Compose/Transcribe for MIDI Organ
There are many electronic and pipe organs that are capable of being driven by MIDI files. Several MIDI Organs are actually computer based synthesizers Hauptwerk //www.hauptwerk.com/ and Miditzer //www.virtualorgan.com/ (the latter being freeware) using several different soundfont [.sf2] files which are organized specifically to reproduce organ pipe and 'toy counter' sounds.
Although I am not a gifted player of pipe organs, I do enjoy transcribing and composing for these MIDI instruments. Doing so requires the ability to indicate one or more organ stops [instruments in soundfont terms] for each staff in the score and the ability to change stops in the middle of a score without breaking the flow. The notation is generally indicated just above the staff in an abbreviated form to indicate the type of sound(s) intended by the composer/transcriber.
For instance:
1) //www.free-scores.com/PDF/laffay-jean-francois-prelude-pour-le-jour-de-noel-5206.pdf
2) //www.free-scores.com/PDF_EN/mendelssohn-bartholdy-felix-allegretto-per-organo-29431.pdf
and of course many others.
I would like any other opinions on this subject and ways to manage the MIDI controls inside MuseScore. To the best of my knowledge no other transcription program has completely solved this although some of Finale and Cakewalk have many of the desired features..
Comments
I imagine what is needed is the ability to add MIDI events to include in the output before a
note is played. This could be implemented as an option when you right click a note.
The dialog box would allow you to change the program (choice of instrument) as well as enter other parameters and values.
This information could then be included in the MIDI output when saved.
Charles
I also am an organist that likes to dabble in composing. I use a digital organ and Hauptwerk. It would be nice to be able to modify the stops like an organist would in the middle of a composition. As it is now you have to make a seperate staff for every insturment and you can't assign the organ as an insturment because the way they have it set up all three staves have the same organ sound. I was able to download a Juex soundfont but MuseScore does not allow the use of more than one sound per part, unlike a real organ that would have several stops pulled. This would be nice to be able to have several insturments set for each voice. The Juex stops do show up in the mixer and you can modify them if you have seperate stave for each voice, this would be very complicated to make it work as MuseScore is currently set up.
In reply to I also am an organist that by glenna
You'll be eager to try out the Aeolus organ in version 2.0 then.
Unfortunately last time I tested it assigning notes to the Pedal crashed my sound system, but when it is finished it will be awesome :)
I too am using the Jeux Soundfont, with a certain amount of tweaking in Viena to get it to exactly what I want - with Viena you can recombine the various stops inside the soundfont to make the combinations you require.
Regards
Michael
I think that a small two manual and pedal board stoplist that can have the stops customised and have an ability to change manuals during the score would be uesful.