MuseScore 4 and Muse Sounds - Mocking Up

[@istvanjbalazs]

Excellent video, Carl! Thank you for taking the time to make this extremely useful in-depth demonstration! It is indeed of a tremendous worth for improving our notated mockups! :-)

[@pristian]

Very good video and mockup. Thank you!

[@raffaelebossard4708]

Thank you! Excellent insights!

[@bruceboome]

Thanks for that. Beneficial insights.

[@sarahaprincesa]

thank you 👏🏻

[@hittjett]

There were some really helpful techniques employed in this.Thank you for taking the time to do this. One thing, however, that left me scratching my head was panning the instruments. Almost all of the libraries that I use are recorded in situ. I can't say this for certain about Muse Sounds, but in general this is the case. Would you still choose to do this in that scenario?

[@carlirwinmusic]

@@hittjett I would only push the pan in cases where the instruments are centered in space by default. The Muse Sounds within the M4 mixer allow for customized panning.

[@AlexWeidmannComposer]

Hi Carl. It appears you've placed some of your target dynamics under rests after the preceding hairpin. Far as I know, these don't have any effect in Muse Score 4. Target dynamics only take effect when they're placed under notes. Also you have some hairpins with no target dynamic indicated. I'm not sure these have any effect either. N.B. I think this may have changed since Muse Score 3, as I seem to remember dynamics being handled differently in that version.

[@carlirwinmusic]

Hairpin dynamics do have an effect without an arriving dynamic marking. However, they merely advance one dynamic level. I believe this has been the case since 4.0. The use of a dynamic target on a rest following a hairpin means that the hairpin will advance at an appropriate rate to the the point of the dynamic marking. With the marking on a rest, it means that the playback does not arrive at that marking but will play back at a greater rate than without the marking... or it will advance at a lower rate, provided that the target is only one level higher/lower. This technique allows for the playback of a dynamic crossfade that lies prior to an actual sample level. This is useful for creating swells that do not 'overblow' (i.e. when p to f is too loud and p to mf is too soft, placing the f on the following rest will create a crossfade release that is between mf and f). Additionally, M4 allows for the placement of a dynamic after a hairpin by selecting the hairpin and then choosing a dynamic target. The target will be placed on the nearest increment following the hairpin and generate the same crossfade release effect that I described. Hopefully that helps.

[@AlexWeidmannComposer]

Thanks for the tips! In that case I've been given the wrong advice on the Muse Score Forum, where I was told dynamics under rests have no effect at all.

[@carlirwinmusic]

@@AlexWeidmannComposer Additionally, dynamics under rests will set the dynamic level for music thereafter (obviously). But this is important because the play engine will sometimes glitch on playback where an attack at a dynamic change will initiate in the previous marking and then suddenly adjust to the new written marking. This can be overcome by merely placing the dynamic change ahead (usually on a rest).