Chord Playback unaffcted by Dynamics when using an expressive (single notes dynamic capable) sound
Reported version
3.5
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S4 - Minor
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
When a Expr. Sound is selected in the Mixer to be used for the Chord Symbol playback, Chord Symbol playback is unaffected by Dynamics symbols.
If the same Sound is used, but NOT the Expr. version, Chord playback works as expected in regards to Dynamics symbols.
This was tested with 3 different Sounds having Regular and Expr. versions and the problem repeated itself.
In the examples submitted, both are using Church Organ as the Sound for Chords. The example that labeled "Doesn't Work" has Church Organ Expr. selected as the sound for Chords while the one labeled "Works" has regular Church Organ selected.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Dynamics Test (Doesn't Work).mscz | 6.69 KB |
| Dynamics Test (Works).mscz | 6.67 KB |
Comments
Confirmed, and pretty annoying and surprising. Not a regression though, as it is a new feature
Workaround is to use a non-expressive sound (via Mixer) for the Chords Symbols channel
As RC (most probably) will use Piano as the default sound (resp. Guitar, for some templates), which is (are) non-expressive, I don't think it is a major issue.
Probably we could force the channel to only non-expr sounds. Not sure how viable, or important for that matter, it would be to actually make it work with expr.
Forcing non-expr. seems like band aid. Esp. as chord symbols often sound longer than the notes in staff, responding to SND would be quite important and that requires Expr.
The chord symbol playback facility was meant more as a quick-and-dirty way to get a rough approximation of how your score might sound, not for dealing with all the complex subtleties and nuances of exactly how it might be. For that to be the case there would need to be far more sophistication to the system, including a way to specify rhythms, an analysis of the melody as well as string data (for guitar) to help in constructing voicings, also separate bass parts, drum parts, etc. For people who wish to have more than the rough approximation, we provide a "realize chord symbols" command to explicitly convert the chord symbols into regular notes you can then edit as you see fit. And at that point, you'd be able to do all of those things, and the staff would respond to SND normally.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth someone's time to look at supporting SND if it turns out to be simple, of course. But I also think it's important to set expectations about what this facility is intended for and how to use the "realize chord symbols" command for the cases where you need extra control.
Yes, following SND might be optional, following Dynamics is not though.
Right, that's why I think forcing non-expr sounds is probably a good solution. Of course, when piano becomes the default, it will come up very much less often.
I noticed another quirk regarding Expressive Sounds and Chord Playback...
When converting MS2 files to MS3 in 3.5, if the original MS2 score had an Expressive Sound selected, after conversion that sound ends up as the default sound for Chords. However, when I attempt to play the score after conversion, the chord symbols don't play until I change the Chord Symbol Sound to non-Expressive in the Mixer.
I assume switching all Sounds to non-Expressive in the Synthesizer and setting it as a Style in 3.5 would be a fix so I don't have to manually change the Chord Symbol Sound in any additional MS2 files I convert in 3.5?
Relates to #310930: [EPIC] Issues with Chord Symbols playback
Came up again in https://musescore.com/groups/improving-musescore-com/discuss/5089949