Orchestral Audio gets really distorted, needs fixed pronto

• Jan 3, 2020 - 22:02

The occasional distortion in a piano solo or a quartet score, I can take. But the audio distortion in an orchestral score is horrid. I have 2 orchestral arrangements to prove it. Just 1 version before, in Musescore 3.3.3, I didn't come across this audio distortion at all. Not even when I started getting static from scrolling on my computer when the audio is playing. But now, in Musescore 3.3.4 I get distortion like nobody's business in orchestral scores. Tremolos in particular are a common cause of such distortion, be it written as a tremolo or written as repeated notes.

This is what I hear in the distorted orchestral audio:

Repeated attacks of the same note, say G, even if the note is a sustained note
Allegro gets slowed down to non-musical slowness(Yes, even slower than the Grave from the Pathetique Sonata level slow)
Strings especially sound robotic instead of like strings

I wait a while before playing the orchestral score again, same thing. At a Chamber Ensemble size score, this distortion is minimum(like the starting note and some trills might get distorted, but that's it pretty much it, repeated notes don't trigger distortion at this score size). For Solo Piano, it only really occurs in very fast runs at a fast tempo(like quintuplets or faster at Presto fast). Orchestral scores are the top 2 attachments, Chamber ensemble scores are in the middle, and Solo Piano scores are at the bottom of the attachments.

Why is it that the audio gets so distorted in orchestral scores? It obviously isn't my computer, because my computer was able to play all these scores without any distortion before in previous Musescore versions and my computer hasn't changed. It must have to do with the Musescore software itself. Plus, it isn't just me that is experiencing this distortion in orchestral scores.

OS: Windows 10
Musescore Version: Musescore 3.3.4


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

You don't even notice anything with the orchestral scores like sudden slowing down that isn't notated or an especially robotic sound to the strings or repeated attacks of a sustained note? I notice those big time in orchestral scores, especially when there are tremolos and/or trills. I don't know if it is because they were saved in a previous Musescore version(Probably 3.0.5 in the case of the Pathetique Sonata and 3.3.2 or 3.3.3 in the case of Eine Kleine Nachtmusic for Orchestra) or what, just that my computer's audio is unlikely to be the source of the distortion issue.

Do you hear the same distortion when exporting the score to an audio format?
If not, then it points to a resource issue on your PC during live-rendering of the score. I am not aware of any big code changes there between 3.3.3 and 3.3.4 though.

In reply to by jeetee

Caters,
I loaded your score for Mozarts 40th. No distortion. Or slowdown. If you are using the default sound font, I changed all strings to fast expr. Plus, panned instruments properly, and made the reverb wetter. Sounded much better to me.

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