Why is one instrument many?
I create a new score from scratch and add a single Contrabass to it. I now have a single staff named Contrabass, but if I open up the mixer I have 3 items there: Contrabass (with Contrabass sound), Contrabass-pizzicato (with Acoustic Bass sound) and Contrabass-tremolo (with Tremolo sound). Why is this?
(Probably a good reason I just don't know about because of my notation software newbiness...)
Comments
If an instrument has multiple sounds in the standard General MIDI instrument list, then each of those get an entry in the mixer. As far as General MIDI is concerned, arco bass, pizzicato bass, and tremolo bass are three completely separate instruments, so there are three completely different patches for them in any General MIDI soundfont, and hence a potential need to be able to control their volume separately (it's pretty likely that they won't be correctly balanced with each other). Similar story for, say, trumpet, where open and muted are two completely different separate instruments in General MIDI, and hence any score using trumpet will have both entries.
BTW, in case you're wondering how to switch between these sounds: add a staff text where you want the player to switch, right click the text, and select Properties.
In reply to If an instrument has multiple by Marc Sabatella
A wealth of information. Thanks.