Output volume

• Sep 15, 2011 - 09:13

Why is volume at musescore set so low by that I have to turn computer speakers to 50 in order to hear music. With other programs and everyday use volume is set to around 14 but when I do something with musescore I always have to turn it up to 50. What should I do to get output from musescore to normal level?


Comments

There are several places in MuseScore where you can increase the volume. The flow goes like this.
You put notes in the staves, and you choose the volume for each note via dynamics . When you press play, you can change the volume of the playback via Display -> Play panel. The synthesizer renders the sound, and you can change the volume of the synth in Display-> Synthesizer. The resulting sound is send to your operating system and you can change the volume here as well (close to the clock on windows) and then to your speakers (if they are external, they might have a volume knob as well).

I appreciate that there are different places where the volume can be altered, but I agree with the post - I keep having to turn my pc volume up much higher than I do for most other audio signals. For example, every time I download a piece from the very helpful community panel on the right and play it, if I get it a comfortable volume and then try to close that tab, it prompts me to save it, and my pc's default sound for that dialog is deafening.

BTW, the earlier comment suggests that the synthesizer volume can be set higher independently of the play panel volume, but the two are the same control as far as I can see.

Is there some independent setting at a programming level where the volume is decided - I guess there must be, since there is no given understanding of how loud any particular instrument should be. Actually, this may also be an issue in regard to setting the volume for different instruments. I wouldn't know the ins and outs of it, I just wanted to add support to the OP, and in my experience most of the pieces I've listened to seem to need the volume way up.

In reply to by John Freestone

It's basically down to the particular soundfont being used at the time, and the default TimGM6mb soundfont is a little on the quiet side.

The other thing you have to remember about volume is that you can have the sliders in the Play Panel and Mixer, wound as high as they will go, but if the dynamics of the piece are set at ppp then the low velocity of the notes means it will still be merely a whisper.

Incidentally there should be a Windows system volume control for the software synth which plays the SoundFont.

You probably already know to right click the volume control on the System Tray, and choose Open Volume Control - just check that the software synth level doesn't need boosting - your desktop sounds will be played through the Wave Audio system and will have their own level set here too.

HTH
Michael

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Ok, thanks ChurchOrganist, I'm completely new to MIDI. I didn't realise it was playing "soundfonts". Never heard of em before! That makes sense. I also realised that if there were a lot of instruments playing, the whole would sound louder, and some subjective balance has to be found.

Sure, I realise that the dynamics text will change the level - I just meant that the default piano sound (in particular) without any dynamic markings seemed far too low. I see there are also two other brighter piano voices in the soundfont file, or I can tweak the dynamics, use a different voice or download and try a different soundfont. That should do it.

However, my synthesizer volume slider in the Windows dialog doesn't seem to affect the volume of MS sounds, but the wave audio does - is this wrong?

Cheers,
John

This also bugs me. I looked at the comments here, and I changed the volume in both Play Panel and the Synthesizer, but I still have to crank the volume on my speakers very high. It is impossible to even get the volume I want, because it starts to distort long before that.

In reply to by snusifer

This definitely should not be the case - the default volume of MuseScore is currently quite loud. Do you have the current version (2.0.3) or are you still using the one being talked about in this old thread from 2011 (I believe that was 1.1 or 1.2)? If you are still seeing this on a current version, try Help / Revert to Factory Settings to be sure you didn't inadvertently mess something up. If you still have trouble, tell us what OS, what soundfont and volume settings you see in View / Synthesizer, and also attach the score you are having trouble with - could be the score itself is set to play back very quietly (like if the dynamics are "pp", or the velocity of the individual notes has been set low, or if you've been playing with the Mixer).

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