Volume Slider Feels Useless

• May 2, 2018 - 23:07

I don't know if this is a problem for anyone else, or if this should go under bug reports, so I'll start this here.

When I am working on full orchestrations (or particularly loud chamber ensemble pieces), I have to set my volume slider in the F11 pop-up so ridiculously low that it seems very useless to have it. If I have it at the default, anything louder than an ensemble mezzopiano will begin to tear horrendously and disintegrate into blaring static. To combat this I set my volume slider to about the same level as 60-80% tempo and use my computer volume (which has to be set at full blast) to compensate, however, if I'm trying to work on fine details, this makes it difficult to listen for them since my computer can't fully compensate. This problem is not a result of using the speakers on the computer itself or earbuds (I don't have proper headphones, so I don't know if the problem would go away were I to use them). The picture attached shows about the maximum volume I can use before the audio turns to static.

Edit: I'm running MuseScore 2.2.

Two questions:
1. Does anyone else have this problem?
2: Is this a bug? If so, I'll repost this issue there.

Attachment Size
2018-05-02.png 318.99 KB

Comments

Could you attach here your score?
Did you try to select all the notes and set the Velocity to default values (via Inspector)?
Edit: Open the Synthesizer and check the volume from it.

In reply to by Shoichi

The score is irrelevant, since it happens to all scores I make, but I'll still post it. All note velocities are set to the default values (minus a few, but it's only to fix another issue with mezzopianos being really quiet, so I changed them from 64 to 65). This volume issue isn't as big of an issue for small chamber pieces and solos/duets, since those are incapable of reaching the necessary volume to cause the static.

As for the synthesizer, I have the volume set to -58 dB, and the two channels max at about -10 dB, and at this volume, no static occurs. I bumped it up to -50 dB, and that maxed out both channels and began to cause some static. The default is -40 dB, for reference, which means just a few instruments at piano already are as loud as my climax with the lower volume setting.

One other thing that might be causing the issue is my soundfonts, but I don't think that's likely. I'll do a test without them to see if that's causing any issues.

A couple other notes: At default volume, the static begins at about m. 29, and by m. 31 (the first big hit), the audio almost fully disintegrates into static, and the dynamic set there is only forte.

Attachment Size
17-37 Mountains Serene.mscz 143.25 KB

In reply to by Ethan C. Neal

The problem then is almost certainly a combination of using soundfonts that are louder than the default, plus the instruments you have turned up in the Mixer. The default position volume slider is designed to work well with the default soundfont and default Mixer settings, but of course if you use a louder soundfont and also turn things up even further in the Mixer, you might need to turn the master volume down to compensate and avoid clipping.

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