From one line on a measure to three
Hello,
I am a pretty well experienced percussionist (3-4 years now) and have been using MuseScore for about 2 Months.
I am in the Marching Band at my school and play Marching Crash Cymbals.
When we received our sheet music and the audio files for the show, I listened to it and they didn't match up. I later found out that in the audio versions of the songs in the show, and what we will be playing, are all of the songs but mixed up. For example, the opener (audio) is the first half of one of the songs (sheet music) and the last half of a different song (sheet music). I am trying to rewrite the sheet music, so that it shows what we're actually playing, rather than skipping from one song to another. All of our (the Cymbal Players) sheet music has parts for two cymbal players, meaning 3 lines to a staff and the x's are in the spaces; except one of the songs.
And now for my question: Is there a way to have a staff start out with one line, for one cymbal part, and then, changing to 3 lines, for 2 cymbal parts, mid-song?
Note: This is my first time using a forum of any kind.
Comments
You could define two instruments in the Create Score dialogue.
One with single line percussion
The other with 3 line percussion.
You would then need to edit the 3 line drumset to suit your circumstances (see my Video Tutorial on that here: http://www.organspider.me.uk/MuseScoreTut.html )
Enter the notes into the relevant parts
Use the Hide Empty Staves setting to remove the empty bars.
HTH
MIchael
In reply to You could define two by ChurchOrganist
Wow! Thanks. That helped a lot. Now I just need to figure out how to add a second cymbal part to the drumset.
Thank you.
In reply to Wow! Thanks by MResendes
If you have trouble with the second cymbal part, please give more information anout what you mean.
In reply to Wow! Thanks by MResendes
Was my video tutorial no help?
I know it was for the 5 line drumset, but it applies equally to the 3 line drumset.
If you've hit a brick wall, let me know and I'll see if I can sort a custom Drumset for you.
In reply to Was my video tutorial no by ChurchOrganist
Sorry for the delayed response. I was actually at Marching Band Practice all day.
I'm not exactly which tutorial you wanted me to find, but I found Musescore VideoTutorial: 1. Editing the Drum Palette, and that sounds right, due to relevance to this forum string. Anyway the tutorial helped to some extent, but since these are Crash Cymbals under Marching Percussion, I don't thing using the General MIDI thing will help.
As for what I'm trying to do: I need 3 lines on a staff and the notes in the spaces. So I will need to make a drumset with two of everything, i.e. Full Crash (High) and Full Crash (Low), High-Hat (High) and High-Hat (Low), each with one on the top space and one on the bottom space.
Also, I've tried doing that with a pitched instrument (Piano); I set to three lines and placed the notes, but the 3 lines they gave me were the F, B, and E lines (Top, middle, and bottom of a full staff). So the notes were small when inbetween the lines. Would there be a way to give me the D, B, and G lines (second, third, and fourth from the top) OR even make the notes bigger to fit the over sized spaces?
Thank You. This is really helping me.
In reply to Sorry. Delayed Responce by MResendes
So you're using the Drumline Soundfont then?
There are 2 crash cymbals in the GM set, plus a splash cymbal and chinese cymbal so there are 4 to choose from.
But only 1 Hihat - what use is being made of the Hihat is it being choked with the pedal? Or just used closed?
In the meantime I'll have a look inside the Drumline SOundfont and see what's in there.
In reply to So you're using the Drumline by ChurchOrganist
I've just checked the Drumline Soundfont and there is only one hihat in there also.
In reply to So you're using the Drumline by ChurchOrganist
Well, since they are marching cymbals there is no pedal, so the 'Hi-hat' just just being closed.
In reply to Marching Cymbals - No Pedal by MResendes
OK, the good news is that there is plenty of scope for adding to the Drumline keymappings.
The current cymbals set only uses one octave of the white notes.
It would therfore be perfectly possible to program a second set into the Cymbals instrument with a lower (or higher) pitch range.
So if you can indicate which cymbal sounds you will be needing I'll tweak the Drumline Soundfont for you to suit and provide you with a DRM file which means you can just go ahead and enter the notes.
In reply to OK, the good news is that by ChurchOrganist
Alright, cool. That would help a lot!
Well, Marching Cymbals have about 13 sounds that can be done. For this particular Show, all that are needed for both cymbals are: Hi-hat, Crash, Crash-Choke, and Crunch.
In reply to Alright, cool. by MResendes
Crunch???
There's no crunch!
It must be called something else - please advise!
In reply to Crunch??? There's no by ChurchOrganist
The cymbal hits go by many different names. I believe the correct term is Crunch but it might also be called a Smash.
It's when the cymbals are forced together, like a Hi-hat, but they are held horizontally.
In reply to They go by many names. by MResendes
OK thanks - there is a Smash in the Soundfont
I will try and sort something for you over the weekend :)
Although I know a little about general percussion (it was my 4th instrument at college) sadly Marching Percussion is a totally new area of the field for me :)
In reply to OK thanks - there is a Smash by ChurchOrganist
Alright thank you. I owe you one. Maybe we'll both learn something after this is all done :)
In reply to Alright Thank you. by MResendes
Tweaked SOundfont is now done.
YOu can download it from the MuseScore SoundFOnt Project filespace here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/34aov2uuo9vx/n/TimGM6withDL2_sfArk
I just have to do the drumset def in MuseScore.
Hopefully that will be done by tonight.
If you need a copy of sfArk to decompress, let me know.
Regards
Michael
In reply to Tweaked SOundfont is now by ChurchOrganist
Ok. I'm still new to this. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe I was supposed to put that file in C:/Program_Files/MuseScore/sound
Also, I'm not exactly sure what you sent me. If it was in layman's terms, would it be the key for the drumset or something like that?
Thank you.
In reply to Ok. I'm still new to this. by MResendes
What I sent you is the SoundFont containing the samples which give the sounds.
You are right in thinking that it should go in C:/Program_Files/MuseSCore/sound
You will need to unpack it first though with a copy of sfArk.
You will also need to set it as the current SOundfont in the SYnthesiser page of MuseSCore.
sfArk ist the default soundfont compression we use in the SoundFont project, as it is more easily available then SFPack.
We use it because it squashes things down extremely well - the original SF2 file is over 25MB and sfArk got it down to just over 7MB.
If you have difficulty getting hold of sfArk let me know and I'll post a link.
HTH
Michael
In reply to What I sent you is the by ChurchOrganist
OK all is done :)
Attached are 2 different drumset files one for if you are writing the cymbals on 2 staves and one if you are writing the 2 cymbal parts on 1 stave together with example mscz files.
To load the drumset, select the first bar then choose "Edit Drumset" from the right click context menu. Then choose load from the dialogue and point it to where you saved the file.
I've also attached the key mappings in Keymap2.ods which is a LibreOffice Calc file
Come back here if you need more help :)
Regards
Michael
In reply to OK all is done :) Attached by ChurchOrganist
Wow. This is amazing. Thank you. This will really help out our drum line for the year. :)
Much appreciation
Morgan