MuseScore Closed unexpectedly
Reported version
2.3
Type
Functional
Severity
S2 - Critical
Status
closed
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project
When opening an existing score with new version of MuseScore, sometimes no sound on playback. Going to View and selecting Synthesiser the programme closes and you have to reopen it, automatically recovering the score. You are then able to go back to view, select synthesiser and add a sound font, thereafter it works fine until you encounter another score that does not have playback then the same thing happens again.
Comments
Have you tried: menu "Help" -> Revert to Factory Settings
Otherwise, please attach an existing score for checking.
Why would I restore to factory settings? I have set it up for my own preferences . I have hundred of scores, I was was updating them to my latest style, most work fine but some for some reason have lost their soundfonts, that was attached to them, and it is these ones that when you go to add a sound font the programme crashes.
Then please attach one of the scores that cause the crash
In reply to Then please attach one of… by Jojo-Schmitz
"for some reason have lost their soundfonts, that was attached to them,"
Did you go into the sythesizer and use the save to score button on these scores? Do these scores have different sound fonts saved to them than you have loaded in MuseScore? Finally, which versions specifically are your using? 2.3.1? 2.3.2? ...and which operating system?
FWIW, the reason to try revert to factory settings is that sometimes problems stem from settings left over from older versions that are no longer appropriate for a the current version. But one might be understandably reluctant to lose preference settings. if it comes down to it, you can always save the config file with those preferences and then restore them afterwards, but I kind of doubt a revert is going to solve your problem here. Seems more liekly to be something about the soundfonts you are trying to use and how/if the soundfont info is saved to the score. Which is why, in order to investigate further, we do need you too attach a score that exhibits a problem, and also tell us which soundfonts are currently loaded into MuseScore.
[Off-topic] Generally, I think "Revert to Factory Settings" is a good suggestion for support requests. For issues like this one, though, reverting to factory settings would make identifying underlying problems harder, would it not? [/Off-topic]
Oh, what was unintentional. sorry.
Very hard to select a score that exhibits the problem, as the programme closes and when you reopen it works fine. In 10 existing Scores opened only one exhibits the problem. I thought I had solved it with saving my preferred soundfont, but no. I am currently going through my scores to update their style, so when I have done this I am sure the problem will have been eliminated if not I will repost it as a new problem
In reply to Very hard to select a score… by mradson68@gmail.com
Hi Andrew,
Im curious to know what OS and what your sound driver configuration is....
I was having similar issues here independent of the build I use the app heavily... The only thing that is common between here builds is how I have the sound fonts loaded and the sound I/O configured...
I have created over 300 pieces here and only time I have had file issues has ostensibly been when creating something with the development build. Much of the stuff I have downloaded off the website I have found has had errors in the file (nothing that wasn't fixable).
The only time I have had an error created in a file was when the app crashed when closing the tab when the user input and playing I would assume should be in a idle state. Resetting the config file is painful but it takes me about 5 minutes to revert it back to where I like things. I haven't found it fix anything....
I found an issue with the sound driver I have been having for quite some time and since sorting that out the app on the 2x branch hasn't skipped a beat and what I call a "stable" version of the master project works just as reliably. MIDI timing and keyboard note input doesn't skip notes and I can play some very complex arrangements without sound dropouts or problems.
Hi Ron,
I useMAC High Sierra Version 10.13.6, MuseScore 2.3.2. I use soundfonts museScore_general.sf3 and PluckedStrings.sf2, but I have used others without problems. I have over 500 scores set up for mandolin and Tenor guitar with my own defined template and style. I have had issues in the past with MuseScore quitting unexpectedly and usually with a new version or an upgrade of Mac Software. Earlier this year I had problems with not of my tunes being able to play but I removed MuseScore completely including all the files, except template, style and the scores. I then reloaded the programme set it up to my preferences etc and it worked fine. After the last upgrade everything appeared to be ok. I then modified my style setting and started to work through my scores, opening them up and loading the new style and saving them. Some work fine, others when you open them the will not play and as soon as you go to the synthesiser, the programme quits with the usual fault screen. When you automatically open it again to previous screen before it fails it works fine, you save your Synthesiser, and instrument and it plays fine. If you do not play it MuseScore works fine but on in every 5 scores fail.
To be honest I am not really bothered about the playback on MuseScore, but I really raised this issue as it was a new version of the software and I had experienced this some time before without really raising it as an issue.
I do get a lot of my Music from the internet in ABC format. I use the ABC input plugin which has served me really well. I have a template for Mandolin and one for Tenor guitar and I then just cut and paste from the score generated by the ABC plugin to give me the tabs for each instrument.
Cheers
Andrew
In reply to Hi Ron,… by mradson68@gmail.com
Hi Andrew
Thanks for the reply... I was kind of hoping it was not Windows OS as it sounded like a similar issue :)
Here my setup is an older Mac Mini machine Running OSX10.11. I use the scoring software daily for my workflow. In addition to MuseScore I also use a DAW (Cubase Elements 9.5) with a Yamaha MG-XU 16 channel mixer and MIDI Keyboard and allied instruments. I Have over 300 pieces of work created using MuseScore and my library is growing daily, I enjoy any genre' from Classical to Pop/Rock. All my recording work, including "mastering" is all stored digitally to 19k2/24.
The present release version stability issues I have experienced perhaps are similar or the same as yours Andrew, and it seems to be in how the app interfaces with I/O that causes an knock on effect on other elements of the app. I include the internal Synth as I/O in this thought process. ( Jo Jo said in response to my bug report that he considers it to be all related to the Synth issues)
Some of my "local history"... The DAW sound driver I/O for my mixer has been very problematic since Apple changed the Driver design specifications, getting this challenging driver to perform without burping, indirectly I compounded it all by trying to run a simultanious attachment to the driver using wave file tables at 9600/24 or lower (Musescore's Synth), together with a MIDI connection that is burping, recording playback has been less than what was claimed the driver was capable of doing. To eliminate the contention off the MG-XU driver I now have a separate I/O and hardware driver for each application, an A/D that will work up to 9k6/24 for MuseScore. I feed back this hardware output (I/O) into a separate stereo channel input on my mixer. All is happy.
So onto MuseScore specifically...
I found in setting up MuseScore using the Core audio configuration is more reliable at least with OSX even with the inbuilt A/D (Soundcard). Instead of using the native hardware driver as I do for the DAW, I am using the Jack Audio driver exclusively for MuseScore I/O (configured with JACKPilot) that in tern is configured to use the separate hardware I/O exclusively. I have jack pilot configured in hog mode set to 9k6 with a buffer of 1024 and with MIDI enabled. When restarting the machine I have to check that these changes are in the config file and have been read by Jack before starting the sound driver and then starting MuseScore still looking at what it is actually reading on startup but config seems to forget these two things the MIDI not being enabled is annoying, the documentation mentions something about MIDI being buggy so I guess this is why they don't want it to be enabled on startup but I do....
In this configuration I have not had any issues with MuseScore crashing on startup or opening up a file pushing go back to start on the player, on closing a tab or corrupting an arrangement, the MIDI input and output doesn't miss any notes anymore on playback, and the keyboard input of notes into MuseScore has little to no appreciable delay.
Note that in this config the jack driver occasionally fails (usually when it has been idle for few hours). Jack under Mac needs some love I think...
I wonder Andrew how your I/O is configured?
All the best to you and to the team.
Hi Ron,
I am not as technically versed as yourself with I/O etc. I just use the default setting as I do not input with any devices connected to my MAC.
After writing a reply to you yesterday, it started me focusing on when and where the closures were taking place. I have a theory which I cannot prove yet. In previous version I had 5 soundfonds into the synthesiser then sometimes I would play about with the sounds in the mixer depending on the tune I was wanting to playback. As the scores are mostly mandolin related I would mostly use the gibson mandolin from the plucked strings soundfont, but I have also used other setting depending on the score being Irish, Scottish folk or old time so sometimes chang to violin, fiddle, accordion, flute etc. these being from the lists of sounds in the mixer, which I assume this list is generated by the soundfonts loaded into the synthesiser. On this latest version I only loaded two soundfonts, so could it be the case that when I open a piece, I have previously saved, and try the playback, if it cannot find the sound or the soundfont it goes looking for it or just goes into a loop and when I open the synthesiser it then closes. My only doubt is that when I open again I usually go directly into the synthesiser and load up a soundfont and select a sound in the mixer and it plays fine. As I have only being updated the style of my scores, so I can use it on my iPad, I have not been using the playback and I never had one failing on me. I have just now loaded up all the soundfonts into the synthesiser so I will try the playback on the next batch to see if this has eliminated the fault.
Andrew
Ron,
Just as a footnote, I have opened about 10 scores and played them, all but one played. One did not playback and I was able to open it up and add the soundfonts to it. So maybe on the right track, fingers crossed.
Andrew
I have a question. When it does not crash are you double clicking the .mscz file to open MuseScore or are you opening it from inside MuseScore like when it does crash?
I am opening inside MuseScore. I would say that since I have added the soundfonts to the synthesiser I am not experiencing the same amount of failures but I am certain it is all associated with the Synthesiser and the mixer setting when you try to use they playback
That would be my guess. I was trying to understand what's different between the time it crashes and doesn't. A programmer would need to look at what is loaded by other score that might lead to a crash. When it crashes, are you answering "Yes," when it asks if you want to restore the previous session?
Mike,
When I open an existing score from within MuseScore and try to use playback usually it does not play. then I try to go to Synthesiser it crashes. I do answer Yes and it opens fine and I can go direct to Synthesiser to add soundfonts. I can of course open any existing score and modify it without it crashing.
In reply to Mike,… by mradson68@gmail.com
Hi Andrew
Ok on using the default settings, etc all good.
The behaviour you have indicated is the same as what I have experienced.
If not doing already, see if running with no other apps loaded on your machine helps - including web browsing :) I've even disabled the network port (incl. pull the cable out) and wifi at times with previous OS updates because those drivers (the interrupt service routines specifically) were slowing things down on the DAW and MuseScore ... OSX 10.11.6 with my hardware seems to be ok on those drivers.
If you are loading different sound font libraries with each piece then wait for the fonts to load up before doing anything is worthwhile. I read recently that the sound font files are decompressed and loaded into memory on startup and that takes on my machine about 3 seconds for things to settle for the app to appear to stop hogging the CPU (looking at a CPU % activity meter, with the DAW I use running as well) .
With the sound font quirkiness you most recently mentioned, what I do to manage it is after defaulting the app set the Muse Score preferences, then my Synth preferences, then restart the app before playing. Alter the sound font defaults, load up a piece of work without intending to alter, view the sound font library (you need to do this to be able to access the view synth menu option), then add and adjust the playback instruments sound fonts queue and order of preference as desired and of course save as default (not to the score). Before playing, close the piece of work file (without saving any changes). When it is re-opend after setting up the synth it will point correctly to the desired sound fonts. What seems to help is to wait about 3-5 seconds to commence playing after first starting up the app.
I don't know how you manage backing up your works. I manage the crashing by do frequent backups and after reading some forum Q&A yesterday, I'd suggest that once you finish editing a piece you export it using Music XML and keep that as a backup in addition to the MuseScore file.
Hi Ron,
Since adding all the soundfonts to the synthesiser I have almost eliminated the crashes, very rarely now do I get a failure. With respect to files etc. I use Box and have set up a folder that holds all my scores, the associated PDF files and any mp3 that I want. I also keep my master MuseScore file with the templates, styles, etc soundfonts folders. I then Have MuseScore linked to these files. It works for me and I always have a master backup, that I can use on my iPad as well. So when I update MuseScore I have to set it up again to link into these files, a bit of a hassle but I feel worth it.
Andrew
In reply to Hi Ron,… by mradson68@gmail.com
Hi Andrew,
It sounds like you explained where I was eventually going with my questioning. Maybe someone will be able to use your information and fix the problem because MuseScore should not crash because you opened a score that was created with a different sound font, it's supposed to just use default sounds if the sondfont it was created with is not present.
I'm changing this to critical because it does cause a crash.
Mike
I need to be clear on what was causing the crash, It is not when I open a score. The sequence of events that causes the crash is :
open an existing score, then playback, nothing happens, open Synthesiser and musescore crashes , reopen using last defaults, it opens fine. Go to synthesiser and add the soundfont change instrument in mixer. then playback works fine. I find if I open a piece then go directly to synthesiser add soundfont, if I need to, then select instrument in mixer I can then playback without problem. It is only when you use playback and its silent, that trying to correct it caused the crash, so I assume its because the Playback is searching for the soundfont/instrument that is not installed, although I am not certain that this is the case.
Andrew
In reply to Mike… by mradson68@gmail.com
Thanks for the clarification. A programmer should be able to use the info to eliminate the crash.
#273783: Crash when playing and closing score whilst synthesiser loads
This, or the issues linked within, might be related.
In reply to Hi Ron,… by mradson68@gmail.com
Hi Andrew
Im glad that you have found a workaround. The size / number of files causes some instabilities and pushing that is about the only way I can get it to crash now which I think is a real indicator of how much effort has gone into the latest stable release. Way better than the commercial stuff.
I've created a Music XML "backup" of my works and Im going to try using the Nightly builds again.
All the best and thanks to the team for an awesome product.
Ron
Like you I have to agree that this is by far the best on the marketplace, especially for what i use it for. I would not use any other
Andrew