Piano Out of Tune?
I just entered John Washburn's arrangement of Sakura, so I can make practice CDs for my choir. First, second, third and fourth Soprano, and first and second parts for Alto, Tenor and Bass. Ten staves altogether. Choir Aahs are too muddy, so I set all the parts to Piano 1.
To make the practice CDs, I "Save as" in .wav. That's essentially a midi recording, as far as I know.
In midi playback and in the .wav exports, the piano sounds a little out of tune in places. I thought the Chorus effect might do that, so I turned all chorus effects all the way down. Tried turning reverb all the way down. Maybe it's just my imagination, but the piano still sounds a bit flat in places.
Is anybody noticing similar issues?
Comments
Try http://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont
In reply to Try by Jojo-Schmitz
Good reply. I notice the default soundFont, currently installed, is relatively small.
I'll try flute instead
I'm new to MuseScore and to MIDI. How likely is it that the default soundFont is a little bit out of tune on some notes, on some instruments?
If I want to try a better quality soundFont, but not a vast and massive one, what is a good choice?
EDIT: I just tried the Flute (TB) instrument. With so many voices, the Flute sounds kinda muddy too, though not out of tune. Maybe I should try a different SoundFont.
What does the TB stand for?
In reply to Good reply. I notice the by Timborino
'In tune' and 'out of tune' are kind of relative terms. There are lots of different possible temperaments (ways of selecting frequency ratios to tune to). A synth will typically use ewual temperament and be very precise about it, but real pianos are seldom so exact, so if you compare to any given real papiano, you'll surely hear small differences. Also, small soundfonts typically might only sample a few notes then scale them - so maybe the same recording of a C is also used for C#, D, D#, E, and F. This can introduce artifacts n the sound that you might perceive as being out of tune. In the case of flute, real flutes cannot play below middle C at all, so all notes are played by slowing down the frequency of recordings of higher notes. Not surprising if it comes out sounding muddy. Although I have no idea what (tb) might refer to.
Anyhow, if you're looking for a better soundfont, the one called FluidR3 that you can get via the handbook is the one many of us use and recommend.
In reply to 'In tune' and 'out of tune' by Marc Sabatella
"In the case of flute, real flutes cannot play below middle C at all".
I take your point about low notes for instruments in general but not strictly true for flutes - many concert flutists use a flute that can play a B. You can also get an alto flute that will play a G (Stravinsky and Ravel wrote parts requiring this) and (rarer) bass, contrabss etc. flutes that are pitched even lower. The lowest-pitched flute ever built (a "hyperbass" flute) can reputedly play a note lower than humans can hear.
I sometimes play (badly) a bog-standard C flute.
I've only really noticed significant tuning issues with very low piano notes. For vocal parts, however, I prefer to use Flute. I regularly use a template that has Flute at the top and piano beneath it for accompanied vocal parts, musicals etc.
In reply to I've only really noticed by underquark
What a difference! The piano no longer sounds out of tune. The choir aahs no longer sound muddy. All the instruments sound just dandy. I never knew MIDI could sound this good.
In reply to Wow! Got the FluidR3 SoundFont by Timborino
It is not MIDI, but a soundfont, that's why :-)
In reply to Wow! Got the FluidR3 SoundFont by Timborino
MIDI is a protocol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI
http://www.midi.org/
I have noticed this in instances. For me it was very high notes. They were not "out of tune", but rather a half-step off. MuseScore is not responsible for this. This has to do with "SoundFonts" and how they are sampled. Small sound sets sample a few notes and then use math to take them higher and lower. They take up little memory space. Larger sets have many more samples and need little math and therefore are more accurate. It all has to do with the physics of sound and other such stuff.
Of course "MuseSore" is not a program intended to create your next hit recording, but rather a means to turn your musical ideas into a means of sharing through notation. Yes, it would be nice if we could get all of the fancy fonts for free, but remember, "MuseScore" is free and beats the limited editions of some of the most expensive scoring software.