Musescore doesn't see my soundcard nor my midi interfaces. So, no sound.

• Aug 10, 2020 - 20:04

Hi, Everyone.
Musescore does not see my Soundcard (RME BabyFace Pro), nor my several MIDI keyboards, and also MIXER and SYNTHESIZER and PLAY button are greyed.
Maybe it has something to do with Catalina. Don't know....
I've tried everything I've read at the posts (factory reset / install-reinstall app / check security-privacy at macOS Systems Preferences..etc). Nothing has worked. It happens with Musescore 2.3.2 AND with Musescore 3.5 (I have both installed here). The last time I've used Musescore it was OK, and it was before I have upgraded to Catalina. That's why I think that maybe there is some compatibility issue about the OS.
Thaks for any help.


Comments

In reply to by Shoichi

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I've seen all of that before. Nothing helps.
I did Restore Musescore's Factory Settings several times.
As SYNTHESIZER is greyed, I cannot replace SoundFont, cause I can't reach SYNTHESIZER's window.
My Soundcard is Up to Date, because it works good with all other apps. And I've already checked that the latest driver is installed.
I've already click RESTART AUDIO and MIDI DEVICES several times.
The only thing I didn't do yet was reset PRAM NVRAM.

In reply to by Shoichi

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I've seen all of that before. Nothing helps.
I did Restore Musescore's Factory Settings several times.
As SYNTHESIZER is greyed, I cannot replace SoundFont, cause I can't reach SYNTHESIZER's window.
My Soundcard is Up to Date, because it works good with all other apps. And I've already checked that the latest driver is installed.
I've already click RESTART AUDIO and MIDI DEVICES several times.
The only thing I didn't do yet was reset PRAM NVRAM.

I have the issue too. I'm using MS 3.5 and MacOS 10.15.6.
My midi controller works fine with Logic. But in MS I can't even open the MIDI input and output settings. When I click on it, nothing happens.
The synthesizer and mixer items on the view menu are grayed out too.

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I did a test here. I work on a MacMini running Catalina, but I have an old MacBookPro that can only run till El Capitan. I've just installed Musescore 3.5 on this MBP and........It runs perfectly. With nothing greyed out, Synthesizer OK, Mixer OK and Play button Ok.
So, I cannot say for sure , but I really believe that this issue we are dealing with has something to do with Catalina and all the security protocols it has created.

In reply to by antkn33@gmail.com

Is everyone here with the problem on windows 10? No matter, everyone needs to try the instructions in https://musescore.org/en/node/96811 Try everything for your operating system. No matter how silly, they have helped people before. If you try everything for your operating system, then let us know and tell us your operating system so someone familiar with your OS can come up with other ideas.

In reply to by antkn33@gmail.com

Yes, seriously. People ignore steps all the time because they think they are silly, irrelevant to their system or some other reason. As far as knowing what operating system you use, I can't help you on a Mac, I might be able to come up with an idea or 2 more for windows.

The next question I would probably ask is if it worked in a previous version. Most people, but not all include the important info like "I just plugged in my midi device for the first time ever and now it doesn't work." Since those trying to help you know nothings whatsoever about you or your machine, you must supply info that will allow them to help you.

Hi, everyone. I've tried this morning the last step suggested by that page with several actions to bring back MS sound, which is RESET NVRAM/PRAM. Nothing changed. MS keeps not seeing synthesizer nor my audio hardware. Only thing to do is wait developers to give some atention to this issue. Maybe a 3.6 update to fix this.

On my Mac mini, none of the MIDI devices show up (in or out).
I do get sound, but there's a problem selecting which output actually gets the sound. I have three options: Headphone jack, HDMI monitor's built-in speakers, or the Mac Mini internal speaker. For a while, it was always sounding through only the Mac Mini internal speaker, regardless of which option I chose in Musescore Preferences or Macos System Preferences. Something changed along the way, and now the sound is stuck coming out of the HDMI monitor's speakers, and again, neither preference setting is able to change the output.

In reply to by santisanahuja

FWIW, in the old days, when it came to external sound devices, they first had to be connect and turned on, then we had to go into Finder/Preferences/Audio and select the device in input and output as needed. It was a while back. I don't know if those settings exist any more.

In reply to by salvadorbahia1

Since it works for almost everyone, and none of how for whom it works knows how to get it to not work, it's unfortunately not something that can be easily fixed at our end. Almost certainly the thing that prevents it from working on your system is something very specific to your system - some piece of hardware you have installed than most people don't. So far we've heard a few reports from people having problems with FocusRite MIDI devices, for instance, and I think I recall hearing it was possible to fix it by changing some setting in their software - I think it is "stealing" the audio driver and making it unavailable to other programs like MuseScore that want direct access to it. There are other devices and programs that cause different problems.

So if you'd like to see this resolve, really the best thing to do is start temporarily disabling other audio programs and devices and then restarting MuseScore (possibly also rebooting) to see if it starts working. Then we'll know about another combination to tell people to watch out for. But there still might not be anything we can do about it.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thank you very much for your explanation. Until now, i was really thinking that it was a very common issue, as it seemed to be at the moment that I've wrote the post, months ago.

I've made a test here , unplugging all midi devices and my RME audio interface and....nothing.
I've even unistalled and reinstalled Musescore 3.6.2 and restart computer several times. Nothing changes.
Mixer and Synth disabled at VIEW tab, and PortAudio I/O screen is blank and doesn't accept any change.

But I'm quite sure that it has something do to with Catalina AND Portaudio. I'm saying that because I have Audacity installed here (at the same machine) and it also doesn't work. I can open the software, load an audio file, but Audacity is not able to play the audio. It tells me there is an error while opening the audio device. And it doesn't matter if it's my default audio interface (RME BabyFace Pro) or the built in sound I/O of my Mac Mini.

Another very strange behavior happens when I try to download Musescore General HQ and Musescore Drumline : the download crashes !! It tells me to check my internet connection, but internet is always OK.

It's important to say that all other stuff at my studio works ok. I use Logic with tons of Kontakt libraries and plugins, iLok, 5 keyboards as MIDI interfaces, other softs like Adobe Audition, Reason rewired into Logic, etc, etc. And everything works fine. The only strange behavior comes from Musescore and Audacity after Catalina.
But, one more time, thank you very much for your answer, and congratulations for the awsome software that your team has developed.

In reply to by salvadorbahia1

Thanks for the followup! It's a "sort of" common issue, one we hear a report about every other day or so, which seems like a lot until you realize that's out of millions of users. So, a couple of hundred reports a year is incredibly small in percentage terms. Probably there is some particular device or applications all these people have that is the trigger - or, more likely, some set of devices or programs that are capable otf triggering this, and everyone experiencing this has at least one of them. So far, I only know of the FocusRite MIDI devices as particular ones recently identified as problematic, but I can't keep this all straight because hardware and divide drivers aren't my thing, and there is only so much room in my head.

Most of the reports we get about this are on Windows, but that's not surprising, since most users are on Windows. Of the macOS users I recall having issues, a decent percentage of them reported success following the instructions in the FAQ article - I think the PRAM reset or whatever was the ticket for most.

But yeah, the fact that Audacity is also having issues on your system is a great clue - I just wish I knew what it meant.

The failure of the extension to download is not related, that much is known and understand - we set too long a timeout out on it. 20 second, I think. Get a fast enough internet connect and it will work. Or search the forum for a thread explaining how you can download and install the MUXT file manually.

Hi, everyone. Finally, after almost 2 years of this unsolved issue, I've found a workaround for that problem. I installed an old version of Musescore (3.0) and choosed JACK AUDIO instead of trying to choose my normal sound interface. Before that, I've downloaded the Jack Audio server, and I admit that I do not understand exactly what it is. But it has worked. Then, I started to install​ ​a newer version of ​M​usescore, starting with 3.1, 3.2...etc. So , I discovered that my problems started with the first 3.5 version. I mean : everything went OK until 3.4.2 (the version just before the first 3.5). Since the 3.5 was installed, the issue of invisible hardware came back. It's important to say that I've tried several sound interfaces, to be sure that it was not a specific issue with my RME BabyFace Pro. I've plugged in a DUET from Apogee, a Scarlett from Focusrite and a​ ​FireBox from Presonus. Then, after all of that, I'm stuck with the 3.4.2​ Musescore​ version, with the JACK AUDIO choice at the I/O window, and I can normally use​ the software​. I hope this journey can help anyone else with the same issue. By the way : you can find the older Musescore versions at the bottom of the same page you use to download its newest version. Bye bye.

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