percussion midi accented and ghost notes

[Stefano Antonelli]

Hello list,

I'm presently trying to transcribe a piece of music that has both
accented and ghost notes on the snare drum.  And I've run into a few
issues:

1. Ghost notes are not particularly user friendly requiring the use
of \parenthesize.  Does anyone know of a more concise way?

2. Is there an easy way to also get ghost notes to come out correctly
in midi as soft notes?

3. There is not much difference between sn4 and sn4->.  In midi the
volumes are 90 for the normal note and 110 for the accented note.  I
believe the max for midi is 127.  Can the volume of the accented note
be raised?

Ideally I'd want to use input (yes I know the parentheses won't work)
like:

(sn4) sn4-> (sn4) sn4->

And have that come out "parenthesized" in the engraving, and in midi
as:

soft LOUD soft LOUD

Here's a minimum working example:

music = {
    \new DrumStaff {
        \new DrumVoice {
            \voiceOne
            \time 4/4
            \tempo 4 = 82
            \drummode {
               <\parenthesize sn4> sn4-> <\parenthesize sn4> sn4->
            }
        }
    }
}

\score {
        \music
        \layout { }
        \midi {}
}

\version "2.19.83"

Note: the accent behaviour in midi out appears broken in 2.18.2.

Thanks,
Stef