So, musical theater student composer here. I need to compose a vocal line consisting of both rapped and sung sections. The rapped sections are unpitched but still need to be precisely notated rhythmically. (I’m probably going to use x noteheads, but curious what others are doing). Further, for the modeling, I would like to be able to switch to some kind of unpitched sound, but I can’t find anything that’s a good fit in the supplied sounds. Was trying percussion instruments but that turned out to be a whole other headache.
I have been using “Ornate x-noteheads” on the third space up, more or less emulating what Alex Lacamore does in the Hamilton vocal selections booklet (except that Alex Lacamore puts the noteheads on the center line of the staff).
I frequently Suppress Playback (in the Properties Panel) on those notes, although I have sometimes used a xylophone in demo files for someone learning the part. The truth is that hip-hop vocals actually do change pitch for inflection, even if the pitches are not easily identifiable; but to simulate that, one should probably use a separate, hidden staff to produce the simulated sounds.