Sound Fonts, tremolo automation plugin, and lyrics extraction extension for Spanish Plectro Orchestra (Orquesta de Pulso y Púa).
alcala.mov
☝️ click to listen a demo sound, you can also try it in my musescore space
- Bandurria.sf2 Soundfont for Bandurria, it has only one channel with picked sounds and no tremolo
- Bandurria-Con-Tremolo.sf2 Soundfont for Bandurria, it has one channel, for selecting picked sounds use velocities 1-64, and for tremolo 65-127
- Laud.sf2 Soundfont for Laud, it has only one channel with picked sounds and no tremolo
- Laud-Con-Tremolo.sf2 Soundfont for Laud, it has one channel, for selecting picked sounds use velocities 1-64, and for tremolo 65-127
- Guitarra-Clasica.sf2 Sound font for Spanish Guitar.
- Laudin.sf2 Sound font for Laudin (small laud), plucked sounds only.
The Pulso y Púa plugin is essential for properly using these sound fonts in MuseScore because of how tremolo is implemented:
Bandurria and laúd are unique plucked instruments where the characteristic tremolo technique is fundamental to their sound. However:
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No MIDI Program for Tremolo: Unlike violin tremolo (which uses a different MIDI program), plucked instruments don't have a dedicated MIDI program for tremolo.
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Velocity-Based Tremolo: These sound fonts implement tremolo using MIDI velocity:
- Velocity 1-64: Picked/plucked sound (single note)
- Velocity 65-127: Tremolo sound (rapid repetition)
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Manual Configuration is Tedious: Without automation, you would need to:
- Manually set velocity to 65 for every long note
- Add tremolo symbols (cosmetic, for sheet music) and disable their playback to avoid the annoying synthetic tremolo sound
- Disable playback of dynamics, articulations, and hairpins that interfere with tremolo
- Disable tied notes playback (only the first note should sound)
- Handle special cases (staccato notes, trills, short notes, etc.)
The plugin disables playback of certain musical elements because:
- Dynamics & Hairpins: These affect velocity, which conflicts with the velocity-based tremolo system. If dynamics change velocity, the sound font won't switch correctly between picked and tremolo sounds.
- Articulations: Many articulations modify velocity or note duration, interfering with the tremolo velocity threshold.
- Tied Notes: Only the first note in a tied chain should play; subsequent tied notes should be silent.
Important: Disabling playback doesn't remove these elements from the score—they remain visible for musicians reading the sheet music. They simply don't affect MIDI playback.
The Pulso y Púa plugin provides three main functions:
Automatically configures your score for tremolo playback:
- Add tremolo symbols to long notes (configurable duration threshold)
- Set note velocity to 65 to trigger tremolo sound
- Disable playback of tied notes (except first in chain)
- Disable tremolo playback (optional - keeps symbol visual only)
- Disable dynamics, articulations, ornaments, and hairpins playback
- Smart detection:
- Skips short notes (staccato behavior)
- Skips notes with staccato articulations
- Handles velocity-increasing articulations intelligently
- Detects and skips notes with trill ornaments
Reverses all tremolo configuration: removes symbols, restores velocities and playback for notes, dynamics, articulations, ornaments, and hairpins.
Built-in manager to download, update, and verify Bandurria and Laúd sound fonts, plus plugin self-update.
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Download the plugin: PulsoPua.qml
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Install in MuseScore:
- Copy
PulsoPua.qmlto your MuseScore plugins folder:- Windows:
%HOMEPATH%\Documents\MuseScore4\Plugins - macOS:
~/Documents/MuseScore4/Plugins - Linux:
~/Documents/MuseScore4/Plugins
- Windows:
- Copy
-
Enable the plugin:
- Open MuseScore
- Go to
Plugins→Plugin Manager - Check the box next to "Pulso y Púa"
- Click
OK
-
Download sound fonts (using the plugin):
- Go to
Plugins→Pulso y Púa - Switch to the "SoundFonts" tab
- Click "Download All" or download individually
- The sound fonts will be installed to your MuseScore SoundFonts directory
- Go to
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Select your score range:
- For MuseScore 4.6 or until issue #31061 is fixed, you must select the entire score (
Ctrl+A/Cmd+A) before running the plugin - The plugin only processes bandurria and laúd instruments
- For MuseScore 4.6 or until issue #31061 is fixed, you must select the entire score (
-
Open the plugin:
- Go to
Plugins→Pulso y Púa
- Go to
-
Configure tremolo settings:
- Minimum Duration: Choose the duration threshold (e.g., quarter note, dotted quarter, half note)
- Check/uncheck operations as needed:
- Add tremolo symbols
- Set note velocity
- Disable tied notes
- Disable dynamics, articulations, ornaments, hairpins
-
Choose processing range:
- Selected range: Process only selected measures
- Entire score: Process all bandurria/laúd parts
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Click "Add Tremolo & Close"
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To remove tremolo: Use the "Remove Tremolo" tab with similar options
If you use this plugin frequently, it's highly recommended to assign a keyboard shortcut:
- Go to
Edit→Preferences→Shortcuts - Search for "Pulso y Púa"
- Click on the plugin and assign a shortcut (e.g.,
Ctrl+Shift+T/Cmd+Shift+T) - Click
OK
Now you can quickly toggle tremolo configuration with your keyboard shortcut.
Due to MuseScore issue #31061, the plugin cannot programmatically access hairpins (crescendo/diminuendo) unless you:
- Select the entire score first (
Ctrl+A/Cmd+A) - Then run the plugin
This limitation only affects the official MuseScore 4.6 release. Custom builds with the curScore.spanners API extension don't require manual selection.
What happens if you don't select?
- The "Disable/Restore hairpins playback" checkbox will be disabled and show "(needs selection)"
- All other plugin features work normally
- Only hairpin processing will be skipped
The plugin automatically detects bandurria and laúd instruments by checking:
- Part long name
- Part short name
- Instrument ID
Only detected bandurria/laúd parts will be processed.
After adding tremolo configuration:
- Select bandurria/laúd staves
- Open Mixer (
F10) - Change sound font to "Bandurria-Con-Tremolo" or "Laud-Con-Tremolo"
- Notes with velocity ≥65 will now play with tremolo sound
The plugin allows you to:
- Choose which operations to perform
- Set custom duration thresholds
- Process selected ranges or entire score
- Keep tremolo symbols visual-only (disable tremolo playback)
A MuseScore 4 extension that extracts lyrics with aligned chord symbols from musical scores and generates formatted text and PDF output, suitable for songbooks, rehearsal sheets, and chord charts.
- Lyrics with chord alignment: extracts lyrics from the melody staff and chord symbols from the accompaniment, keeping them perfectly aligned
- Score health check and auto-fix: detects and corrects synalepha formatting, broken syllabic chains, chord sync issues, and manual hyphens
- Repeat and structure handling: processes repeat signs, voltas, D.S., D.C., Coda, Fine, and multi-verse sections
- Section markers: recognizes system text labels (INTRO, SOLISTA, ESTRIBILLO) and rehearsal marks as section dividers
- Chord-only mode: for instrumental scores without lyrics, shows chord progressions structured by sections and barlines
- Fretboard diagrams: extracts guitar chord diagrams from FBox frames and renders them in the PDF header
- PDF generation: creates print-ready A4 PDFs with chords in color, monospace alignment, optional auto-fit to one page, line numbers, and headers/footers
- Solfeo and anglo notation: follows the score's chord spelling setting (Do-Re-Mi or C-D-E)
- CLI tool: the same extraction engine is also available as a Node.js command-line tool
- Download: lyrics-extractor.mext
- Install: drag the
.mextfile onto MuseScore 4 (or double-click it). The extension appears in the toolbar and the Extensions menu.
For issues, questions, or contributions:
- GitHub Issues: Report a bug or request a feature
- MuseScore Forum: Discuss on MuseScore.org
© 2026 - Manolo Carrasco (do2tis)