Handpans and Steel Drums
I think a handpan and steel drums would be great instruments to add to the repertoire of Musescore. They are similar to the steel drum, but they can also have "dead" notes. I am trying to make an authentic arrangement of Aria Math, which uses a handpan, but I can not find anything that works as well.
Comments
While not perfect, you should be able to fake this well enough.
For display, create a staff or Grand Staff (whichever is appropriate). Instrument doesn't matter. Change the name to "Hand Pan". For the "dead" notes, change the notehead to an X (or another symbol if there is a standard way to notate them).
For playback, create a staff or Grand Staff if appropriate. Set the instrument to "Steel Drum". Create a second staff and set it to play a second instrument. You'll have to experiment to identify which instrument sounds most like the "Hand Pan"s "dead" notes. I would start with the Unpitched Percussion instruments. Once you've identified "InstrumentD" set the second stave to play that instrument. Copy the notes from your display stave and paste them into the staff/staves playing the "Steel Drum" sound. Select all the "dead" notes and turn them into rests. Now, copy the notes from your display staff and paste them into the staff playing "InstrumentD". Select all the non-"dead" notes and turn them into rests. Now, the "Steel Drum" plays all the "live" notes and "InstrumentD" plays all the dead notes.
20250310 233200 - Hand Pan.mscz
In this example, the "display" staff (what you would print to give to a musician) is the one labeled "Hand Pan". It's actually set to play the Vibraphone, but it does not play, so it doesn't matter in the slightest what instrument it is set to play. This staff is only for display/print purposes. If you do need to print this, hide the other two.
The other two staves do play and they are only for playback purposes. The middle of the three ("S.D.") is playing a "Steel Drum" sound. The bottom is playing a muted Conga. (Don't read anything into that. I assume that this sounds NOTHING like your so-called "dead" sound on an actual Hand Pan. I just picked the muted Conga as a place holder because I don't know what that "dead" Hand Pan actually sounds like.)
Once again, this is not a "solution" to your issue. It's just a workaround for an immediate "close enough".