Our Progress on MuseScore 4 - First Alpha Released

• Mar 30, 2022 - 17:00

EDIT: Since we made this announcement, we have made very significant improvements to MuseScore 4. For this reason, we no longer encourage you to test this alpha version. Your best bet is to instead grab the latest nightly build found here: https://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/musescore-nightlies/

Make sure to download the versions under Musescore v4.x (master)

Today, we are releasing the first 'Private' alpha development build for MuseScore 4.

MS4.jpg

What is the purpose of this release?

Although this version is not yet 100% feature complete (details below), its purpose is to begin collecting feedback on the 'core' workflow.

  • Creating new scores
  • Opening older scores and going through the migration process
  • Notating your music
  • Hearing your music being played back
  • Choosing VST instruments and effects
  • Creating and polishing parts
  • Exporting your parts as PDFs
  • Editing the interface and saving your workspaces
  • Using MIDI keyboard interfaces

If you encounter any issues, such as crashes or obvious bugs, please log them here: https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues

Next Steps

When all major issues have been resolved (see the list below), the next step is to release the 'public' alpha version.

After that, we will enter into the beta testing phase once the following work is complete:

  • The new installation process is complete
  • The new orchestral library plugin is ready
  • Uploads to MuseScore.com are working
  • The plugins we wish to package with MS4 are working

What's new? What has been improved?

Numerous engraving improvements

  • Horizontal spacing (with more improvements to come before the beta release)
  • Slurs and ties
  • Beaming
  • A new, heavily revised version of Leland and Leland text
  • A large number of MusicXML import improvements
  • System objects can appear on more than one system (although this is currently only available on certain templates)

For a more comprehensive explanation of the engraving changes in MS4, please see this document.
https://musescore.org/en/node/330793

Multiple workflow improvements
- The Properties panel (formerly the inspector) is now much more responsive and filled with lots of useful options
- The capabilities of the note input bar have been expanded and the toolbar itself is now much easier to customise
- Parts are easier to discover, edit and alter (using the new 'Instruments' panel)
- There is a new Mixer that can quickly be toggled on & off
- VST instruments and effects support

Accessibility improvements
- A new keyboard navigation system that follows best practices to allow users to quickly move around the interface
- Improved screen reader support ( we would greatly appreciate it if people would test this and provide feedback on it)
- An editable high contrast mode

Also
- A new UI with an entirely new icon set, in case you didn't notice!
- A new 'Home' tab which will include multiple tutorials and onboarding videos for MS4
- A new, friendlier onboarding process

Known missing capabilities and issues

  • The default playback may still have some sound mapping issues, where instruments are using incorrect sounds. Please log any issues you discover.

  • There will still be some playback issues, where certain articulations or playback techniques do not sound right. Our aim is to get the default playback to the same level as MuseScore 3 before creating the 'public' alpha release.

  • The final audio mixing of instruments has not yet been attempted. This is because we are about to start plugging in the new orchestral sampler and do not want to set relative global mixing values until it is ready. This will allow us to balance all three potential inputs at the same time: soundfonts, VSTi and the new orchestral library. For this reason, please refrain from logging issues related to dynamic imbalances

  • We have not yet implemented the new playback profiles interface, which allows users to specify their desired default playback. This will be in the public alpha release

  • There are still some issues with VSTi's not being sent velocity and dynamic information. Please log any VST or VSTi issues you encounter on GitHub

  • The ability to export audio files is currently switched off until we complete our playback tasks for the Public alpha release

  • We have not yet implemented the onscreen piano interface. This will be in the Public Alpha build

  • There are still some remaining engraving PRs to be merged. In particular, beams cannot be manually adjusted and cross-staff beams are currently not working. Apart from those, please log all other engraving issues you encounter.

  • Uploads to MuseScore.com will not yet work

  • Users cannot yet specify another soundfont, like Sonatina

  • There will likely be MIDI input issues. Please log anything you find

  • MIDI output from MuseScore 4 is not yet working. Please do not log these issues yet

  • We have also not yet included the plugins that we intend to package with MuseScore 4 (example: harp pedalling). As a result, our current 'Plugins' page doesn't do anything.

  • We do not yet have branding, MS4 icons or a loading screen. These are being worked on right now.

We hope you have fun trying out this first alpha version! We are in the middle of creating a new MS4 handbook and numerous tutorial videos, which will help users (old and new) understand what changes have been made and why. Unfortunately, these are not ready yet, so to a certain extent, your experience of this alpha will be somewhat a voyage of discovery!

Yours,
The MuseScore Team

Comments

• Mar 30, 2022 - 17:38

Awesome! Can you imagine how exhausting it is to load the MuseScore forums several times per day in a thrill of anticipation for the first alpha release, since last October? No? Well, then just imagine my satisfaction putting the first comment here.

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• Mar 30, 2022 - 18:50

How safe is it to edit scores in the alpha? I understand there is some risk since it is still not released, but should I expect any score I edit and save to become corrupted and 100% have a backup or is it decently "safe enough"?

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• Mar 30, 2022 - 19:23

This is called a "private" alpha (not yet beta) build. You will need a GitHub account in order to download.
Common sense dictates that it is not ready for prime time. Use at your own risk. (My personal take is to not use for important work and that having a 100% backup should be a no brainer. I could be wrong, but better safe than sorry.)
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/developers-handbook/comparison-stable…

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• Mar 30, 2022 - 19:37

This is not meant to be used for your regular scoring work. It is an early alpha and most certainly not ready yet :)

However, if you create a copy of your score and open it in MuseScore 4, we'd be very interested in hearing about your experiences.

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• Mar 30, 2022 - 21:48

Thanks for your efforts. I'm still use the latest nightlies from time to time. But what is the best place for an user to report it, when I notice something?
Here: As far I can see the system text properties (for system text in general, swing and maybe other system text items too) are only reachable via right click.
With MuseScore 3.6.2 there was a button at least available inside the inspector (maybe also not the best solution, but better than using right click actions?)

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• Mar 30, 2022 - 22:48

Yep, I'm noticed it by playing around with the swing element. Here I think it should be easily accessible to change the swing settings.
I'm not sure about other system elements, if it would be necessary to take adjustments in the properties dialogue (pizz., arco, if you add a general system text item and so on).
Also that there are also more adjustments in system text properties for some system elements with MuseScore 3.6.2 ("Change channel", "MIDI actions", "Swing settings", "Capo settings"), but not with the development version of MuseScore 4.
But as mentioned in which cases beside swing these dialogue settings could be necessary.

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• Mar 31, 2022 - 08:11

How does one use a VSTi on Linux? I can't see anywhere in Preferences to configure a search path, and nothing's showing up in the Mixer.

Also, I'm not really a fan of the overflow menu on panels; there's plenty of space, and it's really clunky trying to close a panel, particularly with #10219 unfixed.

Attachment Size
Screenshot from 2022-03-31 18-16-50.png 4.83 KB

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• Apr 1, 2022 - 22:25

Getting an unrecognized app warning from windows when trying to install. I assume you haven't code signed the executable yet?

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• Apr 2, 2022 - 10:24

Thanks @jeetee for the help (seems Vital was the issue, other VSTi's worked fine; I'll investigate further). It might be an idea to tell the user about the VST3-only thing in the UI (are there plans for VST2?), as that wasn't intuitive at all.

Two questions:
1. How do I open the VST UI? One would assume that you can click the button next to the dropdown in the mixer, but that doesn't do anything.
2. When using the "MuseScore_General" soundfont, how do you change the sound without replacing the actual instrument, as you can in MU3?

Some feedback (editing this as I play around with it):
- Mixer panel can't be docked to the right - why not? It's vertical and the best spot to put it with limited vertical space.
- The "black flash" issue (#10218) is still reproducible and is getting really annoying.
- "Close" & "Dock" on panels is one extra click, but really adds up over time. Keyboard shortcuts would be good here.
- Selecting a measure doesn't start playback from the start of that measure?
- In the file picker, the enter key is passed through to the score, and doesn't interact with the picker at all.
- I use velocity controls a lot, and am finding that hiding them under the "Playback" is really slowing me down - could there be an option to "flatten" the palette, or even just move "Playback" and "Appearance" to disclosure indicators.
- The "inertia" scrolling is really bad on Linux (#10085). I know this can't be fixed until 4.1 - but it's not nice at all; this could be the deal-breaker for me.
- Semicolons in the keyboard shortcuts could be slightly confusing for new users.

  • It would be nice if you could support pinch-to-zoom on Wayland.

I'll open GitHub issues for these at some point (do you take feature requests like pinch-to-zoom on GitHub?).

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• Apr 3, 2022 - 17:51

I can see the tempo value referenced but apparently there hasn't yet been implemented a way to change it from a slider or something like that.
"You can look but you can't touch."
In MS3, the tempo slider is a bit buggy, a regression from all the way back in 1.x. If you change the tempo when a segment is repeated the second time by the repeat sign and after the repeat, the changes get overly radical and jumpy. https://musescore.org/en/node/313807

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• Apr 3, 2022 - 02:59

I have a suggestion: when the "Score" tab is opened without a score loaded, everything is greyed out and it is quite hard to know what to do next, could there be a big button button to open or create new score?

Or at least have a blank score already opened as MS3 did.

Snímek obrazovky 2022-04-03 v 3.48.11.jpg

The new ui is beautiful! Can't wait to use it regularly :-)

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• Apr 3, 2022 - 04:38

Hey guys im not sure where to post this but please please please add a guitar fretboard note impout like the piano note imput that shows the notes slected on the guitar! also a huge problem is in guitar the same notes can be played in diferent strings and sometimes this guitar fretboards wont adjsut to the voicing on diferent strings

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• Apr 7, 2022 - 19:03

I have a playback issue. But on the Github issue page it's hard to tell if it has already been reported. Playback on my Windows 10 using the Alfa and/or every nightly I've tried, sounds like I'm listening through fan blades. Choppy and gargle like. Hard to describe.

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• Jul 5, 2022 - 09:10

I hear the same issue, I think (among other playback issues that are immediately apparent on the first thing I tried to play). Playback has cracking/popping noises, and also notes are slightly off in their timing, distorting the rhythm and creating a "choppy" feel.

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• Apr 8, 2022 - 12:31

This is my first time using Musescore 4. I am stumbling over the new Properties window.

Firstly I don't really understand the Playback and Appareance sub-windows in the Properties window. They are floating windows behind buttons, rather than tabs. This setup puts some things I use all the time (like note velocity adjustment, crucial if you want playback to sound nice) behind a click but it puts properties I never use (e.g. notehead group) in full view. It's also hard to understand the inconsistency; why are some properties behind buttons and others in collapsible tabs; why have there got to be two different ways to hide advanced settings from the overview?

Then there's the General tab with a weirdly broad scope. E.g. for visibility; when I select a notehead, the visibility checkbox affects the whole chord, including both articulation marks and grace notes, but not the grace note beaming or the slur from grace note to chord.
visibility.png
I gather that those are bugs and the General tab is meant to affect all of those things. But when I want to make invisible only what I have selected, that being the notehead in this case, I need to use Hide notehead under the Note tab. The problem is that that's an element-type-specific setting; which means I cannot select elements of different types (e.g. a few noteheads and a few beams) and make them all invisible with one click or even a press of the V. When I want to make stuff invisible, I must actively think of what kinds of things I am selecting.

Also this setup does not allow me to disable playback for specific notes of a chord, that setting is only available chord-wide (or I would have to make the velocity zero; which I assume will end up with zero-velocity notes in the MIDI output rather than no notes).

If there needs to be a tab for settings of a broader scope than what I have selected, name that one Chord. A tab for settings that are available for elements of many type, such as playback and visibility, is more logically named General.

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• Apr 9, 2022 - 21:23

So pumped! Cannot wait for this transformation of MuseScore. Been using MuseScore since 2019 and have been absolutely loving it! The quality this program offers for being open source is incredible! Thanks for keeping this free and supporting the community as much as you can. Will log any issues I find.

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• Apr 14, 2022 - 21:27

Why is it that I can't open any version of MuseScore on my MacOS Montery 12.2 including this one? I have tried MS3 and this alpha version of MS4 and they both do not work.

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• Apr 14, 2022 - 23:46

It's hard to say without more information, so I recommend asking for help in the official Support forum and including more info - how you are trying to open it, and what specifically goes wrong when you try. Doing so in a new post in the Support forum rather than here will allow your post to seen by tons more people, one of whom might recognize the symptom and be able to provide a solution.

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• Apr 15, 2022 - 06:51

A very small number of users have experienced issues with MuseScore 3.6.x after upgrading Intel Macs to MacOS 12. I have not experienced the issue myself. However I have created #327408: MuseScore 3.6.2 on macOS 12 Monterey startup hang on 'Initializing sequencer and audio driver...' with forum posts linked to it. It is very light on detail and the threads seem to go quiet (for one user it auto-resolved, the other downgraded to MacOS 11).

Especially since you are experiencing the issue on 4.0 Alpha as well, I would strongly recommend you start a new thread in the Support and bug reports forum. The fact that it doesn’t work on 3.x and 4.0 Alpha should be cause for concern for the small number of affected users. It seems that users hope the developers will fix the bug (which they can’t for 4.0 since it is not reproduceable yet) or hope that version 4.0 will work for them (which it may now seem not to be the case). We as a community can also not assist in troubleshooting and fixing (the fix may be a config / setting rather than code) without more information.

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• Apr 16, 2022 - 16:25

Can you be more specific? It's essentially the same default soundfont as 3.6.2, and as far as I can tell, the accordion in particular sounds identical. If you have a specific score where you hear a difference between 3.6.2 and a MuseScore 4 build, best to start a new thread in the Development forum and attach it so people can investigate further.

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• Apr 16, 2022 - 18:38

Regarding default playback issues, all instruments in the woodwind quintet are sounding an octave higher than what is written (Ex: C4 sounding a C5), and at least for oboe and flute the range is off by one octave, which I assume is because of the playback error.

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• Apr 17, 2022 - 12:22

This feature will reappear in one of the next releases. We fully intended to support it in 4.0 until we discovered that it was written in a way for MS3 that could not be ported to MS4. It will require a complete rebuild. We made the call that we should not delay the release to re-implement this feature and should do it instead in a minor release quite soon. Apologies about this.

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• Apr 25, 2022 - 19:10

I feel your sadness. Please see [MU4 Issue] nightly does not run on macOS 10.13 #8858

As per that issue, I cannot see any reason why 10.13 should not work, and the original logic that made us code in this restriction no longer applies, IMHO, since MuseScore 4.0 (at least, we cannot speak for MuseScore 4.1 yet) is and will be based on Qt 5.15.

As soon as that coded restriction is removed, 10.13 will work, whether it is nightly, subsequent alphas, betas or GA.

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• May 1, 2022 - 03:32

Or, possibly dosdude1's patcher for Catalina? Not sure if this is helpful, but for those unsupported Macs (2011 and before) there is a solution to upgrade to at least 10.15 (Catalina). I have installed this version by dosdude1 on an iMac 2009, a 2010 MB Pro and a 2011 MB Pro and they all run flawlessly, even with only 4gig RAM. I will not create a direct link here because my browser warns me it is not a secure site, but this version - with comprehensive instructions - can be found at dosdude1 dot com forward-slash catalina.

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• Apr 27, 2022 - 04:29

I am currently on Windows 10 and for some reason, Musescore 4 is refusing to open no matter what I do. Is this something that people have experienced at all?

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• May 29, 2022 - 19:11

If by "preset" you mean, which specific sound within the soundfont is used for the selected instrument, this is indeed currently not supported. It's not clear yet how this functionality might eventually be added back, although I've seen some suggestions discussions. But for now, it's assumed you'll be changing instruments, not changing sounds, and that your soundfonts will be GM-compatible and thus not require you to select sounds manually.

That's all true if you use soundfonts at all, which as I gather really isn't expected to be something people will still be doing in MuseScore 4. Most people who care about sound quality are expected migrate from using the outdated soundfont technology to VST and/or to the new "Muse Sounds" system that will be released with MuseScore 4. Again, many details still to be decided.

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• May 30, 2022 - 03:19

Indeed, and plenty of other use cases line selecting between the various organ sounds, also dealing with non-GM sound fonts. So hopefully this functionality is implemented before release. Meanwhile, changing instrument will be the way, at least for GM. Actually, even for non-GM, it works for soundfonts containing a single sound.

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• May 6, 2022 - 22:53

I think this is one thing about MuseScore that I find thoroughly epic: a software this sophisticated, this versatile... completely no cost to the end user. For this reason alone I will continue my support of the team with my paltry membership dues. I was considering Dorico only for it's NotePerformer capability, but I see MuseScore so much easier to use it doesn't sort-of make sense: besides, because of Reaper I've acquired a significant (well, low-end-ish) instrument library, much of which I can implement with MS 4. Never a day goes by I don't open MS 3.62 to fiddle a bit with pieces I'm working on, always with a feeling of gratitude.

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• May 12, 2022 - 00:55

Thanks a lot ! Looking forward to Muse 4 !!
Requests:

1) Text like "staccato", "ord", "legato" with the possibility of midi commands, like sending keyswitches, and with a adjust for sending the keyswitching (or CC information) some milliseconds before the note, to change the samples.

https://musescore.org/en/node/304056

It´s a game changer for people that use VSTs with different sounds

2) Custom VST folders (and support for legacy VST 1 and 2) and a bridge for 32bits VSTs.

3) Sequencer with quantize and transport commands ( something like the sequencer of Sonar / Bandlab would be nice ).

Necessary commands for a decent sequencer, with live operation:

a) Record "R"
b) rewind one bar
c) forward one bar
d) select things by keyboard
d.1) keystroke to mark a initial selection
d.2) keystroke to mark an end selection
e) keystroke for quantize dialog with quantize options selection via keyboard (qaurter, quarter triplet, eight, eight triplet, 16th, 16th triplet, etc, with optional custom timebase quantize)
f) Tracks / TImeline interface alternating to notation interface

4) Multiple virtual ports (midi loopback , midi yoke) form more than 16 channels

This issue is very important to mock up larger scores using alternatives to the internal synth sounds. People that use sound libraries and bigger projects (including Big bands) may lack the possibility to use more than one port at the same time to use more than 16 midi channels at the same time.

Best !

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• May 13, 2022 - 00:10

As to virtual ports, I have the impression from looking at the alpha that every staff is meant to connect to its own instance of a VSTi - that is, every staff is a virtual port. This seems unusual enough to make me suppose that either I’ve missed something, or it’s just a matter of the UI being incomplete, but whatever else you can say it solves the shortage of MIDI channels.

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• May 15, 2022 - 16:33

Looks like the playback system is being overhauled. I can't make any sound with MIDI keyboard right now, so I wonder if it will be possible to use sustain pedal in real time (not when "recording") in MS4.

It's a long-wanted feature for me in MS; e.g. if I'm feeling creative and want to experiment something with MIDI keyboard, then, BUMMER! NO PEDAL! Then my creativity is replaced by frustration.

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• May 20, 2022 - 18:37

This is currently being worked on. Note that an MSCZ file is just a ZIP archive, so even if there is no direct MSCX support, you can still edit the MSCX within the MSCZ archive same as always.

Also, if there is a bug where you are needing to resort to MSCX editing, that indicates a problem that's definitely more important to solve than providing the MSCX file in the first place. So be sure there is actual issue report in the tracker for anything where you are resorting to this. The gliss thickness is already logged, but if you know of others, definitely be sure to let people know.

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• May 23, 2022 - 00:22

Not speaking officially, but more wanting to share a perspective on FOSS - which Musescore is: have a look at the github page:

https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore

Unlike corporate-managed (proprietary) software, timelines aren't as important as stable, reliable software, particularly to us FOSS end users. We're talking chalk and cheese: vaguely similar but the philosophy that drives development completely different. So, in the light of that, without wanting to be flippant about it, my answer would be: when it's ready. The software is in Private-Alpha. When developers deem it appropriate, it will go to Public-Alpha.

In the meantime, we have 3.62... and the excitement for MS 4 continues to build. I realise this isn't much of an answer but hopefully it generally aligns with the consensus of all involved with its development.

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• May 27, 2022 - 14:35

These repetitive "when it's ready" responses don't do much good when several months pass without an official update on the release status. Stability is of utmost importance in open source projects, but so is clear communication.

Similarly, linking people to a GitHub repository is of some help to the technically inclined, but of little use to most others. If that's the best that can be offered currently (and I completely understand if that's the case), it would help to simply pin a link to a page like this and refer people back to it:

https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/projects

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• May 27, 2022 - 14:45

Some members of the community may say 'when it's ready' (we don't censure each other). However, this has not been something I've said.

What I can tell you is that this 'private' alpha was a way of communicating an early stage of the release process for MS4, so people knew where were at. Also, this announcement was at the very end of March - so a pretty recent communication.

About the installation - this release is not intended for the general public. When we release a version intended for the general public, we will make it more accessible.

For now, I would imagine the 'proper' alpha will be ready in around a month.

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• May 27, 2022 - 16:38

A couple of other things to clarify:

1) The link given here in the comment I am responding to is a generic one to a particular place within the repository where certain milestones are being tracked, but it's not especially useful to non-developers. It's definitely less useful than the direct links to the private alpha in the original post.

2) The private alpha is not a link to "GitHub repository", at least not in the sense you might be thinking. The link is to a ZIP file containing an actual installer for your OS that you can run directly like any other program. So it doesn't require you to install "git" or learn to build MsueScore form source or anything like that. It just requires you to have an account on GitHub in order to download the file, which is no more involved than creating an account on any other free site, like this one or Yelp or whatever. Once you create the account, the private alpha is simply to install - download the ZIp, extract the installer, run it normally.

3) The private alpha is actually not the best that can be offered currently. Anyone can access the latest and greatest build via the Download menu at the top of this site; not GitHub account required. Just click Software and scroll down to the bottom of the page where you see "Development builds". There you can grab the latest "nightly" build for your OS. Don't be fooled by the link you'll see for "beta"; that was for something else entirely and I'm not sure why it's still there but it's actually almost a year old. The nightly builds don't have "installers" but are self-contained folders with executable files you can run directly.

4) Much has been improved between the private alpha and the nightly builds, so in my mind, the nightly builds are the way better choices for most people wanting to help test today. With one important caveat: there is never any sort of guarantee that any given nightly won't break something pretty fundamental (like, it might crash on startup). If that happens, usually it's fixed almost immediately so you'd just need to wait for the next nightly. In practice, these builds have been pretty stable for the last several weeks. I don't know if there is any sort of official reason why it might be better to still use the alpha, but my own unofficial advice is, if you want to test, you're better off with a nightly. Both because it's a better experience for you, and because any issues you find in the alpha might well have been fixed by now so reporting bugs against the alpha is a bit iffy,

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• May 26, 2022 - 22:27

I refuse to use an editing software other than musescore! Anxiously waiting for MS4.. All the best for the MS team!

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• Jun 2, 2022 - 16:16

Guys, I just wanted to say thank you for all the grand work you're doing. I've tested several commercial products in the past few days, and I have to tell you that you're doing something right with MuseScore. You can't believe how frustrating it is to listen to all the lauding and applauding those products gets only to find out they make you bend over backwards to perform the simplest of tasks! One "professional" product doesn't do Unicode in 2022! Plus, it seems like their creators feel the urge to override our basic computer skills that are hardwired into any computer user. You want to copy and paste an element just like you've been doing your whole life? Nope, you must look for a deeply buried and poorly named menu command to do that. You want to click an element, see its properties and edit those as you see fit? Nope, can't do that either - you must scratch your left ear with your right foot. Sorry for ranting, but please, please, please don't do that to MuseScore! Even though some tasks aren't as straightforward here as they could have been, most of the tasks are stupid simple, which - as my little test of commercial products has demonstrated - is a valuable commodity. Anyway, thanks again for all your work. Looking forward to MS 4.

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• Jun 8, 2022 - 10:10

File edit etc. menu is very small. Should also resize with font...

Mentioned before:
The appearance button:
Editing/cleaning a score requires now numerous(!) clicks on appearance button. This is a bad solution.

Great program!

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• Jun 8, 2022 - 14:35

The font size should be normal, but unfortunately as with all versions of MuseScore (and indeed, all programs, period) there can be cases where the monitor resolution info isn't detected or scaled by the OS, or communicated un to the program in the expected way, and you can thus end up with things too big or too small. Right now the workaround is to set the environment variable QT_SCALE_FACTOR to a value like 1.5 or whatever is needed to match your actual monitor resolution.

So far, it seems like fewer people are experiencing this issue with MuseScore 4 than MuseScore 3, and I'm not aware of anyone who is experiencing it with MuseScore 4 who didn't also experience it with MuseScore 3. Are you saying MuseScore 3 was sized correctly for you by default on this same system? What OS, and what else can you tell us about your display - anything unusual about it from a hardware perspective (eg, is it connected via old-style VGA) or software (like are you having your OS scale things in its display settings)?

Also, be sure you have a relatively recent nightly build - from the last week or two. The original alpha is quite old by now, and some changes have been made to the scaling code since then may have helped.

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• Jun 8, 2022 - 18:47

Great, glad that worked! Setting environment variables on Windows is not obvious, so I'm also glad you knew or found the trick!

Eventually I'd like to see us add a scaling option directly in Preferences, but that might need to wait until after 4.0. Unless there are a lot more of reports of this problem. So far you and I seem to be the only ones affected, but it's hard to know how many people have tried it.

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• Jun 9, 2022 - 15:13

Hi,

I am sorry to say that I do not like the new properties and palette windows / layout.

Both: the width is not sizeable....

In muse3 you could easily see at a glance which "appearance properties" were changed:
on the right they had highlighted icons.
Now it is not so easy, you have to spin around with your eyes....
This is really not user friendly!

If you have something that works really good, DON'T change it!

I really prefer old style properties and palette window.

(I already mentioned about the appearance button...)

Thanks

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• Jun 10, 2022 - 09:34

I have to agree. In MS 3.6, I could click on any object I wanted to modify, and I would immediately see ALL of its properties in one tab. Now, if I need to change the position of a lyric, for instance, I have to take TWO extra steps to reach the X/Y setting - switch to the Properties tab and click on the Appearance button (that is if I knew that I had to look there). And if I want to place the lyric above or below the staff, I have to switch to the Properties tab and click More.

Who in the world came up with that UI change? The best thing about MuseScore was that I didn't have to know anything in advance. I could just 'click and learn' as I went because all objects were clickable, all properties were in one window, all changes were highlighted. With MS4, they see to have decided to follow all other notation programs and hide useful options from users in endless tabs, buttons, drop-downs and whatnot. So now, you actually have to know where to look for certain properties. Not to mention the fact that now I have to make THREE clicks to reach what was previously reachable in ONE. You do the math how many extra clicks you'll make in a complex score. And what about a bunch of scores? They have ruined the UI, unfortunately. So I'm staying with MS 3.6 as long as I can.

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• Jun 10, 2022 - 10:32

Worth mentioning that with an entirely new UI, we're likely going to have a few UX issues that we will finesse over the next few smaller releases.

With the old inspector, the design had nice aspects but myriad problems too.
- You couldn't select more than one item at a time and get settings for them. You can now.
- It was filled with tons of niche / senseless options that only served to break the score. This tested really badly with new users
- It was filled with tons of options that literally didn't work at all

Regarding 'Appearance' and 'Playback', these will most certainly be changed over time. 'Playback' in particular is a less than ideal compromise that we needed to put in until we have a proper solution for setting velocity / expression and tuning. We did not want to overwhelm users with all these options up front.

--

Anyway, this is certainly not the final landing place for the UI update. I can promise you that.

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• Aug 4, 2022 - 12:22

Well, I'll be happy when a real "Stop playback" function is added. This is a permanent request since the first version. If we don't get a screen icon, at least a command somewhere that we can assign a hotkey to. That would be most helpful.

As it is now, once you hit play, then the stop button works just as "pause" because clicking "play" again only resumes the playback (instead of starting all over). Yes, "pause" is great, but some of us also need the option to "opt out" and start again from the last selected note (which is still selected).

Let's say I write an accompaniment and ask my student to play along with his real world instrument. I don't know (and can't know beforehand) if he/she will play with or without mistakes. If I need to start all over, I'm told "I should have set a loop" Nobody has that foresight!.
The only way to start playback from the same place multiple times (without setting annoying loops) is to use the arrow keys and move a step forwards and a step back to "refresh" your selected note, and then you can hit play. C'mon! Sibelius for instance, has a "play" icon but also the "P" key to start playing your selection right away. This request should be the easiest to implement of them all, but is always ignored.

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• Jun 10, 2022 - 14:54

Sure, I understand that I'm not every user. All I'm saying is that MuseScore 3.6 had one of the best layouts, and I've used Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, and Notion. I'm not going to detail every drawback, but here's a general picture.

Most users have a set of basic computer skills, which they try to apply universally, i.e. when learning and using any new program. Everything on their screen is an object. They expect objects to be clickable, modifiable via the right-click menu or a dedicated window, like Inspector, and also draggable or movable via the X/Y setting. But here's a short version of what happens in other programs: unlike MuseScore, they make you learn and keep in mind a specific and unique algorithm for almost any action, and even then many objects aren't 'clickable' unless you are in a specific and unique mode, so you have to memorize those as well. And if you're using several programs, learning and memorizing all that becomes a nightmare.

MuseScore allows you to rely on your basic computer skills. The left panel can be split between Palettes and Inspector, so you can have all your tools and options in one place (the new layout uses tabs, so I can't have Palettes and Properties visible at the same time). Visibility is important, since it lets you get the big picture right away. Setting up scores, changing styles requires just one wizard or window. Plus, you don't have to be a sound engineer to change your playback instruments and settings (yes, I'm talking about you, Dorico). I hope that MS 3.6 UI philosophy will continue in MS4.

P.S. I'm missing the Advanced Edited workspace menu. One click, and I had all the advanced tools and options in my panels and palettes. In MS4, I have to manually add those options. Such customizability may be great for some, but I still would like to have a one-button solution to gain access to all advanced options.

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• Jun 10, 2022 - 16:02

Oh, you can undock Properties and place it where it used to be, if you want. MS3 allowed you to dock these panels together too - we just chose a different default layout.

Incidentally, there'll be videos releases (accessible from MS4 itself) that explain these major differences when we launch.

Speaking for myself, I have a widescreen monitor in my studio and I like all the panels open too.

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• Jun 15, 2022 - 09:40

One possibility could be to make the properties panel settings part of the workspace - so keep the current configuration as the default, but allow flattening the properties in the workspace settings. I personally use velocity a lot, so this change really isn't ideal for me.

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• Jun 15, 2022 - 10:15

I've already done some design work to figure out an alternative if needed. However, one point that might be useful for you: if you are editing the velocity of multiple notes, the popup stays open as you move from note to note. It doesn't keep closing each time you select something new.

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• Jun 9, 2022 - 23:25

@Jeetee wrote [the play panel tempo slider] is supposed to be reinstated (but possibly not by 4.0)

It would be a bummer if MuseScore v4 doesn't have the Tempo offset slider. My students frequently use the Tempo offset when practicing with a score.

That said, they consistently forgot that Tempo offset is located the Play Panel, or they had trouble remembering how to show or accesss the Play Panel. So I hoped that MuseScore 4 would afford us a clone of the slider (or + / - buttons) like in the controls above scores on MusicScore.com. In other words, the user would be able to show/hide the Tempo offset in MuseScore's toolbar via Customize Toolbar or MuseScore preferences.

Scorster

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• Jun 10, 2022 - 10:29

About the not sizeable palette/properties window:

Practice: retyping a score
Two scores, the original, and the new one in MuseScore side by side. You want space for 2 scores, as close as possible.

Yes, they can be undocked....
But is NOT user friendly.

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• Jun 16, 2022 - 04:11

A palette like photoshop would be awesome and more practical I think... you know with icons instead of words and they open in a new column of icons instead of displaying in-line..

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• Jun 30, 2022 - 16:24

Hello everyone! Who knows how I can add an existing score element to a palette in MS4? It was simple in MS3. I needed to press and hold Ctrl+Shift, then to drag the element from the score onto a palette. But it does not work in MS4. Is there another way to do this in MS4? The solution I found is to create the palette in MS3, then to export the palette, then to load this palette in MS4. It works great but it is too long and not really practical.
Thanks in advance!

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• Jul 4, 2022 - 10:52

Will noteperformer be compatible with musesccore 4 and does the team take any community suggestions for features or is the plan for what the application will be already set down?

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• Jul 5, 2022 - 17:11

As stated a few times in these threads, NotePerformer is not currently planned to be supported; instead, there will be an alternative provided as a free download. Who knows what the future brings; maybe someday the licensing and technical issues with NotePerformer will be solved and that will happen too.

Suggestions made via the Feature Request forum and other means are indeed very often taken into consideration. At this point, I think the feature set of 4.0 specifically is pretty well fixed, but there is always 4.1, 4.2, etc.

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• Jul 6, 2022 - 16:42

Details are not yet available, but see https://musescore.org/en/node/329505 and https://musescore.org/en/node/325860 for some of the official announcements that have been made (and you can do web searches to find other discussions probably). What seems apparent is that this is intended to be way more sophisticated than anything possible via the outdated SoundFont technology, and is intended to provide some of the same sort of realism offered by NotePerformer. Beyond that, it's really hard to say much until the thing is actually finished and available for testing.

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• Jul 11, 2022 - 21:51

It's pretty cool. The next update will be to have the Slash Notation playback the Chords in Rhythm w/ the Slashes below them so that rather than Silent Slash Notation, the Chords are playing back the Chords as if you were strumming (for the Drums & Percussion it plays Ride Cymbal 1)

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• Jul 20, 2022 - 19:43

No sound in latest MS4 nightly AppImage downloaded today (revision: 0d2b4c7), this happens on both my machines: a Chromebook Asus C425T and the other with LMDE 5 (Linux Mint Debian Edition). Had no issue with the various nigthlies I had used before on Chromebook and LMDE, last one I had downloaded before today was revision 6a9867d. Or rather, there's the issue that repetition signs won't play but that's ok being an alpha.
I know well that it is an alpha, I just tought I'd write this in case you weren't aware of this problem.

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• Jul 23, 2022 - 15:19

I would like to suggest something for musescore 3 or 4, as you know, there is a function in musescore 3, in "file" that allows musescore users to upload their scores to the website directly from the software, and even make their scores have a custom sound (using imported soundfonts), the problem is when you already have a score on the site that doesn't have a custom sound and you want to put it there, that is, update the score on the site with your custom sounds, in this situation, you don't have the function of updating that score, as musescore 3 does not identify it.
My suggestion would be to put in this tool "save online" the option to put a link referring to the score you want to update, so the scores on the site that don't have custom sounds could be edited to contain them.
I hope you understood my suggestion xD

I am very grateful for the work and great efforts to improve musescore,

FilipePimenta.

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• Jul 31, 2022 - 02:19

I like it too much! looks modern, clean, but... it feels weird, like the config for the instruments, and theres some bugs like the sound, it doesn't play ):
i like way too many things from the old interface, and maybe some you should keep them? idk, just my opinion, hope you listen to all of us :D (i like it anyways, maybe i just have to get used to it, idunno)

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• Jul 31, 2022 - 12:35

Apologies if this has been asked before or if it's a silly question. With MS4, what would happen if I were to share a score with someone and they don't have the VST instruments that I may have used? Would the score be unplayable/unlistenable for them, or are there built in workarounds?

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• Jul 31, 2022 - 16:54

It isn’t by design but unfortunately, there are some technical problems that make this capability problematic for this release. Once our translations are in, we’ll most likely narrow each panel a little bit more but we won’t be making them resizable for this release.

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• Jul 31, 2022 - 16:28

Please make the slurs less curved!
Maybe also in an update for version 3.6.....

Also, it happens that when a slur autoplace is disabled, later it is abled again..... But not by me.

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• Aug 3, 2022 - 06:12

Will there be more information coming soon about the "Muse Sounds" instrument libraries? It has been mentioned in many places, but there isn't much information about it from what I've seen.

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• Aug 4, 2022 - 09:12

I tried the nightly build
MuseScoreNightly-202208040451-master-4513b11.dmg 2022-08-04 05:04 164M
Is it please possible to two thing:
1. A long time request: to be able to hear all the notes in a stop with various notes together or all the notes in a chord after just double clicking on any one of the notes sharing that stem.

  1. to be able to drag the edge of the left side panel to resize it so that we can have a greater are for viewing the sheet, just like Musescore 3.6.2, where hover on the edge shows the two faced cursor.
    this feature is there at the Home, but not at score.

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• Aug 10, 2022 - 00:00

V4 is pretty great so far! I love the aesthetic. One little quirk so far is that the mixer's mute button doesn't work for the harmony/chords channel. I really love being able to use VST3 plugins too. Will we be able to use AU components on Mac eventually?

I also notice that the tablature for half notes hasn't been updated. The two slashes that represent a half note are not standard at all. Those look more like tremolo markings than anything. I've attached a screenshot of how I handle half notes, I just make them a quarter note, hide the rest, and add a circle around the number in the tablature. Hal Leonard has published tablature like this for years. Mel Bay will be publishing one of my banjo books with this style of tablature notation in November of this year (made with Musescore!)

Thanks for allowing us the chance to play with the new version. Looking forward to more developments! Cheers!

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Screen Shot 2022-08-09 at 5.58.13 PM.png 12.72 KB
Screen Shot 2022-08-09 at 5.58.04 PM.png 20.5 KB

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• Aug 10, 2022 - 01:02

Hi Marc,
I've still never seen those slashes like that in any tablature outside of it being the default in MuseScore. Can you show me an example? The closest thing I can think of is in lute tablature with the rhythm flags, but there's already a reasonable option for that in MS. But even still, two lines or flags wouldn't indicate a half note. Using the circle, or something that resembles the head of a half note, has been used in tons of guitar, banjo, and ukulele tablature books since the 80s. And then for more than one note, it will have either a larger oval around all of the notes, individual circles around each note, or something like in the attachment which is from my banjo tablature.

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Screen Shot 2022-08-09 at 7.00.37 PM.png 12.33 KB

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• Aug 19, 2022 - 05:26

The three links you posted for Lin, Win and Mac all point to the official Musescore website download page with Musescore 3.6. I've downloaded the Nightly version for Linux without the need of a Github account.
It looks very cool, I'm excited about it. But I cannot open a new score in a new tab. It's opening in a new window, I coundn't find a way to change this. I took a look at the github issues page and I coundn't find an issue refering to this one. I wonder if I am missing something. Where you guys able to open two or more scores in the same window?

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