Volume control - MacOS Catalina - MS 3.6.2

• Apr 16, 2021 - 07:44

This morning I tried to play a MuseScore file in version 3.6.2. It was loud and I was using headphones. I tried to reduce the volume using the standard MacOS keyboard controls - but they didn't seem to work.

Then I noticed that the Mixer was open, so could turn down the volume from there.
I tried turning off the Mixer to see if that would return loudness control to the keyboard, but it didn't.

Is this known or deliberate? I haven't noticed a problem before now - though I don't think my software has changed.

Is it possible for a musescore file to change the way that volume controls work? The mute button on the keyboard doesn't work either - which is undesirable if music is very loud. Users need a quick way to turn things down. I'm surprised at this.


Comments

I think I solved this - though I don't quite know how this happened. It's probably not a MuseScore problem.

Yesterday I created some really huge files - one was over 60 Gbytes - (yes Gbytes) - while doing some video ediiting/creation. I'm not sure if that had an affect on the system. Also I used headphones quite a bit, and the sound settings in MacOS might have got changed - though they shouldn't have as I've been using wired headphones.

What appears to have happened is that the sound output somehow got set to send output to Bluetooth headphones - though how and why that happened I don't know.

Resetting the sound output - in my current case to the headphone port - restores the volume control of MuseScore to the keyboard.

Over the last couple of days I used Final Cut Pro extensively, and Quicktime Player in order to make a screen recording, as well as a photo editing package. It's possible that one of those altered the settings.

In reply to by dave2020X

I'm trying to follow this.

So you tried to play something in MuseScore that was really loud. I think the default setting for the master volume slider is right in the middle. Do you remember where the slider was before you changed it. I think the mixer volume is tied to the software and not to the OS. When I change the volume in the mixer, it does not change the system volume. This would be the way I would want it. I turn the mixer on and off as I need it. Otherwise it just takes up space. Same with the synthesizer and inspector. All three are off 95% of the time.
You said you were using wired headphones, but then the output somehow got changed to bluetooth? Have you ever had bluetooth headphones? What was the API? I know audio routing on a mac can be a challenge sometimes.
Was MuseScore open while you were using the other programs?

In reply to by bobjp

I believe that my last post explained some of the issues, and that the problem most likely didn't originate with MuseScore. Most likely things got changed by other software I was using - though as I did quite a lot over the last few days it's not possible to be more precise. I also just noticed that I appear to have installed something to control the sound on a Roku video stick, which we bought and attached to one of our TVs a couple of days ago.
Why I have to have control for that on our computer I don't really know, but I needed to get into the Roku site in order to install the video stick and link it to the TV.

Lastly I watched Marc's session on Thursday afternoon via Youtube, and the volume level was too low, so I put the volume up opn the computer. Other people also said that the volume of Marc's talk was low at times - so I don't think that was just my issue. The higher volume I noted the following morning might have been due to that. However the most likely causes were due to other software.

You are right that audio on Macs can be tricky - though it depends on what sofware is to be used and what equipment connected. I do have bluetooth headphones, but often they don't work well, and I've not used them on this computer recently.

You also asked whether MS was open when I used other programs. The answer to that is "probably yes" - this computer doesn't get switched off too often, and I often leave programs running or "idle" in the background, though not necessarily continuousy. If I notice problems with the computer due to other programs I'm not using, I usually actively shut those down, but I don't do it unless there are problems.

In reply to by dave2020X

What follows is my own personal preference.
10 or 12 years ago the argument could still be made that computers could, and maybe should, be left on all the time. Servers work that way. Why not home computers? It was said that you could wear out the power button if you turned the computer off too often. Besides, it took 2 or 3 minutes to start up. Then there was the problem of the components cooling down too much. Then you have to shut down all the software, then open it up after a start up. You might fry the HDD. Less time consuming to just leave it on. Until, that is, something goes wrong.

Long story short, in my experience, this is all poppy-cock.

The longer your computer is on, the more temporary files it collects. After a few weeks the computer can slow down, or conflicts can and do arise. People buy Macs because they seem to handle some of these things better. But problems still come up. If you have a newer Macbook Pro, you have solid state drive technology. That means they start and shut down very fast. Even my 6 year old PC with a SSD boots to the desktop in 17 seconds. Big programs load and work very fast. My wife demos educational tech. The way she puts it is like this: Turn it all the off and let it think about its sins for a few minutes. Then start it back up.

I've had a fan fail. And a couple of HDD's. In a little over 22 years. It's easy to get data off of a failed drive. Never had a power button fail. I turn off my computers every night because they have a lot of sins to think about. A lot of unneeded stuff gets cleared out.

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