Editing with only MIDI output does not send note off signal

• May 2, 2019 - 17:47

I tried GarageBand and I liked the piano sound when I play my score in MuseScore with the MIDI output. Then I thought why not removing all SoundFonts in my score and work only with the MIDI output to GarageBand when I'm editing the score. However it seems when I click on a note it sends the "note on" signal but never sends a "note off" signal. So I assume the MIDI output in MuseScore is only for playback, and you have to use a SoundFont when editing, am I right? Screenshot attached is MIDI messages sent when I press a note with the mouse and release it.

Attachment Size
Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 12.42.06 PM.png 42.68 KB

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• May 2, 2019 - 19:15

I don't think that assumption is right. I step enter while monitoring without using a soundfont. Thus, I write while monitoring. The exported midi file shows note off events also. However, if you try to record while writing, on the one hand, you may have to put Garageband in step mode, since Musescore cannot transcribe accurately or fast enough to replicate the recording. I don't use or expect that. But nothing requires a soundfont or use of the internal synth.

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• May 28, 2019 - 15:07

I can confirm that MuseScore 3 does not send Note Off MIDI commands while editing notes. If you simply click on any note in a stave while you have a MIDI keyboard (or other MIDI sink) connected it starts playing the note, but never ends.

Here's an ALSA dump of the data that is sent while clicking on a random note in a score:

Press:
134:0 Control change 0, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 0, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 0, value 0
134:0 Control change 1, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 1, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 1, value 0
134:0 Control change 2, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 2, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 2, value 0
134:0 Control change 3, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 3, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 3, value 0
134:0 Control change 4, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 4, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 4, value 0
134:0 Note on 0, note 69, velocity 80

Release:
134:0 Control change 0, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 0, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 0, value 0
134:0 Control change 1, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 1, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 1, value 0
134:0 Control change 2, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 2, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 2, value 0
134:0 Control change 3, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 3, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 3, value 0
134:0 Control change 4, controller 64, value 0
134:0 Control change 4, controller 123, value 0
134:0 Pitch bend 4, value 0

You can plainly see that there is no note off.

The same effect can be seen by opening the Piano Keyboard (P) panel and selecting a note in the score. The associated note illuminates on the keyboard and doesn't go out.

Another example is if you start playing the score through MIDI. Pressing the stop button leaves the currently playing notes lingering on the keyboard.

It's not such a problem if you have it set to piano or something like that, but it's really really really annoying when you have a violin, or organ, or something like that, which keeps screeching away forever after pressing stop. Fortunately, my keyboard has quite low polyphony, so I just mash the keys until it goes away.

  • OS: Ubuntu 19.04, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.0.5., revision: 58dd23d

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• Sep 23, 2019 - 06:50

Is there a way to up vote this at all? I find it incredibly frustrating. It shouldn't be that difficult to add a note off midi message during editing should it? I much prefer to write my scores but pipe the midi out to my DAW for improved sound, however this simple bug makes it almost impossible. At the moment my only work around is to have "Play Notes When Editing" turned off. Then, when ever I want to audition a small section I hit "Ins" at the intended end point to insert a bar, then I audition the section I wanted to hear (inserting the bar rest ensures that a note off message is sent) and then I need to hit Ctrl+z to undo the insertion of that new bar. It is incredibly frustrating.

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• Sep 24, 2019 - 00:10

Could make a post to the issue-tracker? Based on what was expressed, two things are in error here, and the more important one imo is with the lack of note-offs when stopping playback. So as fixes, maybe something like:

1) At the stopping of playback, a means to accessing all current note-on events needs to be available and correlated note-offs need to be sent as midi messages on their appropriate channels.

2) There's no active time domain during editing, so in order to send a note-off in a timely fashion, a timer event would need to be triggering correlated note-offs based on current bpm and note size. Or, to simplify things, just make a default tone like a quarter tone be standard during editing upon midi-out and send corresponding note-offs in a default time-based fashion, e.g. 250ms.

Either way, the problems do sound frustrating.

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• Sep 25, 2019 - 02:26

I ended up doing two separate ones as it was clearer to describe the process to reproduce the behavior for each different scenario (rather than trying to describe two different things within the same issue). Although the same (undesired) behavior is occurring, it is more than likely for two different reasons (eg, note-off on transport stop is a different bug to note-off on edit I presume) so I figured it was easiest to track these issues separately. If you would rather combine them into one issue, by all means do so! I'm not intending to be a nuisance double poster

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• Dec 3, 2019 - 05:52

A possibly related problem (sorry if this should be a new thread) is Note Offs apparently being lost when three conditions are in effect:
1. Any transposition is set in Staff Properties (i.e., any non-concert pitch Instrument is chosen---Bb Clarinet, Electric Bass (plays octave lower), etc. OR, a manual transposition is set in Staff Properites)
2. Either of the Real-Time modes (Automatic, Manual) are used.
3. Midi is input from an external Midi keyboard.
---I discovered this when trying to enter a Bass part (with Electric Bass as Instrument) when in Real-Time (Automatic) mode. Every note played would continue to be entered upon each metronome click. No notes were ever released. Then I found it was happening also in Real-Time (Manual) mode. I spent hours trying to find the source, thinking it was my keyboard. I brought in a different keyboard--same problem.
---Oddly, it wasn't happening with a piano track (Piano as Instrument). Next, I thought it was a problem with the Electric Bass soundfont. But I gradually noticed it happened with any instrument that involved transposition in the Staff. And subsequently, that I could cause the problem by manually setting a transposition in Staff Properties.
---The problem doesn't seem to occur until I use either of the Real-Time modes. But once the problem does occur, then going back to other Note Entry modes does not "fix" it. The conglomerate of ALL notes pressed continues to be entered. In fact, in Step Mode, after this problem occurs once, further Midi input (from the keyboard) is not recorded in the staff. (Input with the mouse & cursor still works.)
---The serious end result is I am NOT able to use Real-Time note input when the Staff is occupied by any other than a concert-pitch Instrument. This happened in MuseScore 3.0 and continues in MuseScore 3.3.3.
---It could be entirely something else is going on. But it would seem that in the Real-Time modes, that in the process of transposing the notes, the Note Offs are lost. I expected to see a ton of reports about this behavior, but this is the only thread I found somewhat related.
---In the screen capture, see also that the SAME notes input in Real-Time mode are "recorded" yet an octave LOWER. It's sort of "implementing" the Staff Property octave-lower transposition in realtime. So naturally, in Playback, those notes also do playback an octave-lower. In other words, in Playback, the notes that are input via Real-Time mode become a compounded 2 octaves lower than what was played on the Midi keyboard. So I consider that another bug. (The screen capture shows red "out of range" notes. But this problem occurs even when all notes are in-range.) (A Pedal-Off event did not fix the problem.)

Attachment Size
Note Offs Lost.PNG 36.44 KB

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• Jan 28, 2023 - 21:36

I'm still experiencing this bug.
It happens when I quickly change the note using the arrow keys.
I use NI Kontakt for the sound.
Here is my MuseScore version:
OS: macOS 12.6, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 4.0.1-230121751, revision: 9b70a8c

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