Metronome count in

• Jul 11, 2016 - 05:02

Musescore needs a Metronome count-in feature. This would play the metronome for one measure before starting the score.

Yes - I know that I could manually insert a count-in measure with a drum beat, but I am lazy and I would prefer to just click a button when I playback.

Brian
UK


Comments

In reply to by Jm6stringer

That feature is nice, for sure, but if you export the playback as an mp3, you lose that - i.e. the track just starts at the first actual note. Do you know any way to get it to save the count-in on an exported file? It seems like this should be (optionally, perhaps?) a feature of the score itself (without resorting to adding measures of notes and work-arounds like that).

In reply to by kuwitt

Thanks very much for those links; they were very helpful. One suggestion I might try is to just use Audacity to record the MuseScore playback with the lead-in metronome. Seems a bit round-about, but I think it might work pretty well. :)

Edit: I tried the Audacity record and it does work very well. Only trouble, of course, is that it is "real time" so you have to sit and listen to the entire piece play in order to capture it. But for a quick and dirty method to get an mp3 with a count-in track, it does the trick.

No conductor's count in for Musescore 4 is a serious issue for me. Simply adding a measure doesn't work well when there are repeats. The metronome doesn't even sound the same as within the piece. I don't understand why it is so difficult to add something they already had in the previous versions. It's a game changer for me. I am sticking with Musescore 3 but I am giving Finale a trial run. We'll see how it goes.

In reply to by Gerri Hynes

I used to be on Finale until I started MuseScore three years ago and I certainly don't want to be on Finale again.
However this issue is also a difficult one for me, as I teach music theory, rhythm, and need this count in for the online exercises. I solved the issue with Audacity as far as audio goes (it's easy) but not for videos. Will try with Adobe's Premiere and see if it helps. I also don't understand why it's not there in MuseScore 4.

In reply to by Gerri Hynes

It's not difficult, it's just that these sort of niche playalong features haven't been as high a priority as the actual notation features. Presumably if someone else with development experience also uses MuseScore for playalong often enough to be bothered by this, they will volunteer to implement it. But if MuseScore 3 works for you, no need to spend hundreds on something else and start all over!

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Just to add some support for the count-in feature, I have MS4 on two of my PCs and I'm loving it. I also have a third PC which is my "play-along" machine. That one is still running MS 3.6.2 because of this very issue. A one-bar count-in is great but a two-bar option would be even better!

I look forward to the day when I can run all three PCs with the same (and latest) version of MuseScore.

Anyway, keep up the great work everybody! MuseScore seems to do everything I need it to do so I'm not missing Finale.

  • Rob

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I suppose what is "niche" to some could be a feature that's pretty essential to others. One more vote for a count in beat that is actually exportable on the mp3. I've been having to add a couple count in measures with bass notes instead of metronome beats to everything for our string ensemble rehearsal pieces. That's a dozen people individually rehearsing these pieces who struggle to hit the play button and bring the bow back to the first note. Pretty essential in both performance and rehearsal to have some kind of count in!

In reply to by ArtInvent

Agree!
I use this count in feature all the time when playing with others online so prefer MuseScore 3. However I have had to download MuseScore 4 to be able to use newer scores. My main issue is that my MacBook only allows one default for opening MuseScore files and keeping it as MuseScore 3 doesn't work for MuseScore 4 files. Or is there an answer I have missed?

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