modulator attenuation dB & designing 'expressive' presets for MuseScore 3.7

• Mk 6 0

  Message from Mkjnovak on …
  Hi all,
  Long-time user, newly re-joined.
  I have one pretty big question at the end; please hang in there. Thanks.
  
  I think I finally have my head wrapped around changing modulators to make presets into so-called expressive presets.  These will then obey hairpins, dim, and cresc in MuseScore 3.7.
  
  My process:
  Duplicate all desired presets.
  Make duplicated ones under Bank 17 to be consistent.
  Under instruments, add a x0 attenuation modulator
  (In several cases, also add a x0 to kill filter cutoff modification)
  Under regular presets, leave the modulators as found, or add a velocity -> attenuation modulator.
  
  Under each expressive preset, delete / change at least 
  CC002 -> attenuation
  CC002 -> Cutoff
  
  This seems great now.
  In my original attempts, expressive presets were each noticably quieter than their non-expressive counterpart.
  I think they were double-attenuating or nearly because I had not nulled out the instrument-level modulators.
  Please let me know if this is correct.
  
  My one nagging question:
  What should the default preset attenuation modulator value be exactly?
  Polyphone's default? 960
  or the assortment I have seen in MuseScore_General and Chris's ? 700-800, even 500
  and does the bit depth of the soundfont matter?  I've got a mixed assortment of 16 and 24.
  Is there a correct answer really?
  
  Thanks for reading.
• Message from Mkjnovak on …
  I now see that in the specification
  https://www.synthfont.com/SFSPEC21.PDF 
  the default is in fact 960, the same as given by Polyphone.
  
  If anyone could shed light on why 500, 700, or 800 are chosen, that would be great.
  It would seem the net result is less attenuation; I am still wondering why though.

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