Problem with Pan in Mixer

• Nov 11, 2013 - 08:15

I'm trying to score an aid for rehearsal, for the choir I sing in. I entered only the Tenors and Soprano parts. I thought I would use "Pan" to put the Sopranos in the left channel, the Tenors in the right. Pan isn't working correctly. The sopranos are singing by themselves, but there's a lot of soprano mixed with the tenor. (I might have gotten the right and left sides mixed up. Can't remember.)

This is on Macintosh, OS 10.8.5. Is it a known problem?

Cheers

Comments

• Nov 11, 2013 - 18:14

I'm using 1.3 on Windows 7 and hear that a pan effect is there but pretty weak. If I turn the pan knob to its extreme ends, I'd expect the opposite side to become complete silent, which it does not.
And it isn't any different in the latest nightly build (9b3abfa), so might be work being reported as a bug in the issue tracker.

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• Jun 6, 2015 - 07:04

Thanks Marc

Instruction to produce Bug:
Start MuseScore
Connect MuseScore via Jack
Load Reunion Sample
Set Mixer/Pan to 0% (full left)
Play

Result:
Bleed to the right Channel is felt 30%

Settings:
XUbuntu 14.04
MS 2.0.0 Rev 6e47f74
Jack Audio Version: 0.3.10 Build: Jun 4 2013 05:45:17
Sample: Reunion (default)
Sound: Yamaha Grand Piano (default)
Synthesizer: FluidR3Mono_GM.sf3 (default)

Mixer:
Vol 75%,
Pan 0% (full left)
Rev 0%
Cho 0%

Check:
Pancontrol of Os (Audacious) works correct: no hearable bleeding.

Reply

• Jun 6, 2015 - 09:07

I strongly suggest you look at the issue log for #24019: Fluidsynth requires pan modulator to be set to 100% to allow panning to extreme left and right which will shed some light on the history of the problem and explain why 1.3 panning is as it is.

All I can say is that panning now works properly in Windows in MuseScore 2.x, and any signal coming from the opposite speaker when the pan control is set hard left or right is from the Zita reverb, which is what you would expect. If you want a completely silent opposite speaker you have to remove the Zita reverb from the effect chain.

Given that Fluidsynth has been patched I can't see that a Xubuntu build should behave any differently, but then Linux is LInux!

HTH

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• Jun 9, 2015 - 09:24

Given that the problem is still there in 1.3 I find it peculiar that you should wish to abandon all the advantages of MuseScore 2.

The version of Fluidsynth in MuseScore 2 has been patched. It is also quite heavily customised to work with MuseScore, so replacing it from Fluidsynth's Sourceforge repository is not going to help.

As explained in the issue tracker any bleed into the opposite channel is coming from the Zita Reverb, which is perfectly expected behaviour.

If you want zero bleed into the opposite channel remove the ZIta reverb from the effects buss.

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• Jun 10, 2015 - 13:54

Thank you ChurchOrganist
Ahh - no: The problem is not there in MS 1.3
Running Ubuntu Studio 14.04, default installation with MS 1.3, the problem does not occur and Zita is installed.

Ahh - yes: I would certainly prefer to use MS 2.0
However I need a a halfway functional pan control (-30 dB would be acceptable).
Right now I can only achieve about 50% (appx -6 dB)
I am still looking for a workaround.

I think Zita is not the problem because Zita is not installed.
I think the problem is what you stated back in August 2014:
"The Fluid team have forgotten that this is a bipolar controller and have given it a default value of half its range - 500 instead of 1000
Consequently the synth, although capable of responding to the full range of Panpot messages is currently only using half the range because the default heas been set too low."
https://musescore.org/en/node/24019

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• Jun 10, 2015 - 15:22

I'm confused by your statement. 1.3 didn't use Zita, how you could you have Zita installed in 1.3? And Zita is *always* installed with 2.0. Do you mean, in MuseScore 2.0, you have gone to View / Snynthesizer / Master Effects and set the effect to No effect, thus *bypassing* it? If so, then this should have worked, and does for me, also on Ubuntu Studio 14.04. But I'm not trying to use Jack.

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• Jun 10, 2015 - 16:05

I can assure you the problem is there in 1.3

It was not addressed until well into the development builds of MuseScore 2.

The 1.3 implementation of FluidSynth is not patched like the implementation in MuseScore 2.

As for Zita not causing the problem - I, together, with a few other people were responsible for identifying and correcting this problem, so I do know what I'm talking about.

Have you tried removing the Zita reverb from the effects buss?

Have you even tried modifying the wet/dry mix?

You shouldn't expect results if you don't even try to follow the advice given.

You are free to choose to ignore advice given to you here, but you then run the risk of being ignored yourself next time you want help.

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