MuseScore Beta released for Mac OS X

• Jul 7, 2009 - 12:40

The MuseScore project has made yet another step forward with the release of a beta version for Mac OS X. It's available for download and has been successfully tested by several users on Mac Intel 10.4 & 10.5 as well as G4 10.4. More feedback for other platforms is very welcome as a comment on this post.

Nicolas Froment, aka Lasconic, has created this beta release, 3 months after Joachim Ganseman delivered the first alpha release. Since that time, numerous outstanding issues and bugs have been fixed which are stated in detail in a post on the developer mailing list. Lasconic also made the instructions available how to build MuseScore on Mac.

Comments

• Jul 8, 2009 - 10:39

I'm not really a coder or software tester at all, but I'm happy to help if possible. I haven't looked at this in Windows or Linux, so I don't know what of the stuff I see is

So far I've played with it for about five minutes: earliest thoughts are

-- it doesn't have Aqua look and feel
-- default save location is in ~/Applications, which is a very poor choice. Most common Mac approach is to ask on first save, but a good alternative is to create ~/Documents/MuseScore and default save to there.
-- a lot of the inputting feels a bit weird, for example backspace should always delete backwards and delete should always delete forwards -- as far as I can tell, delete deletes backwards and backspace doesn't do anything.
-- click and drag should select in the document.
-- 100% view defaults too small to see; I had to zoom to 150% to get something workable
-- there are some weirdnesses in display; I'll have a further look at this.
-- why doesn't it ask for a key signature when you create score? It was fairly clear how to add a key signature, but for some reason I tried it loads of times and it didn't work, and then suddenly it did.
-- I am not sure what happens in key entry mode and the other modes, what the differences are, and why it needs different modes.
-- I have leftover bars at the end of my piece (I asked for 16 and now have 24 and I don't know why) and I can't see how to get rid of them.

Anyway, hope that's helpful and sorry it's a bit of a jumble.

Alison

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• Jul 8, 2009 - 11:27

it doesn't have Aqua look and feel

Technically, MuseScore relies on QT which is another open source project to deliver the styling of the elements. While many elements are according the Aqua look and feel already, elements such as the toolbar need indeed some improvement. The next QT version might have improvements on board.

default save location is in ~/Applications, which is a very poor choice. Most common Mac approach is to ask on first save, but a good alternative is to create ~/Documents/MuseScore and default save to there.

The default working directory can be defined in Edit -> Preferences -> Working directory
But we just figured out this is a bug for 'save as', while it does work for open. See http://www.musescore.org/node/1998

a lot of the inputting feels a bit weird, for example backspace should always delete backwards and delete should always delete forwards -- as far as I can tell, delete deletes backwards and backspace doesn't do anything.

Indeed a bug. Filed at http://www.musescore.org/node/1996 BTW Backspace in Edit mode on windows is implemented as Undo, rather than remove previous note. So this should be the same behaviour on Windows.

click and drag should select in the document.

Use Shift + click + drag instead

100% view defaults too small to see; I had to zoom to 150% to get something workable

Filed. http://www.musescore.org/node/1997

there are some weirdnesses in display; I'll have a further look at this.

Don't hesitate to report about the weirdnesses.

why doesn't it ask for a key signature when you create score? It was fairly clear how to add a key signature, but for some reason I tried it loads of times and it didn't work, and then suddenly it did.

If you can provide us the steps to reproduce, we can try to fix it. Tip: when creating a score from a template, you can't indeed select a key signature. You can however select one when you start a score from scratch. For more info see the [[nodetitle:handbook]] : Create new score

I am not sure what happens in key entry mode and the other modes, what the differences are, and why it needs different modes.

The [[nodetitle:handbook]] answers these question in the note entry page

I have leftover bars at the end of my piece (I asked for 16 and now have 24 and I don't know why) and I can't see how to get rid of them.

CTRL + click on a measure doesn't work in the beta version of MuseScore for Mac. Filed as a bug: http://www.musescore.org/node/1999

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 21:37

Worked great building 1923 from svn without a hitch.

Just make sure you are using the current XCode developer tools. I tried a build on an earlier XCode and it failed around the audio system. It worked fine after updating to the current XCode.

I would be glad to compile nightlies/revision changes if someone wants them/has a place to upload them.

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 23:13

Regarding the period of builds, nightly are not good I think. We don't have an auto update feature, like Firefox has. So if you download rXXXX, you may never upgrade to rYYYY. Spreading a lot of different nightly build might not be good.

That's partly why I would prefer something similar to Windows. I try to release a windows prerelease every 30 commits or so. The ideal would be to synchronize Mac and Windows prereleases. Any idea ?

As a side note, releasing prereleases for every OS may lead to space the "stable" release...

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 23:29

I think nightlies are good for people who run into a wall with a bug and report it on the forum where someone replies with, fixed in rXXXX and then has to just sit and wait for the next seeded prerelease. And then cry knowing it's been fixed but can't use it.

I think it's always good for open source projects to have nightlies out for people who are more adept at dealing with and testing software. It will also lead to more people trying out the product if they can see the frequency of development going on for MuseScore (which has seemed to be ramping up nicely as of late). And lead to more bug reports from issues that we might not run into in our normal use of MuseScore.

I would divide the download section as such:

  • Stable
  • Prerelease (periodic "stable" betas)
  • Nightlies (current working commits .. not necessarily nightly but far more frequent then seeded prereleases)

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 23:53

That's a lot of work ;)
I see your point about nightlies. And apparently you see mine for prerelease.
I guess we can have a decent thing if we decide to do stable (of course) and weekly build. I still need to figure out a way of doing this on windows and found a windows server to automate the build.

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 22:21

Thanks! This software is perfect for school, and I can't thank you enough. And, on top of that, it's free! What more could I ask for?

Well, I suppose there is one thing...
Could you make the sideways school (on the Mighty Mouse) work, please? Then it would definitely be the BEST freeware ever. :D

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 22:41

Hi ZacT,
What do you mean with sideways school? I'm not familiar with the terminology. And what would you like it to do?

BTW stayed tuned for a second beta release with many more fixes.

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• Jul 10, 2009 - 23:07

Sorry, that was a typo. I meant to say the sideways scroll on the Mighty Mouse. At the moment you can only go up and down.

And I'm definitely looking forward to the second beta. :)

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• Jul 14, 2009 - 12:40

Beta 2 for MuseScore has been released and is available for download at http://prereleases.musescore.org/macosx/

Bugs fixed:

  1. Backspace is now mapped with Undo
  2. Printing via the menu item and shortcut ⌘+p
  3. Dotted blue line for measure selection looks solid on Mac (mac)

    4. There are currently no other outstanding bug reports.

    Noteworthy to mention is the audio output with the MuseScore Mac release can be routed with Jack. Read the instructions by Lasconic for more getting started.

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• Jul 17, 2009 - 02:42

First off, this is a great music tool.

I was able to install it easily and manually input a short score, but the play button produces no sound output
at all, though the cursor steps through the score. Is Jack required in order to hear audio from Mac OSX version?
Also, the WAV file export produces a silent file.

I am running MuseScore on a 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5, using OS version 10.5.7.

A couple of other notes -
files exported as .mid will not import to GarageBand (error msg: No SMPTE support)
files saved as .mscx will not open in the Windows version of MuseScore (v0.94)
files saved as .mscz will open in Windows, but some rests disappear

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give on getting audio output of my score!

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• Jul 18, 2009 - 00:24

Thanks for the advice. I have been to the Edit-> Preferences->I/O tab and tried all of the options. CoreAudio and Built-in Audio are the defaults, and they do work for sound from GarageBand.

But maybe the fact that the .WAV file comes out totally silent suggests a different direction - perhaps the
internal synthesizer is not working. It seems like such a failure would interfere with the WAV export as well
as spoiling audio output. Is the synth incorporated as part of the basic MuseScore code?
I wasn't supposed to install it separately, was I?

Are there error logs somewhere I should check?

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• Jul 18, 2009 - 01:29

I am attaching a text file of the errors visible in the console when I open MuseScore, try to play a few bars of
the demo piece (Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition), and then stop playback and close the
application. fluidsynth seems to be present, but there seems to be a problem reading the soundfont file,
even though it is the built-in piano sound. I have also tried other soundfonts, with the same errors.

Does this suggest a solution to anyone?

Attachment Size
museScore_error_log.txt 2.28 KB

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