Instrument list filtered by "category"
In a315216d8, MarkRS and I implemented a way to filter the instrument list by "category" or "genre". Genre is just a word, it's the word used in the code so don't focus on it. We just added a way to filter the long instrument list according to some "tags" added to each instrument. This filter also replace the "show more" checkbox.
Currently, using the seachbox will automatically switch the filter to "All instruments". It's a debatable choice.
By default, the instruments in the "Common instruments" category are listed. It includes only the most commonly used instruments. I added just a few categories 'Common instruments", "Jazz instruments", "Ethnic instruments" and "Orchestra instruments". Of course, the goal is not to have 30 categories... One or two more would be ok. I would suggest "Pop Rock instruments" and maybe something around "Early music instruments" (viola da gamba, baroque trumpets etc...). Any opinion?
I associated a cateogy to each instrument myself. I'm not a musicologist so I did my best. If you think one instrument should go in a given category, let me know or even better, do it yourself and submit your changes! Of course, including the vuvuzela in the default "Common" list is probably not a good idea... The common list should be really the most used instrument for an average MuseScore user, not a vuvuzela composer.
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Comments
Beautiful - nice job, guys!
Offhand I don't see any major issues with the choices within genre. Probably jazz and orchestral have more instruments than they truly need (jazz piccolo? orchestral bari sax?) , but not so many that's really a problem. I'm not really inclined to change this - I'd rather err on the side of a few too many (as long as it doesn't get carried away).
Well, one small issue. The "all instruments" list has in it "Clarinet" (in addition to Bb clarinet, A clarinet, etc) and "Trumpet" (in addition to Bb trumpet, C trumpet or whatever). Both appear to be aliases for the Bb versions. I've never really understood the reason for the duplication, but maybe we could use these generic versions in the Jazz category, since jazz scores rarely actually name the instrument "Bb trumpet" in the score - it's understood. Whereas in classical it's more common to list the transposition in the score. I wouldn't bother mentioning this if the instruments didn't already exist, but as long as they are there, we might as well take advantage. Similarly, might as well use "trombone" rather than "tenor trombone".
As I said, I am not sure why this duplication exists, and if people were considering removing the generic versions, I won't fight to keep them. But if they are going to stay, I'd like to go ahead and use them for the Jazz category.
In reply to Beautiful - nice job, by Marc Sabatella
The duplication exists partly because the MusicXML 3 sound list includes generic sounds as well as specific ones, and also because I perceived that some new users of MuseScore wouldn't necessarily know which Clarinet or Trumpet, or Horn was usually used, and therefore the addition of a generic instrument for these which automatically selected the standard criteria would be beneficial.
Incidentally this is a major step forward for making the Create Score from Scratch dialogue more user friendly.
In reply to The duplication exists partly by ChurchOrganist
Yes, a major step indeed!
Right now, "Clarinet" doesn't seem to produce correct transposition - it's backwards. That is, Bb major concert turns into Ab with concert pitch off. Looking into why...
EDIT: sometimes it's right, sometimes not. Having trouble reproducing reliably. Perhaps related to recent changes in key signature handling. Anyone else seeing this?
In reply to Yes, a major step by Marc Sabatella
Got it! There are actually *two* listings for generic "Clarinet" in the list. The second is supposed to be the D clarinet. Looks like the long & short name, description, and musicxmlid are all incorrect for D clarinet. Will submit.
In reply to Got it! There are actually by Marc Sabatella
Good catch Mark :)
I've just been looking at the new instruments.xml list with genres, and it is clear that it's going to need to be looked at again - eg the Kelhorn is not an ethnic instrument - it's an early music instrument.
What would be really cool is a way for the user to add genre tags without having to use the XML list.
In reply to Good catch Mark :) I've just by ChurchOrganist
Could we also add provisioning for SATB closed scores by adding a Soprano/Alto and a Tenor/Bass 'instrument'?
In reply to Could we also add by Jojo-Schmitz
I think that would be better as a template?
Once we have got a commitment from Werner that there will be no more file format changes, I shall be overhauling the templates, but, as Lasconic has asked for them to be written from scratch, nothing can be done until we have that commitment.
In reply to I think that would be better by ChurchOrganist
While this is certainly possible (and I have and use those for1.3), it has a problem: when extracting parts it still shows e.g. either Tenor or Bass for a Tenor/Bass stave (depending on which had been used in the template as the base instrument). Esp. in the Android Player App I noticed that.
In reply to While this is certainly by Jojo-Schmitz
It would not be the case if the template is done correctly. Let's keep that in mind we create them.
In reply to It would not be the case if by [DELETED] 5
Can this be done already, in a 1.3 template?
Seems one would need to directly set trackName?
Did it manually in the attachment...
What I'm still missing is the ability to change this for existing scores, I guess that would still require such an 'instrument'?
In reply to Can this be done already, in by Jojo-Schmitz
This is not the right place to talk about templates...
The part' trackname is editable in the current development version in staff properties.
In reply to This is not the right place by [DELETED] 5
Ah, didn't know that. And with that indeed no new instrument is needed for this purpose
BTW, I agree with the suggestion to add pop/rock and "early" as new categories, and probably call that done. And while I'd agree it would be nice someday to have a UI to customize the category lists (as opposed to requiring one to edit the isntruments.xml file), that's seems like a lot of work for relatively little benefit to most users. I wouldn't turn it down if someone were to volunteer to do this, but as a user, I'd rather see further effort go elsewhere.
With all the instrument list changes over the past year or whatever, what I'd like is a good clear description of what the various tags are for and how they are used. I mean, I can look and kind of guess, but I'd love to see it spelled out. Not so much as an end user, but as someone who really would like to be able to finish cleaning up the D Clarinet listing but feels a bit apprehensive.
As far as I can tell, the instrument list appears to default to using the longName, unless there is a trackName. longName and shortName are of course also displayed on the score itself, and trackName is apparently used for the name displayed on the tabs for the parts. The parts themselves appear to display the longName.
The "description" tag is, as far as I can tell, not used for anything at all?
As for the musicXMLid tag, it seems to be a pretty straightforward hierarchy. I found this in the way of documentation:
https://code.google.com/p/libmusicxml/source/browse/dtds/3.0/sounds.xml…
I don't see an entry for a D clarinet there. Can we just make up our own wind.reed.clarinet.d? Or is it better to leave it generic?
In reply to BTW, I agree with the by Marc Sabatella
We are better to leave it as generic Marc.
We have absolutely no input into the MusicXML definitions at present.
In reply to We are better to leave it as by ChurchOrganist
We could have some btw. I'm pretty sure Michael Good is willing to add more instruments if needed.
In reply to We could have some btw. I'm by [DELETED] 5
In that case perhaps we should compile a list of what we think is missing?