Playback on Musescore studio

• Nov 16, 2024 - 10:22

When I try to listen to music I have put on Musescore (4) studio it does not play back smoothly. It breaks up and the lengths of the individual notes are not as written (hesitates and speeds up randomly). I have tried opening the music in the older versions but the scores are ot recognised. I am using a laptop.


Comments

You can either:

  • use 3.7, which can open newer versions
  • attach the score here and someone with 3.7 converts it, e.g. me :-).
  • unpack the mscx from the mscz with a zip tool and delete the whole line 5 with the character string "LastEID" with an ASCII editor. Then the mscx should open in 3.6.2.

In reply to by Julia King 2

Are you running Windows or Mac?

If you are running Windows, click Start / All Apps (if necessary!) / Windows Tools / Control Panel / System / About. Next to Device Specifications, click to Copy and paste it into a text editor (e.g., Notepad or the like). Then slide down that screen a bit further and next to Windows Specifications, click Copy there. Paste that info into the same text editor.

Then, in the text editor, press Ctrl+A (Select All) / Ctrl+C (Copy). Then open a new forum post here and Ctrl+V (Paste) into that forum post.

I don't know how to do the equivalent on a Mac machine, but if you tell us that you have one, I'm sure that one of the Mac users will provide the equivalent instructions.

In reply to by TheHutch

I'm running windows:-

Processor Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU B820 @ 1.70GHz 1.70 GHz
Installed RAM 8.00 GB (7.89 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display
Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎30/‎07/‎2020
OS build 19045.5131
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19060.1000.0

In reply to by Julia King 2

Your computer is well below spec. for MS4. It is a pretty low spec'd laptop. Celeron processors are designed for basic tasks and you only have 2 cores @ 1.7 Ghz.
My old PC had 2 cores @ 3 Ghz and still couldn't run MS4 smoothly.

If you ever upgrade then go for the MS4 recommended spec. if your budget allows. Note that storage should be an SSD. This is normal nowadays but just be aware.

In reply to by Julia King 2

Hi Julia don't try to use musescore 4 on that laptop it won't work well.
Use musescore 3.6.2 ("official" latest v3 version available here ) or musescore 3.7 ("unofficial" version 3 maintained by Jojo, this is 3.6.2 + plenty of bug corrections + some nice new features + ability to open V4 files)
Or get a new laptop if you prefer

In reply to by Julia King 2

If you have the same laptop now as you did when running MuseScore 2 then it's most likely that it does not meet the MS4 requirements but post the details as described above.

Is your laptop running Windows or MacOS or some other operating system?

How old is your laptop?

In reply to by yonah_ag

FWIW My oldest computer is pieced together from parts 10 to 15 years old. Dual core CPU. Only 4 gb ram. I did put an SSD in it. It runs MU4 very well. Not perfect, but useable. Playback is fine. Starting playback after a start has a slight stumble. Updates of MU4 run much better than early versions. This same computer had major trouble at first. It is important to have a higher buffer setting and that the proper audio device is selected.

In reply to by yonah_ag

I learned long ago that HDD's are good for emails and that's about it. So I put SSD's in everything. Even so, the above computer didn't run MU4 very well when it first came out. When I used my Focusrite with it , It helped a little bit. This is where I learned about how important the settings in MU4 are. It's all in the How To that I wrote. In Audio and Midi settings, MU4 tends to choose "Default" for Audio device. Sometimes it works better to select the actual device you are using. The dropdown window will list what is available. If I have headphones plugged in, the list will show Default, (name of my device) headphones, (name of my device) speakers. And so on. On some computers it can make a difference which of those I select. Regardless of what device is selected as Default in the computer's Sound settings. Plus the Buffer setting can make a difference.
My newest computer meets the specs. Many of the setting make no difference any more. Though I still turn of Exclusive mode because it can mess with Sibelius and possibly MU4.
I don't know if Julia can get MU4 to work or not. Only that it might be possible.

In reply to by bobjp

That Core 2 Duo processor is much faster and has more cache than the OP's Celeron and it's much more practical to upgrade a desktop than a laptop, so I think that MS4 is likely to struggle even if buffer size etc. is tweaked

In reply to by frfancha

But specs are only part of the picture. There are those with computers that more than match the specs that have problems. Gamers know that their machines might need to be adjusted to meet the software.
What I am saying is that when MU4 came out, I had 4 under powered computers that could not run it.

I'm not saying that the OP should try to run MU4. But it would be educational to find out. We might be surprised. Yes, my cpu is more powerful. But it is still way underpowered. And that computer only has 4 gb of very old, slow ram. At the time my main computer had 8 gb ram and an i5 cpu and an SSD. It still couldn't run MU4 very well. It was kind of usable when I used my Focusrite. Same with the other computers.

What I am saying is that newer versions of MU4 run much better on my low end machines. The only glitch now is a slight stumble on start of playback. Focusrite is not needed.

In reply to by bobjp

The recommended spec. for the latest incarnation of MS4 is still way above the OP's laptop. Your desktop build may only have 4 GB RAM but the SSD will mitigate this since your Windows swap file will be on SSD rather than on a mechanical disk.

It might well be educational but I wouldn't have thought that it would not be worth throwing money on an SSD at such an old laptop. A slow Celeron based, old laptop is not going to be great computer.

In reply to by yonah_ag

The specs haven't changed.
When I put the SSD in the desktop, the improvement was minimal. What has made a difference is how much better newer versions of MU4 work on low end machines.
Because that desktop can only support 4 gb ram, it really isn't of much use to me. It needs a MB, modern ram and an i9, for starters. Interesting that it will run MU4 as well as it does.

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