have to change tuning is the synthesizer panel master tuning pitch. What I would like is some way to specify instruments or staves that have a different tuning from the default. My main scenario is writing for mallet percussion instruments in a mixed ensemble. Mallet percussion instruments are typically tuned to A442, while winds and strings are mostly tuned to A440 or A439. I'd like to be able to leave the default tuning to A440 but then note my percussion parts to play at A442. The other use case I can think of this is if you are writing a piece for a specific older organ and instruments, where the old organ may be tuned to C256 or A450 or something that would be outside the range of instruments to "just tune slightly sharp/flat".
Would this be a reasonable feature to implement, or would letting different instruments have different tunings require a large rewrite of how playback works?
Comments
You can already change the tuning of each note in the inspector. It should be possible to write a plugin to change the plugin of all notes of an instrument. Another way is to use a soundfont with instruments already tuned differently or output to a VSTi via Jack with proper tuning controls. Personally, I believe it's good enough and I wouldn't add anything more in MuseScore for this use case.
In reply to You can already change the by [DELETED] 5
The only issue I have with the plug-in is that I believe you'd have to run it after you've already written your music to a fairly finalized state. The notes that you'd already changed would also need to be tagged somehow so re-running the plug-in won't retune notes that've already been retuned.
That said, I'll look into the VST+Jack solution some more.