Sound card and quality of the produced sound
I am looking for the best sounds I can have when Musescore is playing, therefore the question: does PC sound card influence the sound quality, And if yes, which one would you recommend?
To this I must add that I am much interested into the export function, so the same question applies here, if the quality of the produced wav, mp3 is also influenced by which sound card is the PC using.
Thank you!
Comments
Not familiar with sound cards, so maybe not really your question, but @Peter Schaffter published some years ago a online paper about midi orchestration: https://musescore.org/en/node/195451. Maybe more important than the sound card for quality.
I couldn't say for sure about MuseScore. Other notation software that I know of does not involve the sound card in export. Export does not play the file. Neither does making a copy of an mp3.
Do you have a particular score in mind that you feel could sound better? Maybe it has been scored very simply without much use of dynamics or phrasing – like most of my scores.
Are you talking about full orchestral scores, small ensembles, piano solos, guitar pieces, something else? There are free soundfonts available which may sound significantly better than MS's built-in offering. They are easy to install but which would suit you may depend on the instruments that you listen to.
If the above has been taken care of then it might be worth trying a better soundcard but I'm not convinced. Maybe you have a friend who could let you hear MS with a better soundcard and see if it would be money well spent.
Try this score through headphones. To me it sounds pretty good; gets my foot tapping and doesn't sound mechanical. It's not mine but one of my recent favourites:
https://musescore.com/piano/12-canon-in-d-variation
Check out dynamics in the MS handbook:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/dynamics
Check out this article on phrasing:
https://musescore.com/bsg/phrasing
These sites have some nice soundfonts:
https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/
https://www.hedsound.com/
In reply to Do you have a particular… by yonah_ag
Well, thank you, I found some nice fonts. But, is it possible to use 2 or more fonts in the same song, that some instruments get their sound from font a and others from font b? That would be great!
In reply to Well, thank you, I found… by bach_leipzig
Yes. (You could also build your own font from your preferred presets. See https://www.polyphone-soundfonts.com/)
If you have a local, specialist computer shop then you could take your headphones and ask to hear a score that you know well being played on a PC with a good soundcard. When they see that you are serious about buying a soundcard if the quality proves worth the cost then I'm sure they'll be helpful. You wouldn't need to install MS, just play the score online.
And to answer the first part of your question, better than onboard sound will make a difference in playback. But pretty much only on your computer. Sample and bit rate can help with export. Plus you might be able to fix some EQ problems in other software. But in some ways you can't really control what others hear when they play your music. It might get played through laptop speakers. Or on a phone. Maybe nice speakers or earbuds. It's going to sound different on each one.
Thank you for all your replies, they are very helpful.
Any suggestion about a competitive sound card, which might improve the export quality?
In reply to Thank you for all your… by bach_leipzig
None does. The audio export quality is not related to the soundcard at all
In reply to Thank you for all your… by bach_leipzig
bach_leipzig: Do you find that the export quality is much different to the playback quality? I find them very similar even though export does not depend on the soundcard.
In reply to Do you find that the export… by yonah_ag
The only way to test it is to export in another PC which has an expensive sound card on it. Of course at the same machine it sounds the same in both ways. Anyway, if at all, it would be a minimal difference as I understand it from the replies here. I still wonder why do very expensive sound cards exist. I thought they are targeting professional musicians who want to export their music.
In reply to The only way to test it is… by bach_leipzig
Are you actually perceiving any quality problems with your current setup or just interested to find out what a better soundcard can do? If the latter then visit a specialist computer shop and do some testing. The soundcard is all about playback.
In reply to You can test your exports on… by yonah_ag
I write music for real instruments and I wish that the sound is as close to them as possible. Between several thoughts and research, I also try to find out whether an investment on a sound card would help or not.
Not to my ears, but to those of others. Meaning that when I upload the file on the internet the casual visitor will enjoy better quality (in this case meaning closer to real sounds maybe?)
Apparently it is not so relevant to the sound card.
In reply to I write music for real… by bach_leipzig
If it is real important to you then you might look at purchasing a sound font. They almost all have demos so you can pick one that's good. One thing to remember is that the quality of any computer generated score will never match a live performance.
In reply to I write music for real… by bach_leipzig
For more realism you need to be looking at VST rather than Soundfont technology and it looks like this will be supported in MS4.
https://musescore.org/en/MuseScore4
We don't know how relevant the soundcard is since no-one has done any testing: we're just best guessing. Internet users may not enjoy better sound quality than you since so many computers now use on-board sound.
In reply to I write music for real… by bach_leipzig
Yes, the quality of an audio file in uncompressed format that you create with export in Musescore software is only related to the soundfont used. And if you are exporting to a compressed audio format, the quality you will get is also closely related to the compression ratio setting used by the exported file format.
But there are other factors:
You never know if the user is listening with a high quality sound card or a poor quality sound card. Also, you can't guess whether the user is using a good speaker / headphone or a cheap listening device.
For example: A bass instrument that I listen to in my headphones with exquisite quality can give a rattling and humming sound on another listener's desktop speakers.
Because there are users who listen with a poor quality earphone in one ear, and those who listen with a quality stereo speakers or also those who listen by hearing a very small bass frequency from the mono speaker of their mobile phone, etc...
There is no choice but to hope that they are using good or average quality (stereo) headphones / speakers.
In reply to The only way to test it is… by bach_leipzig
As long as export their music means to save them in a file, the very expensive sound cards doesn't play any role.
It does though when it comes to actually let those files (or programs) sound, go to the speakers.
And it does when it comes to recording, like from a mike.
In reply to As long as export their… by Jojo-Schmitz
Would the quality of exported data be high enough for differences to be heard between soundcards?
In reply to Would the quality of… by yonah_ag
Depends on the soundfont and export method and settings I guess
In reply to Depends on the soundfont and… by Jojo-Schmitz
So bach_leipzig really needs to make a high quality export then go test it on a PC with a good soundcard.
In reply to So bach_leipzig really needs… by yonah_ag
Not necessarily. The sound coming from the pc with the good sound card is going to be affected more by the sound card than by the file. A better test would be for the pc with the sound card to make two exports. One using the card and one using onboard sound. Then play them on a different pc with onboard sound only. I would be surprised if there was enough difference to worry about. Again, the purpose of the card is to work with sound that is produced by the device in which it is installed. Output, not export.
In reply to Not necessarily. The sound… by bobjp
Again: Exporting to audio files (from MuseScore) does not touch the soundcard at all!
In reply to Not necessarily. The sound… by bobjp
@bobjp: No, the export will NOT be affected by the soundcard.
1) Make ONE export from any computer running MuseScore. Make it a WAV file for best quality.
2) Copy the wav file to a memory stick NOT to a CD or DVD
2) Use a good pair of headphones
3) Playback this WAV file from stick using the same headphones on a computer with integrated sound and one with a dedicated soundcard. Ideally plug in round the back of each computer for most direct connection.
This will let you hear the differences between the sound systems as you will be comparing sound output from an identical source through identical speakers, (i.e. your headphones). Then you will be able to decide whether it's worth the investment. (I'd be interested to know the result myself but I'm guessing that it will be negligible.)
In reply to No, the export will NOT be… by yonah_ag
I think a better test would be to play the file on the same computer. Once with the sound card active, and once without the sound card (onboard). It would also depend on what the wav file is. Something with wide frequency and volume changes might be good.
In reply to I think a better test would… by bobjp
I don't think that the data route from USB stick to soundcard or soundchip is going to make any difference as it's all in the digital domain. It's really only the DAC that's going to affect things, maybe a small effect from higher quality connectors on a good soundcard. (This is why I said no CD/DVD drive since the optics can make a difference, e.g. a dusty laser.)
It would certainly be useful to listen to something with wide ranging dynamics and frequency.