Big trouble with MuseScore 2

• May 31, 2015 - 23:13

Dear MuseScore:

I have worked for years with MuseScore and used the last two years MuseScore 1.3 to my satisfaction. More than 200 works written with MuseScore are published in PDF, MIDI and MP3 format at www.free-scores.com under my name: Henry Pool. Have a look.

Now, on your advice, I downloaded MuseScore 2, trusting you, that this would be an improvement. I was so sure of that, that I even deleted MuseScore 1.3 (probably the most stupid thing I ever did). And now I am screwed up, because MuseScore 2 is full of bugs. I just finished writing a movement for a sonata for piano solo and discovered:

1. If I put dynamics in the score, they jump to other places and do not stay, where I want them to stay. I had manually to correct this - a very time consuming business, and that, while I have so little time.
2. I saved the movement as an MSCZ file and wanted to saved it as a PDF file. That doesn't go. With MuseScore 1.3 I would ask for "save as" and would get a drop list with many possibilities like PDF, MIDI, etc. Now I do not get anything. There just is no drop list.
3. The program doesn't read the 8va ---------------- With or without it, the sound is the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. The sound overall doesn't reflect the volume of my speakers. A piano you don't hear. In order to hear the music, I change the instrument to trumpet and ask for ffffff. Only then I can hear the music.
5. With MuseScore 1.3 I used often Ctrl-L. I would get a small screen with dynamics and words like crescendo --------------- and diminuendo --------------. This disappeared entirely. Why?????????

Can you please tell me ASAP, what is going on? My musical career is now seriously in jeopardy because of MuseScore 2!!!!! I have no money, live in poverty, but I may spare some of the money for food and buy the Finale Music Notation Program. Friends have told me, that that is very good. MuseScore 2 will make MuseScore bankrupt, if there isn't any improvement very soon.

Sincerely, Henry Pool.


Comments

Let me resubmit your post:

1. If I put dynamics in the score, they jump to other places and do not stay, where I want them to stay. I had manually to correct this - a very time consuming business, and that, while I have so little time.
2. I saved the movement as an MSCZ file and wanted to saved it as a PDF file. That doesn't go. With MuseScore 1.3 I would ask for "save as" and would get a drop list with many possibilities like PDF, MIDI, etc. Now I do not get anything. There just is no drop list.
3. The program doesn't read the 8va ---------------- With or without it, the sound is the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4. The sound overall doesn't reflect the volume of my speakers. A piano you don't hear. In order to hear the music, I change the instrument to trumpet and ask for ffffff. Only then I can hear the music.
5. With MuseScore 1.3 I used often Ctrl-L. I would get a small screen with dynamics and words like crescendo --------------- and diminuendo --------------. This disappeared entirely. Why?????????

This might get a response. The developer of Musescore spend many daily hours on this software and receive only donations as remittance. It takes a few bucks to keep a web site up and running. Kind of hard for them to go bankrupt.

Perhaps a little more thought should have been spent before you placed your post. I hope they will provide guidance on your 5 "questions". Good luck.

*sigh* Thank you, rmwol. So, Mr. Pool:

1. When you first drag a dynamic from the palette onto a score, it will show a dotted line that indicates which measure it will connect to. It will then snap to a predetermined position when you first let go of it. After that, you can reposition it as you wish—ideally using the Inspector instead of dragging with the mouse.

2. Having the option to export a PDF be part of "Save As" in previous versions of MuseScore was okay, but didn't make the most sense. It's far more standard for that kind of thing to be under the "Export" command. So, in MuseScore 2, go to File -> Export… instead of File -> Save As….

3. I don't even know what you're doing wrong, but you're doing something wrong, because 8va plays back perfectly correctly.

4. If you have a problem with the volume, adjust it! That's not what dynamics are for. Go to View -> Synthesizer to raise MuseScore's volume level, or on a case-by-case basis you can adjust it temporarily in View -> Play Panel.

5. Go to View -> Master Palette for all the dynamics you could possibly imagine. For the plain words, those are just text—easy to create with Ctrl+T. If you want to save a certain set of words to access repeatedly, one of MuseScore 2's many new features is the ability to create custom palettes, which I am not going to explain in detail right now.

Next time, please give yourself a few minutes to try to figure things out first, okay?

By the way, Finale lets you download a free trial of the monstrously expensive program. Five gets you ten it takes you several times as long to figure out how to do the five things you mentioned, which would be to add dynamics, export a PDF, add an 8va, adjust Finale's volume… and I'd love to see you try to switch to Finale because MuseScore 2 doesn't have your Ctrl+L the way you're used to!

Sorry if I seem unnecessarily annoyed. Please, on the Internet and in life in general, try not to deliberately be unnecessarily annoying.

Please do return to these forums if you have any more questions, though—just ask in a more respectful manner. No hard feelings, okay? ;-)

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

MuseScore 2.0 was released at the end of March 2015. Understandably, many of us are still 'kicking the tires' on the new release while we transfer our old 1.3 scores to the newer version.
Please be aware that MuseScore 1.3 and MuseScore 2.0 can coexist on the same computer; so, if you prematurely deleted 1.3 and wish it back, you can download a prior version here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mscore/files/mscore/

To answer your issues:
1. Posting a (sample) score showing this behavior along with your procedure for entering dynamics would be helpful.
2. Go to menu item: File / Export where you will see the drop down list to save as pdf, MIDI, etc.
3. Playback of 8 va works for me. (MuseScore 2.0) Again, posting a score might help.
4. The soundfont provided with MuseScore 2.0 is different from 1.3. There has been much discussion on these forums regarding the topic. If you wish, you can use the TimGM6mb soundfont from MuseScore 1.3. You can also try others. See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/36171#list
and
https://musescore.org/en/node/50721
5. Ctrl + L is mostly used to enter lyrics in MuseScore 1.3 and 2.0, Ctrl + T for text.

Here are some additional topics you may need to know about.
For adding symbols to your music, see:
https://musescore.org/en/node/36121
https://musescore.org/en/node/39841
and
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/custom-palettes
The concept of workspace and custom palette is new to 2.0, but worth learning about.

For myself, I realize that MuseScore 1.3 went unchanged for years while 2.0 was being developed. As a result, over those years, many of us have acquired a great deal of proficiency using the older 1.3 version - much like playing a well rehearsed piece of music.
However, sometimes it's good to learn a new tune - even though it may take some practice.

Regards.

(Zack - you're too quick. I'm a slow typist.)

MuseScore 2.0 really is an improvement over 1.3. An absolutely incredible, earth-shatteringly enormous one, in fact. 2.0 has so many hundreds of advances it would take forever to list them all, but for a start, see https://musescore.org/en/whats-new-musescore-2

Anyhow, with so many improvements, there are indeed a couple of adjustments that shouldn't take long for you to make.

1) In 1.3, there was no way to change what note a dynamic marking was attached to. In 2.0, this can be done by dragging. But you probably don't *want* to changew what note it is attached to - you probably just want to fine tune the position. To do this, use the arrow keys and/or the brand new Inspector - your new best friend for many types of manual adjustments. Also be aware that unlike in 1.3, you can now change the default position of text elements using Text Styles, even after already entering elements.

2) As explained, this has simply moved to Export, since this is the industry standard location for this.

3) If you are having trouble with 8va, please start a new thread for that topic specifically, post the score you are having trouble with, and precise step by step instructions to reproduce the problem. Nothing has changed about how this works since 1.3, but perhaps you have simply forgotten that you need to use Shift+right/left rather than dragging to adjust the extent of the marking? That was true in 1.3 and remains true in 2.0.

4) For the same score, the default volume in 2.0 should actually be slightly louder than in 1.3. I suspect you had long ago turned up the volume in the Synthesizer window for 1.3 and forgot you did that. Now you'll just want to do the same for 2.0.

5) You can edit dynamics directly like any other text - just double click and type what you want. And now that MuseScore has customizable palettes, the need for predefined palettes containing every conceivable marking has lessened. Instead, simply create your own custom palette with the markings *you* prefer.

Dear MuseScore:

Thanks for the help. I printed the instructions and already used them successfully. I apologize to everyone, whose feelings I may have hurt. The thing is, after I downloaded MuseScore 2 and worked with it, I tried for a few hours to find solutions for the problems I encountered and got a little panicky. I know, that's not an excuse. I should have restrained myself and asked questions in a more polite way. MuseScore 2 seems indeed to be a great program. Thanks!

Sincerely, Henry Pool.

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