Mute instrument part-way through the piece

• Sep 10, 2011 - 21:26
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
active
Project

In the "Staff Text Properties" window, is the "MIDI Action" box currently unused? It would be very nice to have a "mute" option. I would suggest the possibility of doubling transposing instruments, but since I know that's still a ways off, it would be nice to at least be able to mute instruments when you "fake" a transposition instead of listening to the wrong instrument play in the wrong key.


Comments

Good suggestion! I'd just add that you can currently get a reasonably effect doubling by using two staves - one for each of the instruments - and the "hide empty staves" option. Playback will be correct in the score, and by including both staves in the generated part, the appearance is correct as well as long as you lay it out so the change happens between systems.

Solution:
Did some experiments with version1.3. It seems possible to define a new Instrument in Instrument.xml which has the needed program changes in two different channels.
By entering a text Event and properties-channel you can force the program changes 0-127.
But:
it is not possible to reach the complete Sound font.The mixer reacts on numbers >= 128 and Displays the corresponding entry of the selection list, but the Synthesizer doesn't (bug). A midi Action in the channel entry in Instrument.xml should evaluate controlers 0,32,7,10,91 and 93 (as the code hints to) but neither the synth reacts on these (bug) nor is this included in the midi Export (another bug). The text property dialog doesnt Show defined midi Actions, no matter if they have a description or Name Attribute(bug) and it doesnt remember the check mark (bug).
Looks like a good Feature stuck half-way in implementation.