No audio output on Mac
Reported version
3.5
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S3 - Major
Reproducibility
Once
Status
needs info
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
MuseScore and system info
OS: macOS 10.16, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.5.2.312126096, revision: 465e7b6
Description of issue
Out of nowhere, all audio playback within MuseScore stopped working, when selecting notes, in play mode, and using a midi input device.
What I've tried
- Press Restart Audio and MIDI devices
- Trying all available outputs, including my monitor and mac mini
- Resetting MuseScore to factory settings
- Reinstalling MuseScore
- Restarting my Mac
- Restarting the CoreAudio process (
coreaudiod)
and the issue persists.
Comments
Same has happened for me on Windows 10 Enterprise (26th Dec. 2020).
Menu - View - Mixer and Synthesizer are grey and cannot be clicked. So are the Toggle MIDI input, Metronome and Playback-buttons.
I have tried:
- Press Restart Audio and MIDI devices
- Resetting MuseScore to factory settings
- Reinstalling MuseScore
- Restarting my laptop
- Downloading the newest version of MuseScore for Windows (Version: 3.5.2.311459983) and reinstalling that
- Restarting my laptop again...
And the problem persists...
On windows #6 of https://musescore.org/en/node/96811 says On Windows, right click the speaker icon, select Open volume mixer and ensure that your MuseScore version is listed there (you may need to scroll left or right) and that the volume is not muted.
For everyone #4 says Check Edit→Preferences→I/O (MuseScore→Preferences→I/O on the Mac). If that is empty, try to update your sound drivers.
No mention was made of these steps in this discsussion.
There are other Mac possibilities but I don't know if those apply to your system.
thank you @mike320
I cannot see the MuseScore in my volume mixer.
In MuseScore it looks like the onboard synthesizer has not been installed at all (eventhough I just now reinstalled MuseScore 3), and it's the synthesizer which controls the sound - settings which I cannot access as the synth. isn't there...
If you don't see MuseScore in your windows volume mixer then you have no synthesizer connected to MuseScore, even the software one that is there by default. The most obvious question would be "Was MuseScore running when you looked?" Don't be offended, people have gotten frustrated and didn't do something obvious more than once, myself included. You may need to use the scrollbar at the bottom of the mixer to see it if you have several programs using it.
The next things is, did you check to make sure your sound driver is up-to-date? If you have an old driver it's been known to not connect to MuseScore when windows updates sometimes.
In reply to If you don't see MuseScore… by mike320
Thanks again.
MuseScore is running as are other programmes with sound effects, which I can hear. MuseScore does not show up in my Win Volume Mixer. (I'm not offended - I used to work as 1st level IT supporter and know this really is a problem...).
I've now ensured that the sound card setting are as described.
The thing is - MuseScore worked as it should earlier today. Now, a couple of hours later, it doesn't. No windows updates, no new installations (other the MuseScore after it stopped working properly). Now I'm running MuseScore as admin to ensure access to everything - but it still doesn't work.
I unplugged my USB headphones and - voila... it works. Music is magic...
I should add that for me, this issue is not visible in any way. The mixer and synthesiser all act as if there is sound out, as does the rest of MuseScore; except there is no sound. I have not experienced any sound issues using any other applications.
Unfortunately, though much development is done on Mac, there are few Mac users who frequent the forums to help people who have problems like you on Macs. This forum is all users with almost no one on the payroll of MuseScore helping users except the occasional programmer of MuseScore, but the programmers I see don't use Mac. What this means, is that you need to look into https://musescore.org/en/node/96811 carefully since there are a couple of suggestions there that you haven't mention in your post. I have no idea if they could apply to you because there are a variety of Macs. Also, if you have any added midi devices that could affect you playback as well. Blue tooth headphones have been known to cause problems as well, as discovered by the windows user in this thread.
If the synthesizer is acting normally otherwise but there is no sound, this seems like a different issue than the usual reports of this, in which everything seems disabled. My guess is in your case it is something else, like your OS having muted MuseScore for some reason, or a soundfont required by your score being removed. Does this happen even for new scores created from scratch (using, say,m the Treble template)? What soundfonts do you see listed in View / Synthesizer / Fluid?
On MacOS 10.14, go to view -> Mixer -> Make sure Master gain is set to 0.00dB, mine was set to -40dB no wonder I couldn't hear anything, don't remember putting it that low... though the volume is still a tad quiet...
In reply to On MacOS 10.14, go to view -… by taliesinhunte
-40 is the default and it should result in good sound. Turning it all the way up to 0 would normally create massive clipping. Something else must be going on with your system to cause this to be a problem, Best to ask for help on the Support forum and include more system details, so someone with more sysadmin experience can possibly help debug your audio configuration.