Chord symbol playback: allow user to turn off in Preferences

Click on the chord symbol, open the Inspector view/window, click on the small 'S' next to the Play checkbox (make sure it's unchecked!). Then save the style. Not ideal, but a workaround nonetheless.

To me this is major.

This is by design. The reason is, if this control were a preference, then you would have no control over playback on musescore.com, no control over how your score sounds to anyone else.

So instead, the control is per-score, so it is saved with the score, uploads with the score. etc. So, it's not a workaround, but the actual solution, the expected way you can customize your score to not playback chord symbols, not just for you but for anyone listening to that score.

Right now I cannot see any reason to change this design, but if someone wants to propose a new design that solves those fundamental problems with making it a preference, I encourage you to do so in the forum. Best to first read over the previous discussions of the topic and the arguments already made and considered there.

I could certainly make an argument for a global default from which new scores are initialized.

Agree 100%. I have created many charts. In order to hear them now, I will have to click on every chord symbol and turn off the chord sound. That's dozens of changes for each chart. Plus the chords that are sounding include very deep piano notes that distort my computer speakers. Please find a simple Preference work around. As it is, all I can change in preferences is "Play chord when editing" which has no impact on playback. Please please please.

Again, no need to do this for every chord. Just do it for one, then hit "Set as style". So it takes literally a few secodns regardless of the size of your score.

As explained above, the issue with a preference is then you have no control over playback on musescore or elsewhere. So this isn't a bug, it's by design, and as a suggestion, we'd need a more concrete proposal for how this could work without breaking compatibility for everyone. If you have ideas for a new design that somehow solves these problems, please propose it for discussion in the forum.

Meanwhile, the idea of having the style setting default to off for older scores is not out of the question. Again, something for further discussion on the forum for those who missed the original discussions of this.

A preference that only controlled the default for new scores is a good idea, one I also proposed at some point, but no one else seemed excited by it. I could imagine a similar preference for choosing default font, maybe a couple of others things. But, this is all already quite possible, just save a style file and specify that as your default in Edit / Preferences / Scores.

It is by design. Again, if someone has a new idea for a new design, it should be discussed on the forum first. Please do not make further changes to the status of this issue.

I completely miss the rationale beyond the explanation.
How an additional preference allowing you to switch chord on or off could cause any problem with MuseScore.com???

Users would miss the new feature. Scores wold play chord symbols on musescore.com but on on some user's PCs or vice versa

The issue is that (unless a user uses "other" soundfounts, or doesn't have the latest MuseScore) a score should play back the same way on all users' machines and on the site. Preferences should not affect how an extant score is played back.

To be clear: imagine creating a score. It has chord symbols. You upload it to musescore.com, or you email a copy to someone else. Will the chord symbols play, or not play? The only way you can be sure is if the setting controlling this is part of the score and thus uploaded/emailed with it, not locked away within your own private user preferences. Heck, even another user account accessing the same file on your same computer might have different preferences set up.

Preferences are per user, global to the program. Style settings are per score, global to all users accessing that score. In order to make sure everyone hears the same thing for the same score, this has to be a score style setting.

So again, if someone wants to propose a new scheme that somehow replaces the clear distinction between user preferences and score style settings with something else and somehow solves the problem, that would be a great thing to discuss - on the forum, please.

I still don't understand what would be the issue with a global preference saying:
Play chords:
-never
-as specified by score (default)
-always

If the user explicitely says "Never" or "Always" instead of the default, that will be his conscious choice to bypass any score setting.
And then??

I have no idea why you want to say "I don't want chords to play even when the score author asks that." How about a preference for no oboes, contrabass, or cowbells, or any type of guitar? Many people don't like guitars. Even less why you would want "I want the chords to play, even though the composer used them only analytically, and didn't expect them to be played.". You can easily turn them on or off for a score if that's what you really want.

My original explanation stands. It’s all about making sure you hear the same thing as others for the same score. If you happen to want to suppress the chord symbols in a score someone created that was designed to use them - or mute the oboes, or turn off the playback or dynamics of ornaments, or drop the clarinet parts down an octave - it’s certainly your right, but it shouldn’t happen by default.

Please do NOT continue to respond here. Further discussion belongs in the forum.

https://musescore.org/en/node/275458

https://musescore.org/en/node/308681