Musescore 4 Sound export is incredibly crackly, especially on FLAC.
I think this is a problem with musescore being unable to handle very loud sounds, but it's horrible nonetheless.
I'm having to put things at -12dB master just to have usable audio outside of musescore, but playback itself is completely fine, which is why I'm mainly annoyed. I won't know until I export whether my sound settings are good or not.
This is quite odd, why does musescore resort to popping and crackling audio for too loud sounds instead of normalizing them down?
This is the only audio software I know of that can't handle any sound over fortississimo at 0dB default settings.
Comments
You can select a compressor / limiter effect if you like, but MuseScore by default plays sounds as is. Normally the defaults should not clip, though. Are you using a VST that set too loud, maybe? If you are truly just using defaults and experiencing problems with some score, please attach it so we can investigate.
In reply to You can select a compressor … by Marc Sabatella
Crackling behavior observed on all VSTs including Musescore Basic, sorry I haven't responded earlier.
I'll upload a cut down version of the score soon!
In reply to You can select a compressor … by Marc Sabatella
Here.
In reply to Here. by Apprisco
I used your score to export a FLAC file and listened through headphones.
Sure enough, from 01:20 for about 10 seconds I could here crackling. And again from 01:43 onwards.
Note: I don't have Aegean Symphony Orchestra on my laptop, so that crackling must apply even to MS Basic?
In reply to Here. by Apprisco
You've turned up your volumes past their defaults, so no surprise to me that some fff passages might clip. Turn them back down, and then turn *others8 down more if need be.
In reply to You've turned up your… by Marc Sabatella
The fact that it crackles when volumes are too high is a problem, because it doesn't do that during playback. It only does it on export, which is impossible to detect and a big issue.
In reply to The fact that it crackles… by Apprisco
You might not hear it during playback if your speakers aren't turned up loud enough, but your file is absolutely clipping. As I said, you need to return to normal volume levels in the mixer.
In reply to You might not hear it during… by Marc Sabatella
I have and still continue to get endless crackles, the likes of which I haven't experienced on MS3. Moving the file back, I still do not get any crackles on MS3. This seems to be a problem with MS4 alone.
In reply to I have and still continue to… by Apprisco
You still get the distortion even after turning your levels back down? Please attached the updated file so we can check.
In reply to You might not hear it during… by Marc Sabatella
This is DEFINITELY a bug with MuseScore. There is no crackling during playback, but when performing a FLAC export there is incredibly loud crackling no matter the VSTs used. The only way to get it to stop crackling is to lower everything below -12db in the mixer.
Interestingly, the crackling artifacts disappear when you export as a WAV, so it appears to be an issue with the way MuseScore 4 handles FLAC exports. It isn't ideal because it takes up a lot more storage, but exporting as WAV is a very simple workaround for now.
In reply to This is DEFINITELY a bug… by TBUkMusic
Wait, WAV works? This is hilarious. Thank you so much. Could just use a aftermarket WAV to FLAC exporter lol.
In reply to Wait, WAV works? This is… by Apprisco
FWIW, with the above file, there is no crackling on my system in FLAC playback. Both with the Muse sounds and Basic. Even with the pianos all playing the same thing and covering up everything else.
In reply to This is DEFINITELY a bug… by TBUkMusic
In order for somoene to assist, please attach the score that is giving you problems, and be sure to say which versions of MuseScore and which VST's you are using. As noted, the previous score posted in this thread clips simply because the volumes levels were turned up - it has nothing to do with FLAC or with export at all. But if you have a score that plays normally and exports normally to WAV but clips or otherwise distorts when exporting to FLAC, we'd definitely want to see if we can reproduce it so it can be investigated further. So when you attach your score here, we can try to export to FLAC ourselves, and if we can confirm, then you can open an issue on GitHub to report this to the developers formally.
Right now I don't see any other reported issues on this topic, and I can't reproduce a problem myself using 4.2.1 on Linux / Debian 11, but I cannot test using VST's, so maybe the problem is unique to something about that combination.
In reply to In order for somoene to… by Marc Sabatella
First of all, the fact that too loud scores crackle during export but not during playback is ALREADY a huge issue. You can't really resort to making every sound smaller.
Also, the other issue of Kontakt opening to a blank window is much, much worse.
In reply to First of all, the fact that… by Apprisco
If you have such an example, be sure to attach it. As I said, the one attached here clips during playback as well, simply because of user error - they turned the volume up too loud.
Not sure what Kontakt issue you mean, but if you can paste in a link to the GitHub report for that, I can check on its status for you.
In reply to If you have such an example,… by Marc Sabatella
Again, turning up the volume a little too much shouldn't cause crackles. It should cause painfully loud audio, NOT crackles.
https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/21329 Kontakt.
And i've confirmed it doesn't happen on WAV as the other person confirmed- i'll see if it happens again for a project I care about and if so upload it.
In reply to Again, turning up the volume… by Apprisco
I suggest you do some research on “digital clipping”. Amplifying a digital signal past the nominal max most absolutely causes immediate clips that one might colloquially refer to as “crackles”. This is basic digital audio 101, not some obscure thing about MuseScore. Again, consult any source whatsoever on digital audio, specifically searching on the term “clipping”.
In reply to I suggest you do some… by Marc Sabatella
No reason why it shouldn't be clipping during playback then. It's clearly not too loud, the limit's artificially lower for FLAC.
In reply to No reason why it shouldn't… by Apprisco
Again, the example posted is clipping playback, because it is turned up too loud.
In reply to Again, the example posted is… by Marc Sabatella
It is NOT. That same score also exports perfectly fine on WAV. Does not clip during playback. Only on FLAC.
LOL
In reply to It is NOT. That same score… by Apprisco
I am talking about the score posts previously, not this new one that you didn’t post u til long after my comments. I’’m not at my computer and thus not able to confirm or deny whether this new file demonstrates a problem or not.
And please stop cursing and insulting us when we are only trying to help by making sure people produce clear reproducible examples, which until now hadn’t happened and thus there was no way to possible start investigating. It’s unfortunate no one took the time to produce an example until too late for 4.2.1 but please don’t blame us for that failure. And I’d appreciate if you’d edit your GitHub issue to remove the false ad hominem attack on us volunteers trying to assist here on the forum - it does nothing to help your case (quite the contrary in fact).
In reply to I am talking abint the score… by Marc Sabatella
I'm not cursing at you. The very specific staff member I'm talking about is Jojo Schmitz, who has been dismissing this issue since 2.0 without asking for examples. I've provided clear examples back then, during 3.0, and now 4.0. And I have not cursed once in this thread.
My perception of the whole of musescore devs/staff are very low, due to issues with MIDI latency that were finally promised to be fixed in 4.1, and now was punted to 4.4. And that's also a very specific issue I was reporting since 2.0 and dismissed by the same staff member.
For the greater good I removed the statement from the git issue, FLAC is pretty helpful.
In reply to I'm not cursing at you. The… by Apprisco
No one here on this forum is a "staff member". We are all volunteers, donating our time and effort to help make MuseScore the best music notation program we can. Most of the development of MuseScore has been from volunteers like us (although there is also a small paid staff, none of whom post here regularly), and all of the support provided here on the forums is from volunteers. We don't "dismiss" problems, we ask for more information to be sure they are reproducible, and once confirmed, we try to make sure they get reported in the proper places.
Anyhow, you may have provided an example somewhere else at some time in the past, but as I noted, there were no issues on GitHub until yesterday, so no surprise no developer had started looking into this yet for MuseScore 4. I can't reproduce any problem with FLAC export in any of my scores with any of my sound libraries, but I am not doubting that for certain scores or certain sound libraries there might be, which why getting that GitHub issue submitted with a sample score was so crucial to starting to make progress, so thanks for getting that in.
FWIW, I did check out your example myself, and of course I hear the clipping in the FLAC. However, it seems to be a a very different version of the score than what I hear in the WAV file - the music at 0:48 where you mentioned the problem being most pronounced is entirely different. In any event, I can't reproduce the problem myself starting from the the score itself, because I don't have access the specific sounds you are using. Hopefully someone else will be able to based on the GitHub issue. But, I can confirm that this score does have several levels turned up louder than the defaults and is "on the edge" for me even during normal playback using MS Basic.
MIDI latency is of course a separate issue. Improvements have been made over the past year, but some systems do still show more than we'd all like, obviously. Things do need to be prioritized, and since real-time MIDI input is used by only a tiny minority of users, the basic notation and playback features understandably get more attention. Since MuseScore remains open source, it is still the case as it has always been that if some developer who does rely on real-time MIDI input volunteers their time to work on this just as so many of us have volunteered our time to work on other issues, it may well get addressed sooner rather than later. it just depends on whether it's a big enough issue for other people to result in some developer stepping forward.
The cursing I refer to is here. Let's try to keep this discussion calm and civil and focused on the technical details.
Thanks for editing the GitHub issue.
In reply to I suggest you do some… by Marc Sabatella
https://mega.nz/file/XtVmCQII#yI_-Z8ZaSCEd3CH8yTFVivV0_joMWyoANuGMU_M_c…
Proof: exact same score exported on flac vs wav. Flac is CLEARLY fucked up.
In reply to Here. by Apprisco
I have this problem too. It's quite annoying, but after a little research I found out that it was just MuseScore trying to export sounds with an amplitude higher than what can be registered by an audio file, so the waves hit a maximum and create a crackling sound while they stay there and don't go any higher. I recommend making sure the loudest part of this arrangement doesn't go above -3dB or so. It would be a good idea if MuseScore had a way of lowering the amplitude of the music so that this clipping couldn't happen.
Apprisco,
Help us out. You said that a flac export crackles. Even with Basic sounds. Please take the score you posted and load it with just Basic sounds. Export to flac. If the flac crackles, zip it and post it here along with the score. If the zip file is too big, you might need to shorten the score a bit. But as I said before, I get no crackle with your score after exporting to flac.
Notation software is not like other "audio" software.
In reply to Apprisco, Help us out. You… by bobjp
I was honestly upset because this issue has been ongoing since 2.0, and Jojo Schmitz would always shut me down. Very childish of me to be hesitant about providing more evidence.
The issue is EXACTLY as described. On .flac, the sounds are crackling. On .wav, they are not.
https://mega.nz/file/XtVmCQII#yI_-Z8ZaSCEd3CH8yTFVivV0_joMWyoANuGMU_M_c…
In reply to I was honestly upset because… by Apprisco
https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/issues/21330
Posted on git.
In reply to I was honestly upset because… by Apprisco
Thank you for posting these. I've spent some time with them. I have 1 short observation and 1 longer set of observations.
Our systems are very different. For example, in measure 15, the Synth entry is far louder on my playback and any audio files I make, By a lot. But not distorted. So there is that.
On my system, the flac problem is far, far worse than in your flac file. When I play the flac I create from your mscz, at measure 25 the audio just turns to white noise static. And stays that way for a while. So why is that?
That is where the Saw Synth comes in. You have that full blast in the mixer, so I muted it and made another flac. This time I have audio all the way through. But there was still some crackling. So next I muted the first channel, which you also have full blast. No change. then I muted the Mallet Synth next the the Saw Synth. That took out the rest of the distortion in the flac file.. That channel is set to normal volume. I unmuted the first channel (the one that made no difference) and the flac file was still OK.
I did not try lowering the volume or faders on the two channels that are causing the problem. I can't blame the high fader setting alone for the problem. Why are there such drastic volume differences between our systems? Gotta love computers. Why do you need to use flac instead of, oh I don't know, mp3? If wav files take up too much room, that says to me that there may be other problems.
My operational mode when I run into a problem is to work around it. Or find another route entirely. Rather than beat my head against it. My head is much to soft.
Hopefully, I've given you some things to think about.
In reply to Thank you for posting these… by bobjp
I've always used FLAC as a compromise between mp3 and wav for hq audio on Bandcamp.
It appears I just have to use WAV now.
Also some of my stuff is on full tilt because I'm using VSTs, meaning the problem is much worse on your end with default sounds.
Doesn't matter in the end, it's clearly a MS FLAC export issue :)
In reply to I've always used FLAC as a… by Apprisco
One last thought. You need to do what you need to do. You could make flac work if you wanted to.
It seems to me that if you have to crank up a vst full blast in order to make it work, something is wrong with that sound or your use of it. Yes, it causes a problem with flac. And that's not good. But working with recorded sound is always a toss-up.
I have written and exported 200+ songs using MS 3 and never had a problem. Now I am using MS4 and a file that plays perfectly at normal volume is distorted when exported. The .wav file has at the beginning of many but not all measures a crackle/click or interference - the top and bottom waves are touching each other - something has effected the original file that was fine before exporting. I have not changed any settings. How can I avoid this.
In reply to I have written and exported… by SteveHaite
What OS, and what sample rate are you exporting at? 48 kHz seems to work best in cases where people have encountered problems.