Musescore4/Studio MuseSounds Brass beginning notes issue

• Jul 17, 2024 - 23:17

So I just got MS4/MS Studio (you guys need to pick what we're calling this thing tbh) specifically to use better soundfonts. The MuseSounds Brass one is definitely 85% Good Enough to work with but the problem I'm having is the instruments all want to sneak into every note instead of attacking it or articulating any kind of a beginning, so every passage and every score has a bizarre niente entrance and everything sounds late all the time.

any fixes? ideas?

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• Jul 17, 2024 - 23:33

Dynamics vary and its the same issue no matter piano or fortissimo, 60% of the time it starts from nothing and crescendos into the note (which never works on anything less than a quarter note at 80bpm lol) so its just dropping whole beats and the entire beginning of the score has mostly no sound until beat 2 at least

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• Jul 17, 2024 - 23:41

I get it. I just got so much into composing that I chose something more professional, easy to use, and with an iPad version, haha. Just don’t be fooled into thinking that MuseScore is the best out there just because it!s the only notation software you’ve used and that it’s free :D

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• Jul 18, 2024 - 17:35

Asher,
I have an older copy of Sibelius. It has SO many more capabilities than MuseScore in almost every way you can think of. Almost.
The sounds are smooth, even, and respond to score instructions. Perfect. And quite boring. The same is true of vst fonts I tried in MU4. Muse sounds are far from perfect. This is true.
I write for playback. So I don't care what the score looks like. I do what I have to do to get the playback I want. If what I want isn't possible, then I write something else. That is what composers do. They write for what they have on hand. If someone is writing for string quartet, they wouldn't write the same thing for a brass band.
I wrote a piece for orchestra in Sibelius that started out soft and ended with a loud climax section. I thought it sounded pretty good. Then about a year ago I loaded it into MU4. The first section was OK. But when it got to the timpani roll into the loud section....the piece exploded. There was so much more power and punch in the sound. I couldn't believe it. I'm still looking for the socks I was wearing.
MU4 still needs improvement, of course. But then, so does most software out there. That's why there are newer versions of programs coming out all the time.

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• Jul 18, 2024 - 19:46

Asher,
I used Sibelius exclusively from 2007 until a few years ago. I started trying MuseScore because my copy of Sibelius probably won't run on some future version of Windows. So far, no problem. Yes, people think Sibelius is too hard to use. That is partly because Sibelius has a vast amount more things it can do. Especially in producing a written score. There are many things that Sibelius can do that MuseScore will probably never be able to. People who are serious about producing computer written music don't use notation software. They use a DAW. They might use notation to get their music into their DAW. Then tweak it. And, if needed, they may output the result back into notation to hand to real players.
My needs are are comparatively simple. I write for the fun of it. A serious hobby. I see a lot of scores that are very, very complex. MuseScore has a hared time with them, it's very true. I don't think a piece of music has to be complicated to be good. I think it is harder to write something simple that is good. Can't say I always succeed.

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• Jul 18, 2024 - 20:52

Not everybody hates Sibelius.
Every professional arranger for orchestra/concert band in this part of the world (Europe) uses Sibelius. Period.
(and not Dorico as you might think)
But my (printed) MS scores for orchestra (admittedly only transcriptions; not my own compositions) look at least as good as the ones from Sibelius.

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• Jul 19, 2024 - 01:19

OK, thanks. Having grown up playing trumpet for many many years, I'm a little picky about trumpet fonts. Muse sounds trumpets can be a....problem. Here's the thing: a real player might look at this piece, without all the articulations, and play it in a fanfare style. A real player might play a lyrical piece more mellow. But no software can make those kinds of decisions without a lot of help. All muse sounds seem to lean on the lyric side. I don't hear notes sneaking in on my system. But they do tend to lack definition. Basic sounds are cleaner, but not very musical.
Some things to think about. I assume this score is part of a larger piece. It is the nature of recorded sounds in any software to not mix the same as real players would. You have three trumpet parts playing the same part. This will not sound like three players. It will only sound louder. Panning the score helps. Spread the parts out across the stereo "image".
One of the things that Sibelius can do is that there is a setting to make all notes a certain length. For example 97%. this builds some separation into the sounds. It is over ridden by a slur. So actual phrasing is possible. I think something like this would make many MuseScore users happy.

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