Using the "Al Niente" Dynamic Marking...

• Sep 5, 2024 - 08:59

I've been having an ongoing problem using "Al Niente" "n" marking, to write in that the music should decrescendo "to nothing". The playback, with Musesounds, doesn't seem to like it very much... lol

For instruments like piano, harp etc... it works fine (obviously, since the player doesn't have to provide constant action to those instruments for them to decrescendo to nothing, I assume.)

But on instruments in the Muse Strings, or any Muse Winds library playback sounds, I can notate the Niente mark at the end of a decrescendo hairpin, with the niente mark attached to the final note of the piece of music it's being used in, and **the instruments will attack that note at a "niente-like" volume, then while sustaining it, after the first 1/2 beat of the note duration, it will spike the volume back up to what the dynamic marking was at the beginning of the hairpin... It sounds quite unpleasant, and while I know that an ensemble player would be able to understand that they shouldn't do that, I don't like to scare people at the end of a soft piece with a sudden change in volume during the last 1.5-3.0s of the playback... hah!!!

Anyone know whether I might be doing something wrong, or, if there's a way to resolve this?

See the video for a sample of the issue.

Attachment Size
sample2.zip 1.89 MB

Comments

In reply to by Henk De Groot

(I've added a reply to the linked github thread, as well, for my findings)

I've found a way Around this issue... it does not "fix" it, technically speaking, but the playback reflects what the Al Niente marking Should sound like, when written.

if you place a Niente dynamic, for any note, at the end of any decrescendo mark, click the Niente marking, open the "Properties" menu, and de-select "Play", it will no longer spike the volume of the instrument playback whenever the track bar reaches the dynamic.

Additionally, the Decrescendo, having been placed before "Play" was disabled, will make the playback respond as if it is reducing the volume to an "Al niente" marking, as intended. I'll demonstrate in a quick screen recording video here: (I cannot add in a Video larger than 4MB to this thread. Please see the Github Thread, Here: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/22812#issuecomment-233948…)

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