MuseScore 3 "double sound"

• Jan 5, 2019 - 22:07

When I wrote a piece last night, everything I did was all fine and dandy, and it played back correctly. Coming back to it today, when I play it back, it plays every note twice, almost as if there's two identical pieces playing, one an eighth of a second behind the other. Is this a bug or did I do something?

Edit: This happens on every piece of music I playback. It's always an eighth of a second, no matter what tempo I change the piece to.


Comments

You would have to attach you score for us to see if you did something wrong. Please include a list of sound fonts you have loaded.

In reply to by mike320

The soundfonts I have are:
GeneralUser GS MuseScore v1.442.sf2
MuseScore_General.sf3
The problem persists if I have only one of them loaded at a time, but not if I remove both. Then it's these TERRIBLE midi sounds during playback, which I assume is the default if no soundfonts are loaded. Attached is a screenshot of each page along with two .mscz files, the piece in the PNGs and another one I tested sound on (it has the same problem).

In reply to by jacobcshort78

We're both on windows (I'm using 10) and the same MuseScore version but I don't hear it. I'm guessing this is true of all score being played on MuseScore 3, but not in version 2. If so, I suspect it has to do with your sound card. Version 3 is 64 bit and version 2 was 32 bit. This may affect your sound card. If you tell us which sound card you use and make sure your sound card driver is up-to-date someone might have experience with it that could help you.

In reply to by mike320

So, uh... I'm a massive PC Enthusiast, but I'm also 15, which means whatever my parents happen to choose is what I use. I have an HP AIO running Windows 10 (24-g018) and the soundcard is the Realtek ALC3252, running driver version 6.0.1.8459. This doesn't seem to be the problem, however, because for about a week and a half I've been running 3.0 just fine. There haven't been any system updates between yesterday and today, but I checked for updates just now and my Windows version is out of date. I'll update it and reply with whether it helped or not.

I had a similar issue in my Musescore 2 (last version). I was using the sounds of the synthetizer at the same time of the MIDI sounds of the soundcard. You must choose one of these two sounds. To use the synth sounffont sound try setting the MIDI output to a unusued port of your system (do not set to your card midi sounds). Or, alternatively, use your MIDI card sounds, set the synthetizer volume to zero.

I'm experiencing a very similar thing. Whenever I start MuseScore (v3.5.0 on Windows 10 v1909) and do anything that would play a sound (note entry, clicking on an existing note, playback, etc) then I hear this doubled sound (almost like a slap-back echo effect).

But if I go to Edit | Preferences, click the I/O tab and press the Restart Audio and MIDI Devices button then the problem goes away. I've included a screen shot of the I/O tab contents -- it strikes me as pretty vanilla in its settings, but I will note that I do have other devices available on my system (an ASIO based audio interface) but the doubled sound is coming through my primary sound device (the other device uses a separate set of speakers).

This happens consistently, as if the startup/initialization of MuseScore is missing some initialization of the primary sound output for Windows DirectSound which can only be triggered via this I/O tab "Restart" button.

Attachment Size
IO Preferences.png 35.61 KB

In reply to by thomaswb

Could it be that the soundfont isn't completely loaded yet for you at that point?

Meaning, does the same happen if you start MuseScore but then wait a couple of minutes (say 5mins if you only have the default soundfont) to ensure it is loaded completely and only then perform the first action in the score that plays a sound?

In reply to by jeetee

I gave that a try, but no joy... same symptoms. Plus, I can Restart the audio via Preferences in well under a minute and get rid of the problem immediately. It really seems that there is some initialization done by the Restart that needs to also be done during app startup.

Plus, minutes to wait for initialization? I could see a handful of seconds perhaps, if even, but minutes would be an eternity for all this stuff.

In reply to by thomaswb

> Plus, minutes to wait for initialization? I could see a handful of seconds perhaps, if even, but minutes would be an eternity for all this stuff.

On my laptop, loading the default sf3 soundfont takes around 40s. So the "minutes" is not that much of an unreal time if you want to make sure the decompression is entirely done and rule that out as a root cause.

In reply to by jeetee

OK, well, I waited 5 min. and the symptoms still exist. I kept waiting for a total of 10 min. with the same symptoms. Again, the instant I "Restart" the audio via Edit | Preferences, the symptom goes away even if I do this immediately upon app startup which should not work if I'm experiencing a multi-minute lag for initialization of soundfonts.

BTW, I do not have any added soundfonts so should only be loading MuseScore_General.sf3 from the program folder. With only one soundfont in play, would this echo-effect still be expected if I'm experience slow soundfont initialization or would it be more of a delay before any sound is produced at all??

In reply to by thomaswb

So far the cause of "this echo-effect" is unknown and the effect is by normal standards not expected. Slow soundfont initialization should only result in a delay before sound is produced.

But we are in a situation where the cause is unknown.. exploring different causation paths is part of the process. It was an unlikely chance that this would be the cause, but now it can be ruled out entirely.

In reply to by jeetee

Understood!

I'm certain that the issue has something to do with my configuration, I'm just not sure what and the fact that it's resolved by performing the "Restart Audio and MIDI Devices" action indicates (to me at least) that there is likely some system/device/internal initialization that could be done at app startup but isn't currently being done (or is being undone by some other event during app startup).

I have a Steinberg UR22mkII audio interface connected via USB and have the Yamaha/Steinberg ASIO driver installed for it. I also have an older MIDI-to-USB cable connected (to the computer but not currently to any MIDI device). However, I have not (as you can see from the prior screen shot) configured MuseScore for any MIDI in or out devices. This audio interface is connected to a different set of monitoring speakers though and they are not being driven by this -- the doubled output comes on my computer system speakers.

The "echo effect" is, at a guess, due to the sound output being sent to multiple drivers which route back to my primary system speakers and there must be a noticeable lag (50-100ms) between the drivers.

Any updates on this midi "Slap back" problem? I also found that [Restart Audio and MIDI Devices] in preferences stops the problem (Same as Thomaswb). I also believe this first started after a Windows 10 update. I have an external midi card, but it's not accessed by Musescore. Musescore is using "MME" and "Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output." Once the audio/midi is reset, no more problems until Musescore is started again. I can run MuseScore 2 and the problem never happens.

In reply to by easteelreath

Update. I tried every combination of MIDI in/outs in the I/O tab of preferences and finally got the double notes to stop without having to "Restart the Audio and MIDI Devices." It stopped when there was nothing in the "MIDI Output" Tab. Still, I'm not sure why Musescore 2 never had the problem.

I have the same issue (several times at random) with MuseScore 4 - never had this problem with MS3.
I tried all the "solutions", no luck. MS4 does not have a "reset MIDI" button, in fact the preferences are just simple.
I have no MIDI device, and the IO MIDI preferences just read "No device". There are no other options in the dropdown - see attachment.
I thought on some interference of MuseHub - I closed it and the issue did not show for a while, but now it is back - though not in all measures.
Software:
- Windows 10 Pro 21H2 compile 19044.2604 Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0
- Musescore Help capture:
--- OS: Windows 10 Version 2009,
--- Arch.: x86_64,
--- MuseScore version (64-bit): 4.0.1-230121751,
--- revision: 9b70a8c
--- Qt version 5.15.2
Note: Help->Check for update cannot connect to server (???)
I am uploading the score too, but I am quite sure it is not the problem as my other scores have the same issue. If I open a MS3 score, I have the same issue with MS4 but it does not happen if I open the score with MS3.

BTW1: to capture the screenshots I changed the language and when re-opening MS4 it went through the 1st-time install dialogs and lost my "recent files" list!
BTW2: I hope some day MS4 will be as great as MS3!

Attachment Size
MS4 IO preferences.png 41.49 KB
Chaco y monte.mscz 32.67 KB

In reply to by easteelreath

Thank you easteelreath.
Please note that I am using MS4 and there are not so many options (e.g. no "API" choice). No MIDI devices are shown. And there is no restart button (I uploaded a capture in my previouse message).
Did you try the MS4 score I attached to my message? Does it sound ok for you?
/jorge

In reply to by rehmurphy

Sounds like you probably have a loop in our MIDI configurations - MIDi output being sent to a program that is then either playing that itself or sending it back as input etc. In order to assist, we'd need to know more about your uniue configuration - what OS you are on, what MIDI devices and software is installed and running, what settings you have in Edit / Preferences / IO, etc.

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