Musescore 3 playback randomly changing the volume of the fundamental low notes on the piano

• Jul 18, 2019 - 16:33

Hmm I think I've found a really weird bug in the Musescore 3 playback.

Sometimes it seems to be lowering the volume of notes in the lowest octave of the piano at random.

In a certain piece I'm composing, the piano plays big octaves in the bass and it seems to be muting the lowest note or at least lowering its volume the second beat of that measure (encircled in red) even though the dynamics are identical on both hits.

When I played it back in Musescore itself it didn't mute the same beat but it muted (the same note in) the first two beats of the measure after it... (Encircled in yellow)

Example (2).png

So it seems to be something really random. I don't know if this is a bug or intentional to make it sound somewhat more human or something (which it does not)

I am running version 3.2.0.7410

[I have changed the title and text to better describe the issue I'm having]

Attachment Size
What's_That_.mscz 26.95 KB
BP_Whats_That_Issue.zip 155.1 KB

Comments

If you attach your score and tell which soundfont you are using and which instrument you have assigned to it in the mixer it would be easier to see what's happening.

In reply to by Dazzyls

Using 3.2.3 (the latest version) I'm clearly hearing all of the low notes you say are not being played. I thought perhaps it was because you use CC2 for dynamics playback, but I tested that also and it works fine with that also. Try upgrading to 3.2.3 and see if it's fixed on your system.

BTW, the regular soundfont is not a good answer, so I also tested it with both MuseScore_General and MuseScore_General_HQ and had no problems hearing the notes with either dynamics method.

In reply to by mike320

I have updated my Musescore to the latest version and it's still happening. I've noticed it's not as much omitting the notes as just... it actually sounds like a high-pass EQ is being applied on those two notes I encircled with a yellow line.

Also I was using MuseScore_General and I cannot find MuseScore_General_HQ anywhere

In reply to by Jm6stringer

That's interesting. It only occured in the second measure on the octaves in the bass on the first two beats. It did never occur when just one note was played in the bass.

Also, I found out it does not fully mute the notes. It actually just makes the fundamental more quiet for some reason. I added an mp3 file in a zip folder to the original post in which I singled out the frequency of the fundamental with a band-pass EQ inside a DAW.
If you turn up the volume and play close attention, you can hear that the second beat sounds more quiet than the other beats.

In reply to by Dazzyls

The ...HQ can be downloaded in the resource manager and is required for the expressive channels for CC2 dynamics playback to work properly.

You are hearing overtones that are made as a result of the synthesizer and your system. This happens from time to time on most systems and can't be avoided.

In reply to by mike320

It seems to be affecting the volume of the fundamental though, not the overtones. When I apply a band stop with an EQ on the fundamental in a recording, each hit sounds exactly the same, but when I apply a band pass on that same frequency, it (the fundamental) is noticably quiter on the second hit.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

Yeah I know but since music is an auditory artform I thought about hearing it before seeing lol.
Anyway the weird thing is that it happens on the second beat when I export it, but it happens on the 5th and 6th beat in Musescore itself... no matter if I restart it or something.

In reply to by Dazzyls

OK,,, so try another piano... or another soundfont.
You have noted that it only occurred on octaves and that It did never occur when just one note was played in the bass.

Digital samples are a close approximation to analog. The higher the bitrate, the closer it gets.
Sound waveforms are additive, so a bunch of simultaneous notes of various frequencies can sometimes amplify, sometimes attenuate the signal.

A real world use case of this phenomenon is listening to the frequency of 'beats' (i.e., periodic variations in volume) when tuning a piano.

Regards.

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