Playback skipping and cracking

• Mar 12, 2019 - 14:44
Reported version
3.0
Type
Performance
Frequency
Many
Severity
S3 - Major
Reproducibility
Always
Status
needs info
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project

I am using Musescore 3 on Mac OS Mojave 10.14.3. When I attempt to use the playback feature, the audio skips and cracks frequently. I have also had issues when I separate the score into individual parts. In Musescore 2, I was able to hear the individual instruments, but now that is not possible. This was a very disappointing "upgrade".


Comments

I have also encountered this problem. It occurs when I am listening to the score in Musescore 3. It will go all weird and will eventually return to normal. However, if I am to export the arrangement to a MP3 file it sounds just fine. It is kinda annoying, but I'm confident it will be fixed soon.

System Info:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0), Arch.: x86_64
MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.0.5.5992
revision: 58dd23d

Status active needs info

In order to assist, we need you to attach the specific score you are having trouble with and give us precise steps to reproduce the problem.

Title Musescore 3 Playback Issue Playback skipping and cracking
  1. Open attached score (produced in 2.3.2).
  2. 'Play'.

Result: Crackling (see 'Actual result' - produced using Soundflower and Audacity).

Note: Although the exported audio is better, there are pops at the start and end (and it seems to begin rather immediately?).

Using MuseScore 3.1 Nightly Build f86361c - Mac 10.11.6.

I doubt it, because I'm running a 2009 Mac Pro and little else, and it's always been happening with affected scores (maybe it depends on the instrumentation).

@Jarod Smith mentions Windows, so maybe it's not OS-exclusive. Will check on a Windows 10 PC soon.

2009 is pretty old, what's the processor? Does the problem continue every time, or does it fix itself after a a couple of plays? If you run whatever utility macOS provides to show active processes and CPU/memory usage, what does it show?

2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

The problem never fixes itself.

About CPU when playing the full score:

Series 2: it peaked at 88.06% and there's no problem.
Series 3: It peaked at 68.48%. I tried some other scores, which peaked about 30%, and it was happening there.

Hi,
Offering a possible solution here just in case someone still has the same problem with the weird playback on Mac.

I am using MacOS Catalina, and I realised the problem lies with the outdated USB-MIDI driver of my MIDI controller.
Once you updated the driver to be compatible with your MacOS version, it should playback smoothly; it worked for me.
Hope this helps.