monophonic midi-record & Logic note-clipboard
I only started using MuseScore recently, and I'm quite surprised that there's no way to realtime record simple midi notes. I have read some topic about this now, and this is the most clear and 'definitive' that I've read about it:
Note: The MIDI keyboard enters one note or chord at a time. This mode of note entry (often called "step-time entry") is fast and reliable. Some notation software try to interpret "real-time entry", in which the musician plays a passage and the software tries to produce notation. However, the results are generally unreliable. MuseScore focuses on more reliable forms of note entry.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/note-entry
In my previous projects in Sibelius I really relied on 'quickly playing a little melody', and arranging it later. Or improvising a melody along an arrangement. So I really miss this feature, as it's difficult for me to write down complex rhythmic melodies manually. I understand it will be complex to record/'convert' a full piano-performance, but would a simple monophonic recorder really be impossible? First automatically quantized a bit, and then converted to notes?
As a workaround for now (but also as a nice workflow-addition), I was really hoping to be able to copy-paste notes from Logic (instead of exporting midi-files all the time), which doesn't seem possible yet, but should be easy to implement. As you can paste Logic's clipboard as text. The code below is pasted from the melody in Logic that you find attached.
1 1 1 1 Note 4 C2 127 0 1 3 232
1 1 1 1 Note 4 G3 127 0 1 3 232
1 1 1 1 Note 4 B3 127 0 1 3 232
1 1 1 1 Note 4 E4 127 0 1 3 232
1 3 1 1 Note 4 E2 127 0 0 3 232
1 3 1 1 Note 4 E3 127 0 1 3 232
1 3 1 1 Note 4 C4 127 0 1 3 232
1 4 1 1 Note 4 E2 127 0 0 3 232
1 4 1 1 Note 4 A2 127 0 0 3 232
1 4 1 1 Note 4 E3 127 0 0 3 232
So as a quick summary:
- Would be supercool to be able to midi-record super-basic monophonic bits in realtime (maybe not even needing an extra button: just performing while playing the song?)
- Would be cool to be able to paste notes from Logic (which has a terrible score-editor for composing, but great midi-record accuracy)
- Would also be great to be able to copy-paste notes again to Logic - although if I edit the pasted code, and try to paste it again, that doesn't work. So it might technically not be possible.
I hope I'm not alone in having these wishes. :)
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Comments
It's not *impossible* to do real-time input, of course. But Logic is software designed from the ground up to do real-time input processing. MuseScore is not; it would require a very significant amount of work to allow this.
As for copying and pasting Logic's proprietary text format, you could try writing a plugin, or hiring someone to write one for you. If that format were an industry standard, I think there would be more incentive for MuseScore to support it natively, but as it is, I think exporting MIDI is the way to go.
In reply to It's not *impossible* to do by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the reply Marc. You're right that I might need to code my own paste-Logic plugin for it - I'll start thinking about it.
About implementing a realtime recording option: I would expect it not being too difficult, as I would think that the hard work has already been done in the midi-import-functionality. In abstract, I would think that this functionality would write a midi-file (should be superbasic - in my Arduino-experience at least) to a temporary file, and 'import it' to the selected bar right away after you stop recording recording. Realtime notation wouldn't be necessary perse.
But well, maybe I need to dive into it one day myself to sharpen my coding skills. ;)
In reply to Thanks for the reply Marc. by brabander
The thing is, the current code does no real time input processing whatsoever. I don't mean actually *notating* in real time; I mean just the very basics of assemling the timing information necessary to create a MIDI file. This would be a totally new aspect, and it's easier said than done. Much simpler would be to integrate with a program that already *does* the real time processing to write the sequence, then as you say, import it to the selected bar.
In reply to The thing is, the current by Marc Sabatella
Thanks fro explaining that into a bit more details - very insightful that MuseScore doesn't do any realtime processing. :) And maybe then I should once get into programming such an 'external' recorder.
In reply to Thanks fro explaining that by brabander
Well if you have programming experience in this field, perhaps you would consider writing a real-time MIDI kernel for MuseScore?
In reply to Well if you have programming by ChurchOrganist
I feel honored that you ask me ;) but I'm not a very experienced coder. Just some bits of experience with Arduino/Processing/Maxscript (3dsmax) etc. But on the level that I think I could tackle writing some code to 'paste notes from Logic', but writing a kernel would be quite a bridge too far. ;) If anyone here has those skills and needs a new coding-challenge, I'd be glad to see the midi-option implemented of course. ;) I guess that will make even more people switch from Sibelius/Finale to Musescore. :)