sound font support for musescore >= 2.0.2
I was reading the page https://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont.
It seems to refer to musescore 1.3. Is it still implicitly accurate for 2.0+ ?
I was wanting to experiment with different sound fonts.
Currently i'm using GeneralUser, as the double reed instruments sound pretty good, much better than the default provided by musescore. However, the page mentions some designed especially for orchestra.
Comments
For example, the link
http://sourceforge.net/p/mscore/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/mscore/share/sound…
seems to no longer be valid.
In reply to For example, the by jim.newton.562
This is the soundfont page for 2.0
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont-0
I have several sound fonts in my path. How can I know which one musescore is using?
![Screen Shot 2015-07-26 at 13.03.50.png]( "Screen Shot 2015-07-26 at 13.03.50.png")
To answer your first question, take note of the yellow warning box at the top of the page. ;-) As to the other question, I'm going to answer it as well as I can and then add the answer into the Handbook, which I've been meaning to do for some time.
"How can I know which one musescore is using?"
If you have not changed any sounds in the Mixer, then the SoundFont at the top of the list is the one that will be used for playback. However, if you have multiple SoundFonts loaded, all the individual instruments from each SoundFont will appear in a single very long list in the dropdown menu in the Mixer, enabling you to choose different sounds from different SoundFonts. But if you do that, playback will only work correctly if you have the same SoundFonts loaded in the same order in the Synthesizer. Therefore, if you are using multiple SoundFonts, it is advised to click the "Save to Score" button in the Synthesizer, so that the next time you open that score you can recall the list of SoundFonts loaded (and other Synthesizer settings, such as volume) with the "Load from Score" button.
Any questions?
In reply to To answer your first by Isaac Weiss
Two questions:
1. Is it correct that "Save to Score" simply means save the "order" of the sound fonts to the score?
2. How do I change which sound font a particular instrument playback comes from?
When I look in the mixer, I have only one oboe listed, and it does not tell me which sound font it is coming from in the Sound pulldown.
In reply to Two questions: 1. Is it by jim.newton.562
1. It saves the order, the names, and other Synthesizer settings such as volume and reverb. It does not actually save the entire SoundFont file with the score.
2. The Mixer interface is not very easy to use—there are ideas floating around for ways to make it clear which SoundFont a given sound is from—but the upshot is, if you scroll down far enough in the list you'll find another oboe, seemingly a duplicate entry but actually representing the oboe sound from the second SoundFont loaded in the Synthesizer. If you have three SoundFonts loaded, there will be another oboe even further down, and so on.
In reply to 1. It saves the order, the by Isaac Weiss
Yes, I see when I continue to scroll down I indeed find a second oboe which as you predected looks like a duplicate.
In reply to Yes, I see when I continue to by jim.newton.562
Okay, I'm going to get to work explaining this in the Handbook.
In reply to Okay, I'm going to get to by Isaac Weiss
Now, this is some documentation work I can be proud of: https://musescore.org/en/node/36171/revisions/view/126016/126481 Now, on to the Mixer page!
In reply to Now, this is some by Isaac Weiss
This is useful information Zack, but it's taken me a while to find it. I read the current help page for Soundfonts first (musescore.org/en/handbook/soundfont-0), then the help page to change or add a soundfont (musescore.org/en/node/50721), but they don't yet contain the information you've given here, which is what I needed to know.
What's missing is the description of which soundfont is used by default, and how to make a different one the default. E.g. at the bottom of that page "How to change the SoundFont or add another" (musescore.org/en/node/50721) it shows three soundfonts loaded. It doesn't explain which is used as the default instruments, or how to make another one the default.
The explanation of how to use sounds from more than one soundfont is also missing from those pages.
On a slightly different subject, the "Move up" or "Move down" are slow and awkward to use. A "Move to top" button would be much more user friendly.
In reply to This is useful information by AndyHornBlower
I've returned to documenting this topic since, mostly at https://musescore.org/en/handbook/synthesizer. Specifically, https://musescore.org/en/handbook/synthesizer#soundfont should have all the information you mentioned looking for. If anything's missing or not clear, please let me know—or feel free to try writing it yourself! As Wikipedia says, Be bold. . ;-)
In reply to I've returned to documenting by Isaac Weiss
Thanks, Zack.
That is much better, though it's still missing an explanation of how to use sounds from more than one soundfont at the same time, which is not intuitively obvious, especially since the source of the sound isn't identified, in the current version.
I have made a couple of edits on Wikipedia, but I'm not confident enough of the subject, in this case - it's better if it's done by someone who actually knows what he's talking about :)
In reply to Thanks, Zack. That is much by AndyHornBlower
The gist of it is "If you have not changed any sounds in the Mixer, then the SoundFont at the top of the list is the one that will be used for playback" — with a link to https://musescore.org/en/node/35961#sound. Does that make sense?
In reply to The gist of it is "If you by Isaac Weiss
Yes, but what I meant was how to use different sounds, from the other soundfonts that are loaded, as you discussed in this thread a while ago. That part is still missing from the documentation, as far as I can see.
E.g., I have a default soundfont, and a second one; both contain an oboe, but I might want to use the oboe from the second one, for the playback, and leave the other instruments as the default.
I now know how to do that, but only from reading what you said here (which you posted a while ago), not from reading the manual.