adding Instrument sounds

[mautner86]

Hi,


I currently need to add a staff with percussion notes (tambourine) in a composition I am making in Notation Composer but this instrument does not seem to be avaiable in the 128 instrument list. Strangely I opened up a midi file from another song I downloaded that does have tambourine and the program does play the tambourine sound. The notes appear as triangles but the instrument for this staff is marked as Acoustic Piano, even though it does sound as tambourine percussion.
Could anyone please explain to me how can I get the program to play percussion intruments sounds in my composition?
Thank you.

Gabriel

[Sherry C]

Hi Gabriel,


I currently need to add a staff with percussion notes (tambourine) in a composition I am making in Notation Composer but this instrument does not seem to be avaiable in the 128 instrument list. Strangely I opened up a midi file from another song I downloaded that does have tambourine and the program does play the tambourine sound. The notes appear as triangles but the instrument for this staff is marked as Acoustic Piano, even though it does sound as tambourine percussion.

Actually the sounds are not part of Composer :) Composer will, by default use the General MIDI (GM) sound set of the Microsoft GS Wavetable. The list of 128 instruments is the General MIDI instrument list that is a sort of accepted standard, so that most MIDI files will sound more or less similar when played on different GM devices (not GM the car manufacturer ;) ). You can use sounds from any MIDI device that you have.

The tambourine that you heard in the file you opened is part of the Drum Instrument set. GM Drum instruments are a bit different because they are represented all on the same staff. Each pitch on that staff represents a different instrument, and thus the drums are represented in what is called "pseudo pitch" style. That is why you saw the notes for the tambourine represented as triangles in Composer - each notehead style for the drum staff represents a natural, sharp or flat for that line/space, and thus represents a different drum instrument. The Patch number (if you use the Staff Setup for the staff) can be changed to make use of the drum kits that are available for the particular MIDI device that you are using to play back the file.

If you want to write a part for the tambourine (or other drum instrument), you can do the following to add a single drum instrument:

1. Use Staff/Add
2. In the bottom left of the dialog, check "Drum Instrument", and the dialog will unfold a bit farther :)
3. Check the bottom radio button for "1-line staff with single drum instrument"
4. Select the instrument (eg. 054 Tambourine) from the drop list on the right.
5. Click "Ok"

You'll then have a single-line staff that you can easily put the tambourine notes on. Alternatively, you can add an entire drum staff and then add the notes. If I'm adding a drum kit or multiple drum instruments to a song, I like to add the full drum staff, and then use Staff/Split Drums so that I can have all the instruments on their own separate line while I'm editing. When I'm done, I use the Staff/Merge Staves command, and then merge all the drum instruments back onto one five-line staff again. It saves screen space that way :)

There are lots of ways to have even more instruments or different instruments than the GM instrument set. If you have a MIDI device such as a synthesizer, if your soundcard has soundfont capability, if you have a sound library, or if you have other VST instruments and something like VST Host to use them, then you can expand the instruments that you use. You'll need to select the MIDI device you want to use in Composer, get the channels set properly so that your staff corresponds to the instrument you want in your library/font/VSTi, and you're off :)

Do let us know if you have further questions. Using other devices and instruments opens up a big world of sounds, and there are some folks here who know a lot more about that than I do :)

ttfn,
Sherry