During Playback of an Individual Instrument Part of a Score, If Solo, at any time, transitions from On to Off in the Mixer for the Instrument Part, other Non-Muted Instruments in the Full Score Play for that Part when Solo is Off.

• May 13, 2021 - 17:31
Reported version
3.6
Type
Functional
Frequency
Once
Severity
S4 - Minor
Reproducibility
Always
Status
active
Regression
No
Workaround
Yes
Project
MuseScore

The attached file contains a one page 4-part score in which the 3 brass instruments are muted by default leaving only the piano playing. An individual instrument part (e.g. Horn in F) will normally play according to the mixer Solo/Mute controls as follows:

Solo__Mute__Playback Result
_Off____Off__ Instrument plays
_Off____On___No sound
_On____On___No sound
_On____Off___Instrument plays

However, if Solo transitions from On to Off in the mixer for the Part at any time, regardless of the Mute state, the individual part will then play according to the mixer Solo/Mute controls as follows:

Solo__Mute__Playback Result
_Off____Off__ Part Instrument and non-muted instruments from full score play
_Off____On___Other non-muted instruments from full score play
_On____On___No sound
_On____Off___Instrument plays

This condition can be reset by cycling ‘Play part only’ in the mixer for the Part.

The following procedure performed using my computer configuration of:

HP 17z-ca100 Laptop
AMD Ryzen 5 3500U (4 core, 8 thread) mobile processor with Radeon Vega 8 graphics
17” Full HD (1920x1080) display

Windows 10 Home (64 bit)
Version 20H2 - OS Build 19042.985

produces the noted behavior.

  1. Load score
  2. Open mixer
  3. Select tab for a brass instrument part
  4. In mixer, click on Solo to turn it On
  5. In mixer, click on Solo to turn it Off
  6. Initiate playback – only piano plays
  7. In mixer, click on Solo to turn it On – no sound
  8. In mixer, click on Mute to turn it Off – instrument plays
  9. In mixer, click on Solo to turn it Off – instrument and piano play
  10. In mixer, click on ‘Play part only’ to turn it Off – non-muted instruments in full score play (piano)
  11. In mixer, click on ‘Play part only’ to turn it On – instrument plays

I didn’t investigate, the case(s) where a Part contains more than one instrument, but it obviously needs some investigation to produce a solution to the complete problem.

Comments

• May 15, 2021 - 14:49

I ran more experiments (using the test file attached to my previous response) where, after opening the the mixer (Step 2 of the procedure), I 'solo'ed the piano in the mixer. Continuing with the procedure resulted in the piano playing for all solo/mute combinations in the instrument part and the instrument also playing when solo was on and mute was off. After reviewing this and the previous result, it appears that, at least on my system, that my previous conclusion about what is happening was incorrect. It now seems to me that, when a part tab is selected, the act of turning solo on in the displayed mixer also effectively clears 'Play part only' without changing the display. For the test file case, at least, the results are the same if the solo/mute applied to the part instrument were done on the full score consistent with the setting of 'solo' for the piano.

This can be demonstrated by restarting the procedure, setting solo for the piano as noted above and omit steps 4 and 5 (i.e don't cycle solo in the part), when playback is initiated (Step 6) there is no sound because the part is initially muted. Turning solo on (Step 7) starts the piano playing (because it is also now 'solo'ed) even though only the part is supposed to be playing and it is muted.

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