switch sound mid score for an instrument

viola1994

• Nov 22, 2020 - 01:54

I have a part that I would like to sound as a bowed vibraphone (I found bowed glass or whistle to work as a replacement). However there are times in which the music switched back to the vibraphone using the mallet. Is there a way that I can incorporate certain sounds into the staff text properties for vibraphone to include these sounds like a stringed instrument would include pizzicato/tremolo? Attached is what I mean.

Attachment	Size
vibraphone example.png	329.1 KB
string example.png	294.23 KB

Comments

mike320

• Nov 22, 2020 - 02:16

Yes you can.

Add or change the instrument to a string instrument that has a similar range to a vibraphone
Right click the staff choose staff/part properties and change the long and short instrument names to match a vibraphone.
While you're there, make sure the amateur and professional ranges are reasonable, especially the bottom since I'm not sure how low a vibraphone plays but I'm sure both a viola and violin will play higher. (click OK to close the properties window)
Open the mixer (press f10).
At the top of the volume slider is an arrow pointing right, click that to reveal the 3 channels.
Assign vibraphone as the sound for the normal (arco) instrument and Bowed glass or whistle to the pizzicato channel. Leave the tremolo channel unchanged unless you decide a third sound will be useful. Note: the sound is assigned in the top left area of the mixer.

Now, by default the sound you will get for notes is the percussion vibraphone.

To change to bowed
* add a staff text that says something like "Bowed" (or whatever you're used to).
* right click this staff text
* choose staff text properties
* set the appropriate voices (that's what the numbers represent) and change the dropdown to pizzicato.
* click OK

To change back
* add an appropriate staff text
* right click this staff text
* choose staff text properties
* set the appropriate voices to arco (I know it's backwards from what you're hearing)
* click OK

viola1994

• Nov 22, 2020 - 20:40

Interesting solution! I found a different way around it, however this I will definitely do if I ever need to do something like this again! It still would be great if I could just add a sound in for that instead of going through all that, you know?

mike320

• Nov 22, 2020 - 23:46

Being able to add a channel on the fly would be great. You could then just use the normal arco & pizz. methods from the manual without having to use the mixer and a different instrument to get more channels. We'll see how this works in 4.0.