Guitar slap playback?
I'm trying to write a guitar part, in standard notation, for 'More Than Words' by Extreme. How do you get a guitar to play a slap, or muted note, in Musescore 2.0?
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If you have a particular sound in a particular soundfont you want MuseScore to use, you can add an instrument change text from the Text palette to tell MuseScore to change sounds at that point. If you don't already have a specific sound in mind, you mgiht need to first find an appropriate soundfont.
Most likely, you'll find the amount of effort makes it not really worthwhile just to get that extra degree of realism in the computer-generated playback. Keep in mind, the primary purpose of MuseScore is to produce notation; the computer-generated playback is just there to help give you some idea of how it will sound when ultimately played by real musicians.
a sound for muted guitar exists (in GM soundfonts), one way to use it is shown in the attached, but a slap sound only exists for bass
In reply to a sound for muted guitar by Jojo-Schmitz
Hi! I was also looking for the muted guitar. Unfortunately the attachment you provided really doesn't explain anything. I still have no idea how to do this. Could you explain how it works? That would be great!
In reply to Hi! I was also looking for by mapf
It is playing with some hand crafted instruments settings in the mscx file and then combining those with https://musescore.org/en/handbook/mixer#mid-staff-change
In reply to It is playing with some hand by Jojo-Schmitz
Wow! That was crazy fast! Thank you so much! I tried to follow the steps from the link you provided but in my case, the only thing I can select from the drop down menu is "normal". I don't have any other option as it is the case with the example you povided. How do I add these other channels?
In reply to Wow! That was crazy fast! by mapf
As mentioned this was done by hand-crafting the instruments defintion inside the mscx file
In reply to Wow! That was crazy fast! by mapf
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In reply to . by Jojo-Schmitz
Ooh okay, thank you. I get it now, sorry! Just why is it explained that way in the offical handbook if it doesn't actually work and you still need to manually tweak your instrument definition?
Also I dont't quite understand why somethind so seemingly simple is that difficult. I mean the standard GM soundfonts already provide those muted souds. Why is it impossible to use them in a meaningful way? You can set them as your standard sound which is fair enough but which song only uses muted strings? Muted sounds are usually something that occurs only at specific moments in a song while the rest is played normally. But since you can't implement it that way it makes the muted sound library pretty useless.
In reply to Hi! I was also looking for by mapf
Welcome aboard...
Here's another way to change guitar sounds in a score:
https://musescore.org/en/node/202861#comment-719996
(Basically, you create a violin score to use the three different channels.)
Regards.
EDIT: I found a couple of attachments...
In reply to Welcome aboard... Here's by Jm6stringer
Hi!
Thank you! I got your method to work. The only problem I see with this is that the TABs don't work anymore and you can't use a specific tuning.
In reply to Hi! Thank you! I got your by mapf
Now ? ...you mention TABS ?
;-)
Co-opting the violin instrument is admittedly a workaround for the lack of natively available guitar channels. For the treble clef, the only problem is that some of the lowest guitar notes may display as red (i.e. out of the violin's range). This does not affect printout. (Remember, MuseScore is primarily a score writer.)
Also, in Edit / Preferences / Note Input tab, you can uncheck 'Color notes out of usable pitch range' so they won't display as red in the MuseScore window.
Alternate guitar tunings do not have an effect on treble clef notation, but they are obviously important for TAB. Unfortunately, in Staff Properties, the string data for violin can not be edited (unlike for guitar).
TAB is a relatively new feature in MuseScore... maybe someday more channels will natively (without tweaking the violin) be available for guitar.
Regards.
In reply to Now ? ...you mention TABS by Jm6stringer
Thank you! You guys have a crazy active community apparently, pretty cool! And I'm sorry but I wasn't aware that it would be important to mention that I was using TABs and a different tuning since I thought the topic was quite unrelated to that. I mean it's only important because of the way the workaround works but I didn't know that beforehand^^
I know MuseScore is primarily a score writer but I think the playback option is super helpful. Like in my case I am trying to transcript a song from a video and being able to instantly play back what I wrote down helps a lot to check if I got it right.
In reply to Hi! Thank you! I got your by mapf
Take my file as a template?
In reply to Take my file as a template? by Jojo-Schmitz
I tried that by shamelessly copying my score onto your staff but I somehow failed to get it to work. It was kinda wierd tbh. Because when I played back your parts it would work the way it was intentioned but when I came to my part on playback the notes would sound normal and only if you clicked on them they would make the muted sound. Maybe a bug? Does your template only work when the sound is changed for a whole measure maybe? Because I only wanted to mute a couple of notes per measure.
In reply to I tried that by shamelessly by mapf
Well, in addition to using my file as template, you also need to use staff text and change properties to switch sound.
In reply to Hi! Thank you! I got your by mapf
If you start with a string quartet and delete everything but the unwanted violins you can use tabs and edit string data. For some reason the instruments in the string quartet come with string data. If you want up to 4 guitars, you can actually keep all four instruments and edit each one. You can add linked tabs to these also. As a bonus the strings pick up those defined in the guitar. You will need to change clefs on the last two guitar staves.
Here is a template you could use with 4 alternate string definitions.
In reply to If you start with a string by mike320
Hey, thanks for your suggestion! I'm not entirely sure if I got it right though. So you would say whenever I want to use muted sounds I simply one of the other guitars / a different staff? I guess for playback purposes that would work but I wouldn't want for the printout version to have an extra instrument just for a couple of notes. Why do you chose a string quartet as the starting point though? Why not simply add another instrument by hand? Maybe I don't get what you're suggesting after all.
EDIT: Oh also when you said, delete everything exept the unwanted violins is that a double negative? Did you mean wanted instead? I'm confused.
In reply to Hey, thanks for your by mapf
I said it totally backwards. Delete any extra instruments.
The reason you don't add any instruments is that if you add a violin, there is no string data. The string quartet instruments have string data. You change them to guitar and you get your 3 channels, string data and can add tabs.
In reply to I said it totally backwards. by mike320
Having string date in the string quartet template seems a bug to me.
In reply to Having string date in the by Jojo-Schmitz
Having string data in the string quartet template seems a bug to me.
Ah yes, Jojo, but sometimes a *bug* can actually be touted as a *feature*... ;-)
Maybe mike320 is onto something... :-)
Regards.
In reply to Having string date in the by Jojo-Schmitz
DON'T FIX IT!
In reply to DON'T FIX IT! by mike320
Okay I think now I get what you mean! Thank you! I will try it out! Although in your template you already switched all the instruments to guitars which resulted in a loss of the channels which is what confused me as well. When I switched them back to violins the string data was gone.
Also I still haven't figured out how to add working TABs to violins :(
In reply to Okay I think now I get what by mapf
Okay update: I managed to add linked TABs and exept for a few conversion errors (same note but on a different string for some reason) everything works, EXEPT for the muted sounds. Again they play the right sound when selected but not when the playback function is used. This is really odd. I'll add the score for reference so you can check it out if you like :)
In reply to Okay update: I managed to add by mapf
I made a mistake. You don't want to change instruments, you just want to change the names of the instruments. You can then change the sounds in the various mixer channels. New template attached.
In reply to I made a mistake. You don't by mike320
Thank you! Of course I forgot to attach the score... so here it is. The last two measures at the end have the muted sounds. In the second to last only the ones with the X as a note head and the last measure is supposed to be completely muted as a test, it doesn't work on replay tough.
In reply to Thank you! Of course I forgot by mapf
See attachment.
To see how:
Right-click the hidden x-letter above the muted notes and select "Staff Text Properties".
Do the same for the hidden o-letter.
In reply to See attachment. To see by Ziya Mete Demircan
Ooooh! Noow I see my mistake! I always used the TAB notions to create a staff text and change the channels but instead I should have used the notes. I got it now. It works. Thanks a lot you guys :)
I tried that but as I said I somehow didn't manage to get it to work. When I clicked on the notes they would play the correct sound but on playback they would sound like normal ones. I have no idea why. Maybe I give it another try!