Show separate instruments on same staff?
Hi all,
Is it possible to show separate instruments on the same staff?
I have a 4-part TTBB vocal arrangement where I've created each part as its own instrument, each on its own staff. I have each instrument assigned to its own voice (T1 = voice 1, T2 = voice 2, etc.).
This is really helpful for creating MIDI mp3s for my singers in which they can hear their part separated from the other parts (volume-wise and pan-wise, using the Mixer tool and then Exporting as mp3).
However, this results in sheet music which is difficult for them to read. My singers are used to having the two Tenor parts combined into a single staff, and the two Bass/Bari parts combined as well into a single staff within the same system (exactly like a piano accompaniment would look like). This helps them recognize chords more easily, see timing stuff between parts, read lyrics without cluttering the systems, and not need to flip pages as often.
When I combine the parts by copying and pasting into a single two-staff system and delete the extra staves, though, the separated instruments are also deleted. The sheet music becomes perfectly easy to read, but this makes it impossible to create the mp3s that I describe above.
Is there any way for me to have the best of both worlds?
I'll attach a copy of a sample of the sheet music showing the parts on separated staves. I'm using MuseScore 2.0.2 on Windows 10.
Thanks!
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Sample Separated Instruments To Combine.mscz | 16.36 KB |
Comments
I suppose that if I could use the Mixer to adjust Voices (in addition to Instruments), that'd work just as well.
Or, if there was a way to create a new Part / Instrument on a new staff that was a combination of other parts, then I could just do Export Parts and use that PDF instead...
Are either of these, or the above, possible?
If not, is this something that could be coded in a Plugin?
Thanks!
You could combine your Tenors into a single staff as well as the Bass and Bari parts as an added two staff system.
However...
Instead of deleting the extra (separated instrument) staves, set them invisible in the Instruments dialog (the keyboard shortcut is I). This will display an easy to read two staff system - good for printing.
To create the Mp3s of the separate parts, select all the notes in the two staff system; then, in the Inspector, uncheck the 'Play' button under 'Note'. You can still use the mixer as usual to adjust the separate parts volume-wise and pan-wise.
Regards.
In reply to You could combine your Tenors by Jm6stringer
This idea (copying the parts to a new set of staves) works pretty well!
I ended up not following your instruction on how to create mp3s, though, since it was easier to just export a Solo .wav of each part and then generate mp3s in my audio editor (which does a better job of Panning than the Mixer, which seems to be a bit buggy... besides being difficult to set levels precisely).
It's a little cumbersome (and maybe buggy?) to have to copy and paste the parts into the new staves... for example, when I copied the T1 part first and then copied the T2 part, it simply over-wrote the T1 part. When I copied the T2 part first and then copied the T1 part it did work, though! It'll be annoying if I need to make changes and have to re-copy the parts, but that hopefully won't happen much.
It would be really nice to be able to create a "reduced" score which automatically updates as I make changes to the original score... is that worthy of a Feature Request? Would anyone else find that useful?
In reply to This idea (copying the parts by jrbedford
Would the existing Explode/Implode Tool be of help to you? See: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tools#plode
In reply to Would the existing by jeetee
It seemed like that would be a way to temporarily generate a printable version (which I'd need to be able to undo to continue editing), but the tool hasn't worked for me on this score. Perhaps it's insufficiently homophonic? As you can see in the file I attached, there's a number of places where the parts differ rhythmically. There are other places in the rest of the song where the parts are completely homophonic...
When I tried to use Implode, nothing happened. I expected that imploding the T1 and T2 lines (by selecting all measures in both parts and then executing Implode) would result in them being combined on the T1 staff, but nothing changed as a result...
In reply to It seemed like that would be by jrbedford
Different rhythms might be the cause for failure. I haven't used the Tool myself yet, but the description does mention "staves that have substantially similar rhythms" so I'm afraid this is where my knowledge ends..
In reply to It seemed like that would be by jrbedford
Feel free to post the specific steps you followed, and I can try to explain. But indeed, the facility is meant for dealing with homophonic passages, to build up chords from a series of lines with identical rhythm. I don't really see any opportunities in the posted score where this could have been expected to work - there would be nowhere anything could be combined to form chords. I guess you want to combine them as different voices, but that much is straightforward enough to do without implode. Just use copy & paste in conjunction with voice exchange (Edit / Voices) and/or the selection filter.
You are able to do that. Just edit voice names and change it to the needed voices, and then input for voice 1 and for voice 2.
In reply to You are able to do that. Just by Elwin
I don't understand what you mean by "edit voice names"...
I already have each part as its own Voice, and as its own Instrument (see the originally attached file). The problem with this is that I cannot adjust the Voices in the Mixer panel in the same way I can adjust the Instruments. If I could do that, then I could just enter the Voices into a single two-staff system (ideal for printing) and adjust the playback in the Mixer without needing any other steps.
In reply to I don't understand what you by jrbedford
Right click on the staff, click staff properties. Then when it says "Long Instrument Name" and "Short Instrument name". Change it. you can type
Tenor
Tenor.
In reply to Right click on the staff, by Elwin
I think the confusion here is over the word "voice". A voice is not the same a s a staff. See "Voices" in the Handbook. In MuseScore, there can be up to four voices per staff. There is no way to assign a name to each of those four voices, nor is there a way to use the mixer to set their volume independently.