Musescore.com playback ignores dynamics, plays full blast.
I wrote a short quiet song, uploaded it, and it plays back full blast in the website and I don't know why. You can find it here: https://musescore.com/user/27819778/scores/6768825/s/CvYWz4?share=copy_…
Interestingly, if you open the mixer and change "audio sources" from "musescore audio" to "synthesizer", then playback in the website will have the correct volume. It isn't a great workaround since I don't seem to be able to make that the piece's default.
Here's the version of Musescore I'm using:
OS: Windows 10 (10.0), Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.6.2.548021803, revision: 3224f34
And my browser is Firefox.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| momentary.mscz | 9.75 KB |
Comments
The score, on the pc, executes correctly. For the .com side you'll have to ask on the other site, see: https://musescore.org/en/faq#faq-20657 (eg._ https://musescore.com/groups/improving-musescore-com/discuss/5091711# )
MuseScore.com uses the audio exported by MuseScore itself - same result you get from File / Export - which by default is normalized in accordance with standard industry practice. After all, musescore.com is trying to make your score work for lots of different people with different audio systems and different volume levels set on their speakers / headphones. That's why it is usually important to keep volume levels consistent from song to song, and why most audio in the world is therefore normalized to a standard level. What that means in practice is that yes, pieces with a quiet dynamic have their levels increased so they don't sound artificially quieter than the rest of the music the person who eventually hears your score would be listening to. Without that, people would constantly be needing to turn their speakers up and down every time they changed from song to song.
To be clear - it's not that anyone is ignoring your dynamics, it's just that the whole piece has its volume increased uniformly to achieve the target peak. Had you piece actually changed dynamics, you'd certainly hear the change. But the levels would be adjusted so the loudest portions of each were the same., That's what normalization does - makes the loudest part of every song the same, so people don't have to constantly adjust the volume on their radios or whatever (yes, radio, that's part of what the technology was invented for back in the day).