MuseScore 4 is Unusably Laggy - Optimization?
It's tough to say this because I have been anticipating MuseScore 4 for a very long time now, and I'm thrilled about the new layout, tons of improvements and changes, and just an overall better piece of software. But for me, as someone who primary works on 20+ part symphony scores, this version simply will not run acceptably on my computer. I have a very new laptop with an Intel Core i9 and 32g of RAM, but that wont cut it. The score plays with an jarring amount of popping a crackling, and at about 75% of the speed it's supposed to be playing. The program also runs much slower in general. The 'clicking an element and then waiting 3 seconds for anything to happen' reminds me of trying to write huge scores in Noteflight. Until the program can deal with large scores like these, I'm going to have to go back to MuseScore 3.6.
Any optimization suggestions would be very welcome, I haven't been able to find any on my own.
Comments
This has been noticed for a while. It was been in Github https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/14693 and https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/14546 , if we are speaking of the same issue. I have another post in this forum about this same issue with large scores.
There is a 'todo' scheduled to investigate and improve performance, so perhaps when they have time it will help.
I was having severe issues, until yesterday, when a forced update of my Windows 10 was performed. Remarkably, the zoom and panning is now much improved. My MS4 is still having trouble switching instrument track visibility. It takes a long time to show or hide instruments, when editing my 200 measure 16 part score.
All I can suggest is get the Windows 10 update (if you use it) and wait until the optimization is studied.
I do have a question for the engineers -- is Musescore 4 multi thread capable and to use all available system memory? I have a big computer and Musescore just doesn't seem to be using much of it. Are there any buffers or resource configurations I can adjust?
In reply to This has been noticed for a… by Chris_Clawson
It is multi-threading and MuseSampler seems to be as well, but it also doesn't seem memory intensive and rather streaming from disk. You can increase the buffer size for MS4 in Edit > Preferences > I/O but for MuseSampler it seems the CPU is currently the bottleneck.
In reply to It is multi-threading and… by jeetee
I think the biggest issue is the lack of actual options for playback/IO. There's also no support for ASIO. It's only using 30 percent of my cpu but still seems to be bottlenecking so I don't think it's using all of the cores, I have 8 cores 16 threads. really shouldn't be getting half-second delays when I click on something when it isn't using that much of my cpu...
In reply to I think the biggest issue is… by mnmwert
same
In reply to It is multi-threading and… by jeetee
thank you so much, helped alot.
I'm glad that I didn't delete my MS 3.6. For writting music from midi keyboard is way much better than 4.0
I hope MS 4.0 will have quick update with full asio support (just like 3.6 had)
Having a similar issue, I tried loading up an orchestral score I was working on in 3.6 and the whole thing is so laggy the playback barely works, much less trying to write. For reference working with 16 gigs of ram and a 6-core processor. Sometimes spiking but mostly getting usage around 30-50%
Also experiencing a lot of lag at the moment on Windows 10. Very noticeable once I try searching for something in palettes, half the time my inputs are triggering keyboard shortcuts and cancelling the search, and the other half it's just unresponsive. I don't remember it being slow when I first installed though. I also run Musescore AND Ableton at the same time, so that could potentially cause problems.
In reply to Also experiencing a lot of… by fofx
Getting really bad lag on Windows 10 as well. I tried restarting my computer and ran nothing but MuseScore 4 but I still got the same amount of lag. Not much help but I figured a bit more information can't hurt
In reply to Getting really bad lag on… by millskl
Al you need to do is go to preferences in the edit tab, then go to io, then change buffer size to max. It will load way quicker and no static
Slowest bit of UI I've seen is the Format > Style dialog, where I can count to 20 before it appears. This is with one score open on Windows 11 16GB i7 (12th gen).
It does not get faster on subsequent attempts. Since it's a modal dialog which often requires multiple visits it's particularly taxing.
Hello Guys!
Before we see the fix for the ASIO system, I suggest a simple way to work around the problem (maybe not perfect, but it works and can be used as in MS3.6)
I assume that anyone who has a latency problem has an external audio interface (FocusRite, Behringer, Steinberg, etc.)
Connect the midi keyboard to the interface.
Run any VST instrument in the background (e.g. Sampletank) and set it to play from the interface
Set Musescore to be played from the computer's built-in sound card (e.g. High definition audio device)
By typing music, mute the internal card with the windows mixer and listen from the ASIO interface.
Playing with Musescore unmute built-in sound card :)
I know it's a bit weird and it's better that MS4.0 has built-in ASIO but you have to deal with it.
P.S.
Fortunately, I have an external Alesis mixer, so when I enter music, I mute the internal one and when I listen, I turn the sound back on.
I hope I helped and that you will be able to use MS4.0 fully before we see a working ASIO API.
Regards
David (TipyPata)
The click and wait 3 seconds issue exists even for those starting a piano score. I think 80% of my crashes are due to entering notes faster than the layout engine can handle.
None of the optimisations regarding audio components are relevant at this point.
My advice would be to notate in 3.6 and then bring to 4 for final layout and shaping improvements.
One thing you can do to help make it a bit more zippy is to add MuseScore to the exclusions in your antivirus settings. You might be amazed how much this can improve performance on many different applications, although you would want to use this method sparingly.
Я удалил 4 версию и установил старую 3.6
4 версия тормозит: выделяешь ноту, ждёшь 3 секунды, потом она только выделяется.
работаю с нотами где всего лишь одна партия.
у меня свежая версия win 10 64, ssd, 8 gb, 8 core.
I deleted version 4 and installed the old 3.6
Version 4 slows down: select a note, wait 3 seconds, then it only stands out.
I work with notes where there is only one batch.
I have a fresh version of win 10 64, ssd, 8 gb, 8 core
?
you say you have a very new laptop with an Intel Core i9 and 32g of RAM
My laptop is from 2016, has 12 gb of ddr3, an i7-7500U (that's 2 cores at 2.7 GHZ!) and it's working fine.
Hi!!! I think I found the solution for the editing laggy, here is the theory:
Did you notice that when you save your progress, the program takes a while before you can continue editing? Well, this is the reason you may be lagging.
Check the next:
Edit - Preferences - General - Automatic Save
Turn off automatic save or turn it every 15 or 30 minutes instead of 3.
Same here. It's currently using 1.5 GB of RAM (which is okay on my 16GB RAM computer). Inputting notes is very tedious, though, as it always takes half a second to display it. It also blows the fan really hard while "displaying".