Virtual Percussion and writing Multi Parts
I'm writing a concert percussion ensemble piece for a recital I'm hosting in a few months, with the instrumentation:
- Marimba, Vibe
- Marimba, Xylo
- Percussion 1 (Anvil, Snare, Sizzle, Hand Cymbals)
- Percussion 2 (Concert Toms, Mark Tree, Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum)
- Percussion 3 (Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum, Congas, Bongos, Temple Blocks, Crotales)
- Timpani
It's been mostly smooth sailing, but having to go through on the multi parts (especially perc 3) with instrument and .drm file changes every time I want to write something harder than middle school beats is getting very frustrating. Is there a workaround (e.g. default .drm settings, a workaround for constant instrument changes)?
On top of that, the percussion 3 part stopped playing back on the conga and bongo patches in the 3rd movement. Does anybody know how to make them start playing back again?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| City of Glass.mscz | 697.54 KB |
Comments
I do not know if i have understand your request correctly, to the first point ( standard .drm): You can create a Percussion 3 Line (ie. Percussion_3.drm) containing at least the Suspended Cymbal, Bass Drum, Congas, Bongos, Temple Blocks, sounds by editing de Standard "Drum - Percussion" .drm file, and then create e new score which uses this new Percussion_3.drm and store this new score as a template in your ../Template directory. Every time you create e new score, you can load the Percussion_3.drm if necessary. I attach an example of my created Percussion_3.drm and a possible template.
To de second point: You can not hear the congas and Bongos in Movement 3. As i loaded your score, I have the same problem, but when i called the mixer, I increase the volume to the maximum, and then I could hear this instruments. In fact I find the handling of the dynamic in MuseScore 4.4.4 not very good. If You use for example mp, the result is almost not audible, depending on the instruments, not audible at all.
I do not know if my suggestions will help, may be someone hat a better solution.
I am using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and MuseScore 3.7.0 and MuseScore 4.4.4.
In reply to I do not know if i have… by puggbma
Thank you for responding. Was your issue with the bongos that they weren’t audible, but still responding in the mixer, or that they weren’t responding in the mixer at all, and turning it up to max fixed it?
In reply to Thank you for responding… by GabeH_
Sorry, but I don't remember 100% if the congas and bongos were activated in the mixer, but were not heard, or if they were activated when I increased the volume to the maximum. I think they were not activated although they were visible and with the volume at 0 on the scale. I have tried to reproduce the phenomenon again by downloading the original score, but I have been unable to reproduce the problem. When reloading the score, although the congas and bongos are at 0 on the scale, they sound without having to increase the volume on the mixer. It is a strange behavior.
In reply to I do not know if i have… by puggbma
One more thing. I can change the names of the percussion instruments in the drumset file to fit my needs, but cannot figure out how to change the sounds. How did you do it?
In reply to One more thing. I can change… by GabeH_
As you cann see in my first screenshot in the table with the instruments names , on the left side appears a number for example "64 E3 Tiefe Conga (low Conga) " . The number "64" is the pitch which is assigned in the General MIDI table to this sound and E3 ist the frequency note in a piano. To create a customize Percussion Kit in MuseScore, you must 1). Create a score , 2). select a Percusion set -Instrument and 3.) edit this file and assign the "corresponding MIDI number, the note and the MuseScore-Instrument-name" to each of the sound (the instrument) you want.
If the instrument (sound) you want to use, already exist in the library od MuseScore, then you just need to assign the corresponding number to the instrument name used by MuseScore. Usually if you want to create a personal Percussion_kit containing many different percussion sounds, that are used in many different MuseScore-percussion groupes, you must of course look at these groupes in order to find welche MIDI number and note hat used MuseScore for this specific sound.
When all the instruments you wanted are collected, then you can press "apply" and "save" the file "xxxxx.drm" in the directory ../styles. under the name yo wish.
If the instrument you wish does no exist in the standard Instruments-library of MuseScore, the you must created your own instrument ( for example by using the program Polyphon) or loading the soundfont from internet.
Normally Musescore uses the General MIDI definition table, but must not be allways the case.
Hier is a link to the general MIDI table. (not necessarily identish to the one use by MuseScore)
https://www.zem-college.de/midi/mc_tabed.htm.
To create the .drm I was sendig you as example, i was inspecting two different percussion groupes.
I do not know if my explanation helps you, but you could also read the manual capitel "Creating/customizing Soundfonts " and "editing Percussion instrumentes".