Tied notes are shorter than they should be

• Apr 18, 2011 - 00:58

When I tie two notes they sound like a single, tied note and not like two notes in succession. However, the tied note often ends before its full duration has sounded. Long, sustained notes end too soon and syncopated, 8th note passages sound choppy if ties are involved.

Is there a way to rectify this problem?


Comments

After some experimenting, the problem only seems to occur when I use the 'swing' function. If set to 'straight' then the ties sound correctly. I don't want to rewrite everything in 12/8, so is there a fix?

In reply to by Gerry_

I think I see what you mean. It's subtle, but it definitely doesn't come off as being quite as legato when using the "Swing" feel. I can submit as issue for you.

I'd say, though, that if you're changing the notation to get it to playback correctly, you're probably using the wrong program. MuseScore is first and foremost a notation program. It's goal is to help you produce the notation you want, with playback being something of an afterthought. If your primary goal is to get the playback you want, with notation being the afterthought - and the fact that you're willing to produce more awkward notation in order to get the playback you want suggests this is true - then you're better off using a MIDI sequencer that gives finer controls over such details. You might use MuseScore to get the basic notes in place, then find another program to tweak the playback.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

On further investigation, it looks like this is already fixed in the (unstable) nightly builds for the next version.

As a workaround meanwhile, rather than write out triplets, you can also get smoother playback by writing quarter notes instead of two tied eighths, even though the latter is indeed preferable when writing syncopated rhythms like yours. Obviously, that doesn't help if the note ties across a barline, but I also find that the playback isn't as bad in those cases.

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