Note lengths in MIDI export
Note properties in exported MIDI files don't match the articulations in the score.
If I have, say, four crotchets of the same note and articulate them with staccato, tenuto and accents, the MIDI file has four notes with identical length and velocity. Playback from the score works correctly.
Also, the MIDI length of each note is a full crotchet, with no gap before the next note, so can sound more like a wobbly semibreve than four separate notes. Again, playback from the score works correctly.
The articulation section in instruments.xml looks OK.
Am I missing something? Is there a menu option somewhere?
Comments
I'm not finding that to be true at all. Can you post the specific score you are having trouble with, and tell us which specific note seems not be exporting correctly for you?
In reply to I'm not finding that to be… by Marc Sabatella
Here's my test score and the MIDI file it generates. The score is just two bars of "A" crotchets, some articulated, some not. When played back through my Reaper DAW using the Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra plugin the notes all sound the same. Inspecting the MIDI, it looks like they are all the same velocity and duration.
I may have to take back my comment about the notes running into each other, as it sounds okay this time, even though there's no gap between the notes.
Thanks for responding so quickly.
In reply to Here's my test score and the… by nms
Interesting, it seems dependent on the instrument selected or something like that. If I create a new score with the Treble template (which is how I tested before) it works as expected, but not if I create a new score for cornet, or trumpet.
In reply to Interesting, it seems… by Marc Sabatella
Aha! That's curious indeed. At the moment most of my composing and arranging is for a brass band, so cornets are a big part. Could it be something in instruments.xml? I used to mess around with it in previous versions of MuseScore, but it's not so easy in V4.
In reply to Aha! That's curious indeed… by nms
I’m not sure. Maybe it makes sense to ask a bigger question - why MIDI?
In reply to I’m not sure. Maybe it… by Marc Sabatella
Hi Marc
It's a good question, and comes down to what an app is designed to do.
I use MuseScore for composing and providing printable (and very readable) parts and scores. The built-in VST plugins enable me to get a decent handle on how the piece will sound so that I can spot wrong notes and other blatant errors, but for producing a reasonable audio track for demonstration/practice purposes I need greater control, so I use a DAW where I can (for example) automate volume levels so that the overall output is well-balanced regardless of whether the score has everyone playing at mf, f, or ff. Within the band, we'd call it "listening to each other". Also, as I said in an earlier post, I use the Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra (Discover) plugin for the sounds because they're more realistic than the MuseScore instruments. Even then, I find I have to keep switching between the "long" and "short" note samples for a better sound when the instruments are playing different sections of a march, for example. Exporting via MIDI to a DAW makes this easier than trying to fine-tune the sound within MuseScore.
I love MuseScore for creating music and producing paper parts for humans to play. The brass band members often comment on the quality and clarity of the engraving it produces. Am I wrong in thinking that other applications are better at creating simulations of real players?
In reply to Hi Marc It's a good question… by nms
Opinions on what sounds best are of course subjective, so I can't say you're "wrong" :-). But, you really find Spitfire BB more realistic than Muse Sounds? Very much the opposite for me. Maybe if you spend hours and hours custom tweaking the sound, etc. Right out of the box, though, I find Muse Sounds blows away BBC, plus it has a wider variety of instruments available.
Anyhow, if you are using BBC, you shouldn't really be relying so much on the MIDI info for the notes directly, as you are presumably adding keyswitches manually instead?
But still, this definitely seems like a bug and should be reported on GitHub - https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues