Re: Sound problem
Reply #1 –
Firstly, please excuse the detail - I know you're a long term user, but I figured it best to give a detailed reply in case a newbie read this and wondered what I was going on about.
OK, I'm not sue what you mean by "sounds awful" but I'm going to assume you mean it sounds discordant.
If that's the case, then the first place I would look is for an erroneous key signature. If the staff is in "C" or "Am" then make sure you still have a key sig. It will be a hidden (faint) natural sign on the "F" line, and you have to enter it yourself, they are not automatic.
Another thing to check is that the clef is correct - E.G. an erroneous tenor clef instead of an alto clef can easily be missed but would cause all sorts of odd results. Ditto any other clef substitution but they would be more obvious.
Next you might check to see if there's an erroneous staff transposition. Check the properties for each staff:
Select a staff; press <Alt+Enter>; select "Instrument [tab]"; check the "Transposition" scroll box; rinse and repeat...
Normally this will be "0"* unless you have performed a transposition for a transposing instrument (E.G. saxophone) in which case it should be a number of semitones opposite to the transposition you did (E.G. transpose +9 for an Alto sax, the transposition in the staff properties should be -9).
It should be noted that if you've transcribed a score from a source that has transposing instruments included then the transposition scroll box in the staff properties needs to be updated accordingly. See below for a table of common transpositions.
NB this transposition could also be in an instrument change object <I> or "Insert|Instrument Change..." <Alt+I> then <I>.
Locate and highlight the Instrument Change object; press <Alt+Enter>; select "Instrument [tab]"; check the "Transposition" scroll box as above for staff properties.
When transposing a staff "Tools|Transpose Staff", or <Alt+T> then <T>, the dialogue asks via a checkbox if you want to "Update the staff playback transposition". This is used to transpose from concert pitch to the correct notation for a transposing instrument and will enter the reverse change as discussed above for the Alto sax example. If you are changing a piece to a new key completely, then UNCHECK this box, otherwise if you are transposing for a transposing instrument then you should check it.
It is very important when using this feature that the staff have a key signature, even if it is in "C" or "Am" (this would be a hidden natural on the F line). If this is not there the transposition has problems.
Some common instrument transpositions (where TC means Treble Clef):
| Instrument | Inst. Key | Trans from Concert Pitch (semitones) | Reverse trans. for staff properties (semitones) |
| Trumpet, Sop Sax | Bb | +2 | -2 |
| Horn in F, TC F Tuba? (never seen it done) | F | +7 | -7 |
| Alto Sax, Tenor (Alto) Horn | Eb | +9 | -9 |
| #Tenor Sax, TC Trombone, TC Euphonium etc. | Bb | +2 (or +14) | -14 |
| #Bari Sax, TC Eb Tuba | Eb | +9 (or +21) | -21 |
| #TC Bb Tuba | Bb | +2 (or +26) | -26 |
# this is a little dependent on how the score was first written. Quite often a score will be originally set up an octave high for ease of notation, BUT the playback must be an octave lower than would at first appear because these instruments are at least an octave lower than written Treble Clef at concert pitch.
When I'm preparing a score that will include transposed instruments, I will usually preset the staff transposition accordingly, E.G if there's a Tenor, or Bari Sax, I will preset the staff transposition to -12, notate in concert pitch, then transpose the staff accordingly (+2 for the Tenor and +9 for the Bari), WITH the staff playback checkbox mentioned earlier checked. This will result in the correct final staff transposition of -14 for the Tenor and -21 for the Bari.
Note that Trombone (excluding Bass Trombone), Tuba, Euphonium, Tenor (Alto) Horn, and Baritone are written in Transposed Treble for British tradition brass bands (this includes Salvation Army scores) otherwise Trom, Euph, Bari. and Tuba are written in Concert Pitch bass clef - the only exception I've seen to this is the occasional European score that also includes BC versions of Trombone, Euph or Baritone in Bb - in these case the BC score is transposed - a true sacrilege IMHO.
Note also that in old scores, the Horn was written in bass clef without a key signature and referred to as Horn in F, or Horn in D etc. to denote which crook was being used. In "modern" literature (from sometime in the mid 20th century) Horn is always written in transposed F, in both Treble and Bass clef, WITH a key signature.
Horn is hard... - https://www.hornmatters.com/2008/08/transposition-tricks-old-vs-new-notation/
especially for us non-horn players.
* there are cases where it might be -12 for certain instruments - this is just an octave shift for instruments that are normally notated an octave high, like a guitar, bass guitar, or double bass - I'm sure there are others.
Topic: Sound problem (Read 783 times)
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