having midi file interpreted as "piano two hands"
I am brand new to MuseScore, so please forgive if I haven't looked diligently enough to answer this question, but here goes:
I played a very simple 4 measure phrase on my digital piano, and saved off the midi file. When I load the midi file into MuseScore it faithfully reproduces what I played - but as if it were a 4 part (SATB?) (screen shot attached) . Is there a way I can "tell it" to notate it in a straightforward "piano" mode? Ideally the test midi file shown below would be interpreted as quarter notes in left hand (bass staff), and half note pairs in right hand (treble staff). Any help much appreciated!
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Comments
Unfortunately, MIDI doesn't track which hand plays what, so MuseScore does its best to guess, and as you can see, guessing doesn't tend to do very well. For this and other reasons, MIDI import ends up being not a very good way to input music into MuseScore - it's almost always more efficient to enter it directly one staff at a time. But, you can improve the import results if you at least record the two hands separately, You'll still have the other disadvantages of MIDI import such as needing to guess on accidental spelling, note durations, use of multiple voices, etc. But at least you'll have a better starting place for further editing.
In reply to Unfortunately, MIDI doesn't… by Marc Sabatella
thank you - that all makes sense. I was kind of hoping for the impossible, or at least the improbable :-)
Here is the manual page describing how to import MIDI files:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/midi-import
As you can see there, there is a column in the 'MIDI import panel' called "split staff" where you can specify that some notes should go into the upper/lower staff based on pitch. This obviously only solves your problem for really trivial/simple cases. But might be a better start anyway.
In reply to Here is the manual page… by AndreasKågedal
Thank you. I had noticed that but it was checked by default, and unchecking it only made matters worse. I think I'm stuck with manual input - not the end of the world
In reply to Thank you. I had noticed… by larrycalame
You can start from a unchecked one, single staff import. Then right-click inside the staff and choose "Split staff" to set a pitch split point to be used instead of this "playability guessing".
In reply to You can start from a… by jeetee
thanks - I'll try that