Add "Percussion" as an instrument option (currently only "Drumset")
Currently it's not possible to simply create a Percussion staff in MuseScore 2.0. It's necessary to use a Drumset part, rename it in Staff Properties, and switch it to the Orchestral Drumkit in the Mixer. Aside from the fact that this is inconvenient, there is the fact that typing "Percussion" into the search box in the Instruments window does not turn up what one may be looking for.
Comments
Completely un-necessary.
Percussion isn't an instrument - it is an instrumental section, and in a modern orchestral score there will be several percussion instrument parts. They are not notated on one stave as a drumset is in a jazz orchestra or band score.
There are two sections in the Instrument list one marked Pitched Percussion and the other marked Unpitched Percussion.
Most of the instruments required can be found in one or other section, although some of the more exotic ethnic drums may be missing.
In reply to Completely by ChurchOrganist
I respectfully disagree. At least in concert band arrangements, it's very common to have multiple percussion instruments share a single part, with each individual instrument labeled when it plays. It looks something like this random example:
In reply to I respectfully disagree. At by Isaac Weiss
It turns out that a feature request has been active since 2011: #12489: General "Percussion" staff
In reply to It turns out that a feature by Isaac Weiss
The fact it has never been implemented should tell you something.
In reply to The fact it has never been by ChurchOrganist
That it's low priority? I guess. There are many, many feature requests that are very good ideas that have been apparently lost in the cracks for years.
Have you really never seen anything that looks like my image above?
In reply to That it's low priority? I by Isaac Weiss
I've seen it, but to me, the question is, could you really come up with a usable generic definition for such a staff? When I've seen that, it's usually a one line staff, not a five line, so instead of different staff lines corresponding to different instruments, it's more like instrument changes, so the same note has different meaning in different palces in the score. I don't see any obvious way a generic "percussion" instrument really helps with that style of notation. And even if one wanted a five-line staff, there is not going to be any useful standard for which notes correspond to which instruments, so again, I don't see what the instrument you are proposing would actually accomplish. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something?
In reply to I've seen it, but to me, the by Marc Sabatella
I'd be delighted if the instrument was simply the same as the Drumset, except called Percussion (obviously) and assigned to the Orchestral Drumkit in the Mixer. (For that matter, I'd be delighted if the individual percussion instruments, like Snare Drum, Cymbal, etc. by default used orchestral sounds.) Further customization would be up to the user, like adding numbers in cases of more than one of the same instrument. This would solve the issue of typing "Percussion" into the search box in the Instruments window currently not bringing up any results.
In reply to I'd be delighted if the by Isaac Weiss
I think one flaw in the idea of using the "orchestra kit" by default is that many soundfonts probably have no such kit. It's not part of the original GM standard.
In reply to I've seen it, but to me, the by Marc Sabatella
I've definitely seen many examples of percussion parts that have 5 lines and each note is a different instrument. I'm currently attempting to write a Multiple Percussion Duet and would love to be able to have just two systems for my score. One for the Percussionist 1 and another for Percussionist 2. Percussionist 1 would in theory would have something like 3-4 different notes on the system, one for snare, two for different toms and maybe a single crotale or something. And then percussionist 2's part would be A break drum, Triangle, Bongos, and a Cowbell. So A percussion instrument where we could easily set different percussion instruments to one system would be great. Not only for Strictly percussion music, but also for Orchestral and Wind Band music.
In reply to I've definitely seen many by Mason Douglas …
You can do this already. Just choose "Drumset" as the instrument - and add two of these. Then once the score is created, right click each staff, choose "Edit Drumset" and select which lines / note heads notes you want for each instrument.
In reply to I've definitely seen many by Mason Douglas …
I assume when you say "two systems" you mean two staves? You can actually set that up for yourself. Use the Drumset for your instrument, then change the name in Staff Properties, and while in note input mode click the "Edit Drumset" button to specify which drums you want to be on the staff. See also https://musescore.org/en/handbook/drum-notation-0#drumset in the Handbook.
In reply to Completely by ChurchOrganist
Completely necessary. Right now I'm writing score for percussionist which has to play few percussion instruments, everything on one stave.
In reply to Completely necessary. Right by kujaw
Right and once again, this is *already possible*, and has been all along. You simply need to to add "drumset" as the instrument, then use the "Edit drumset" facility to customzie which drums appear on which staves.
In reply to Right and once again, this is by Marc Sabatella
I've just figured it out but thanks!
MS 2.0 is totally awesome :)
In reply to Right and once again, this is by Marc Sabatella
I've had issues with it however, I'm trying to put in edits we got for my aux. part today. Tam-tam uses the China/Trash Cymbal effect and consequentially, I can't go from Tam-Tam to China. Custom percussion instruments or a general percussion staff would make it so your program is capable of writing DCI/Marching Band shows.
In reply to I've had issues with it by BORED1
You can add whatever sounds you want to any percussion staff, and map those sounds to any note / line / head. See the Edit Drumset button on the drum input toolbar, and the Handbook section on "Drum notation" for more information. So again, this is already possible, and has been since before version 1.0.
Tam-Tam and china are the same thing, I need the in two different spots (A4 and G5). Not at all possible unless you change the instrument, but with aux. parts, I use a lot of Tam.
In reply to Tam-Tam and china are the by BORED1
Could you be more specific about what you are trying to do? Again, the Edit Drumset facility *does* allow you to define a staff with whatever combination of sounds you like, including A4 and G5. Have you read the Handbook section on "Drum notation" and tried out the facility?
In reply to Could you be more specific by Marc Sabatella
Yes, however, Tam-Tam is the same as the China Cymbal. Therefor, it *is* impossible.
In reply to Yes, however, Tam-Tam is the by BORED1
Once again, if you explain in more detail what you are trying to do, I'm sure we can help. So far you haven't provided enough information for us to be able to explain how to do what you want.
In reply to Yes, however, Tam-Tam is the by BORED1
The problem is that there is no Tamtam defined in the GM percussion set.
Consequently there is no sound for it in the default FluidR3Mono soundfont.
The China Cymbal sound was assigned to it as representing the nearest of the GM set. (There is also a historical connection in that percussionists in the past referred to it as the tam-tam cymbal.
You can, however, alter the sound assignments to any of the unpitched percussion instruments by using the Edit Drumset dialogue, and you can assign another drumset to the part using the mixer which may give a different sound (depending on which set you choose).
Thus it is perfectly possible to have different sounds for China Cymbal and Tam-Tam, but currently only one of them will be correct.
If OTOH you wish to have real sounds for gong and tam-tam you will need to find and install a soundfont containing these sounds, and use the mixer dialogue to assign them to the part.
HTH
PS I think it would probably be a good idea to add tam-tam and gong to FluidR3Mono, and I shall be considering the best way to implement this when I have time.
If I understood the request, the issue here is how to get an staff (standard 5 lines) with the "special" capability to input any notes whom will be the different percussion sounds we can use from the percussion sounds from the soundfont file we are using.
I mean: today MuseScore has this capability... Almost!!!
When we create a percussion score, we choose "Percussion Set" and we have a lot of percussion sounds (instruments) to put on the staves, BUT NOT ALL THE INSTRUMENTS WE CAN GET. There are only a limited set of instruments into the percussion panel.
Yes, it is true we can change this Percussion panel, but... Why we have to do it? ???
There is a General MIDI Standard about which note is equal to what percussion instrument.
We don't need any percussion set change, WE JUST NEED TO BE ABLE TO USE ALL THE POSSIBLE NOTES ON THE STAFF (in other words: all the percussion instruments).
In simple words: this special percussion set staves should have the exact same kind of input way like the "normal" instrument staves: any note, from the C0 to C8, any time, with voices.
That's all folks!!!
Just my crazy idea (from my old mad mind, hehehehe)
Greetings & Blessings!!!!!!!
Juan
In reply to If I understood the request, by jotape1960
Two points.....
1. GM percussion set doesn't include all percussion instruments.
2. Access to the full GM percussion range is already possible via the Edit Drumset dialogue.
I think the current percussion works very well from a percussionist's point of view, although it is an extreme culture shock for keyboard players.
We have a very simple way of being able to assign one or more percussion instruments to a staff, and display notation on any line/space, and with varying noteheads.
It does take a little getting used to, but I have seen far more arcane methods in some sequencers!
There are areas where the Edit Drumset dialogue could be improved - listing the full GM percussion sounds for example, but in principle I think it is a good solution to notating the strange world of the percussionist :)
In reply to Two points..... 1. GM by ChurchOrganist
I agree about the percussionists world is absolutely different to the "standard" pitched instruments, yes.
From the "academic" point of view, all the non-pitched percussion instruments only need a one line staff (with the special head notes). And it is so great that MuseScore lets us to use it that way... WHEN WE WRITE TO HUMAN MUSICIANS.
But, that way to write isn't comfortable when we write the piece to a MIDI machine (or computer).
It is the reason to ask an special percussion set staff (keeping the today MuseScore way to input percussion notes to the individual percussion instruments as well).
I repeat:
1) When we write music to human musicians, the best way is the today MuseScore way (individual and separated staves to each instrument).
2) When we write ONLY to a MIDI machine (or computer), the best and easy way is the proposed way: one double staff ("G" and "F" clef, like the standard grand piano staff) to cover all the percussion instruments we have on our soundfont files.
Knowing isn't better to compare a software with another, the old Cakewalk Home Studio MIDI software had the second input notes way only, and it was so easy to input non-pitched percussion instrument notes. We just choose the MIDI channel 10 (percussion MIDI channel) and we just had to put the notes we want to hear, the same way we input the notes to a piano staff in MuseScore, today. Of course, each note is equal to a different instrument (C2 = Bass Pedal Drum; D2 = Snare Drum, etc., etc., etc.).
BUT... We also could get individual staves to each percussion instruments, if we wanted it. Cakewalk Home Studio had a tool to split an staff into several staves (according to the number of layers, or voices, the staff had). Then we could choose between the standard 5 lines staff or "academic" one line staff to each instrument.
BTW: If someone is thinking about to create a piece and then choose an standard piano staff, input notes and then change the sound from piano to percussion set (into the MuseScore Mixer), not all the available percussion sounds you will be able to use. For some rare reason, MuseScore recognize this instrument change and get back to the limited percussion palette. Default way to do the things? ??? I don't know, but it is what it is.
That's all folks!!!
Greetings & Blessings!!!!!!!
Juan
In reply to I agree about the by jotape1960
You are forgetting that MuseScore is primarily score engraving software, to produce music notation for human musicians to play from.
It is not and never will be a MIDI sequencer, nor DAW software. The development team is quite clear on that fact, so comparisons with proprietary MIDI sequencing software are neither helpful nor relevant.
In reply to You are forgetting that by ChurchOrganist
I'm not forgetting that clear fact, and I insist about MuseScore is absolutely outstanding on the printed music score presentation.
BUT... We live in the real world. Today, almost all is about "globalization". If you create a software which could do something, and you don't add some near related capability, then your software will be "eat" by another.
There is something called: "competition". Don't forget it.
I know to write computer code isn't easy. I don't have any experience with C, C+ or C++. My only life with the code world is with the LOGO programming language (which is too far to create something like MuseScore). So, I know to program needs time, too much time. And I know the time isn't for free.
I thank with all my heart to the development team because MuseScore is, today.
I'm just asking what I think it's better to improve the product, nothing more.
BTW: I was wrong about one point: I re-tested to input a full scale as an standard grand piano, and then change the sound (instrument) on the Mixer. Now I could get all the GM not-pitched percussion set (but with the Fluid soundfont file). The reason I didn't get it before wasn't a MuseScore problem, it was about the bad balance (volume) of the not-pitched percussion instruments on the GeneralUser soundfont file.
Sorry!!! It was my mistake!!!
I attached the file with this drum percussion test.
As you can see in the file, just the notes (instruments) above F4 are on the standard General MIDI "pitch" scale. The instruments from C2 to F4 are on the MuseScore "pitch" scale (thing I think could be change with the percussion palette edit procedure, but... Why not to get it directly with just one click? ???)