musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Support for secondary instruments on a single part WITHOUT using "Change Instrument"

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C++
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Description

Your idea

This has already somewhat been requested, but I think this is a somewhat different approach to the idea. Support for quick, supplemental instruments with a different sounds(Like woodblocks in a mallet part simply marked with 'X'). This is fairly common in percussion ensemble settings for more advanced indoor ensamples. In terms of how this would be done is fairly complex, but I feel the best way to do it is to allow the ability to create pre-loaded secondary instruments that attach to the main one(like what happens with change instrument, but done manually in the mixer). Then allowing this secondary instrument to be assigned to some label(number, letter, color), and allowing individual notes in that part to be changed in the properties tab to be under that label.

Problem to be solved

It is quite difficult to write more complex percussion parts that use a variety of instruments at the same time, mostly when the switch are quick or even at the same time. There is a work around, which is to write the notes in one part with a special notehead and then creating a hidden part to playback the secondary sounds, but this work around is tedious, finicky, and unscalable.

Prior art

I actually don't know because I don't have any of the other major transcription software. I've seen it in music often but I never know exactly if they also did a work around or their program of choice had support for this.
My "workarounds":

High notes are woodblock:
Image

Circled X note is a snare(Drumset sound for better quality):
Image

Additional context

I get that this is likely a major change as it has been brought up in the past from people I've heard, and I don't fully know how musescore's instrument handling programming works. I just added this to offer a different perspective and possible solution and why I find it to be a necessary feature.

Checklist
  • This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

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Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by tracing MuseScore's existing Change Instrument workflow and mixer instrument handling, then determine how secondary instruments and per-note labels would fit together. Done means a part can assign supplemental instruments and route selected notes to them without hidden playback parts.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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