Although MU 4.0 now has text palette entries for "mute" and "open", staff text won't allow a channel change.
3.6 required entering the mute type or open into staff text, then allowed affecting the voice of the trumpets in the properties. The "Change Channel" page allowed the change of voice.
4.0 now has to variations on staff text to somewhat simplify this, but I cannot find a way to "change the channel" and mute (or unmute) a trumpet. Was this access omitted?
Comments
You don't need to change the channel or anything else so complicated. Just add the "open" text. Same in MU3, actually.
In reply to You don't need to change the… by Marc Sabatella
In MU 3, I have to enter both the type of mute or "open" as staff text. Then I have to:
1. bring up the staff text properties (the channel tab is open by default), and
2. to select (or not select) "mute" and which voices (1-4) to mute or unmute.
In MU 4, I hoped that adding "mute" would automatically set the channel, but the playback was an unmuted trumpet. I don't know if "open" did anything since I couldn't mute the trumpet. If the change "mute" to the type of mute is the problem, then that is another MU 4.0 bug since brass use several types of mutes including "plunger" and "hat".
In several of my other bug reports, I've uploaded a partial score of Basie's "Shiny Stocking" that I'm using to test MU 4.0. In that, I used "mute", then changed that to "Cup Mute".
PS.: I prefer your "MU" abbreviation over the "MS" abbreviation I've seen.
In reply to In MU 3, I have to enter… by Aaron Grosky
I think I am understanding bettyer.
MuseScore 3.6.2 definitely did not require to you to do any or that rigamarole with the channel selection etc. That was needed back in MuseScore 2, and maybe even in the very first 3.0 release, but somewhere in the years since then, the "mute" and "open" elements were added to the palette rendering that dialog unnecessary. So in MuseScore 4, it is simply removed, as it hasn't been needed in years and the underlying architecture has changed; the old concept of "channels" simply doesn't exist anymore.
As mentioned, the "mute" and "open" texts from the palette are all you need in both MU3 and MU4, but - here's where I think you are getting tripped up - currently only soundfonts support the muted sounded - Muse Sounds do not (yet). So if you are using Muse Sounds for your trumpet, just change the sound for that instrument to MS Basic (provided with MU4) or another General-MIDI-compatible soundfont using the Mixer.
As for the various other types of mutes, these are unfortunately not defined by the General MIDI standard, so that is why standard-compliant soundfonts like MuseScore General from MU3 or MS Basic in MU4 don't include these sounds. But non-standard third party soundfonts may, and I expect that someday Muse Sounds will as well.
Oh, and for the record, for many years I resisted ever abbreviating MuseScore at all, but MU seems to be the more or less official abbreviation used now, so I'm going with it :-)
In reply to I think I am understanding… by Marc Sabatella
I had not noticed the "mute" and "open" options in the 3.6 palette. I see that "mute" sets all four voices to mute. I had been using the more complicated 2.0 method of changing the channel settings rather than using "mute" to do the same. I presume that the 'hat' markings '+' and 'o' also change between muted and open.
For my playback, the difference between the sound of a Harmon mute and the other mutes was not sufficiently important for me to try to get other sound fonts. However, I did use muted trumpet as the sound font for a muted trombone by changing the instrument and muting it. I'm glad to see that more muted brass sound fonts are available. (I found a pop-up with muted instruments once, but I don't remember how I got there. I saw muted reeds though I've never heard of muting a reed.)
This still leaves the problem that the 4.0 muted trumpet sounds just like the open trumpet.
The 4.0 change also seems to imply a problem for someone who wants the playback to use more accurate muted sound fonts and has trumpet fonts for, say, Harmon mute with stem (the pre-4.0 muted trumpet), Harmon mute open, cup mute, and straight mute. One would need a method of selecting which of the available sound fonts to choose.
In reply to I had not noticed the "mute"… by Aaron Grosky
The various articulation markings are not hooked up to the same logic that changes sound currently, although you could fake this by editing the "mute" text and using the Special Characters palette to add those symbols. But then you'd also need to position them manually. Probably easier to just add both markings but press "V" to make the text invisible.
As I said, Muse Sounds does not yet support muted sounds, so to get them, you'd need to switch that instrument to MS Basic in the mixer. And the mixer is also how you'd select other soundfonts if you find one that uses cup or harmony mute. This much is actually considerable improved in MU4 vs MU3, because MU3 makes it much harder to use different soundfonts for different instruments. Ony if you need to switch to nonstandard sounds within a single soundfont is MU4 currently lacking. That's expected to be added in a coming update, but meanwhile, the free "sforzando" VST gives you this ability should you need it.
In reply to The various articulation… by Marc Sabatella
Sorry, Marc. I seem to have run off about too many topics and included a couple of (my) mistakes, such as reading "Muse Sounds" as "Mute Sounds".
I finally understand what you meant about switching to MS Basic and I get the playback I expect. The new mixer took me a while to understand.