Crackling sounds in musescore 4 (since three weeks now and counting) when I use playback.

• Feb 7, 2023 - 04:33

Tl;Dr? I have a link attached to trials I made just for a better illustration.

I used musescore 3 since 2018 and sometimes, there would be crackling sound but it would only be at the beginning when the sound samples were still loading. After that, it would have been great. There was no crackling sound for me when I upgraded to musescore 4. Then one day (about three weeks ago), out of nowhere, the crackling sound started when I use playback. I thought it was my laptop so I used musescore on a desktop computer with better stats than my laptop and it still happened. I tried downloading the app with and without musehub, reset my OS twice and changed my sound settings, yet still crackling sounds. I now resort to compose in musescore 3, then export the audio with musescore 4 because of the quality. The big issue after the crackling sound is that, now that all of my scores (previous and new) have been saved through musescore 4, I cannot open them with musescore 3 nor can I even copy and paste. I have to resort to xml file which makes me lose some audio and text quality.

I am on a hp laptop windows 11 Home, 128 Gb hdd, 4 Gb ram. I use musescore 4.0.1.230121751.

Please help me over here. I have attached two files to show you so you all can contrast and compare. Thank you.

https://soundcloud.com/themodernbach/sets/crackling-sound-trials/s-zIxs…

Attachment Size
Screenshot (98).png 219.89 KB

Comments

• Feb 7, 2023 - 16:39

Check the specs required for MS4.
Try the settings here: https://musescore.org/en/node/339915. You might also need to add some kind of audio interface to get MS4 to playback well. I have to.
Don't open MS3 files in MS4 directly from the MS3 scores folder. Copy them to your MS4 folder first. Too late now, I know.

Reply

• Feb 10, 2023 - 16:03

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried it and I still have the crackling sounds.
Now my questions are: Can you explain why it is happening? Because I do not think it is a matter of specs requirements. Like I said, I updated to Musescore 4 and there was not crackling sounds at all. It was actually way faster than Ms 3 and one day, the crackling just happened.

Also, what audio interface are you using for Musescore playback?

Thank you.

Reply

• Feb 10, 2023 - 17:32

Sorry, but I have no idea why it would be fine one day and then not fine the next. Are you using MS Basic or MuseSounds?
Perhaps a repair install of MS4 is in order.
I'm just relaying what worked for me. Years ago, I broke the audio jack on an old laptop. So headphones didn't work with it any more. I bought a cheap $20-30 usb addon that had separate jacks for headphones and mic. Diamond Sound Tube. This particular device was discontinued some time ago. But it still works and cleans up MS4 playback on my under powered computers. Which is three out of four. And what works even better is my Focusrite Scarlett interface that I use for recording. Just over $100. But even so, I have to make the system adjustments in the How To. My desktop meets the requirements and works well without adjustments.

Reply

• Feb 12, 2023 - 17:18

I am using both. I use MuseSounds for the brass and Ms basic for everything else (at least, that was how I did it when Ms 4 came out). I tried the repair install but to avail. Like I said, I reinstalled the app many times and it did not work.
I will look into your recommendations and do some more research. Thank you.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.