How do I change the playback instrument?

• Jun 16, 2023 - 14:56

I bring up the Mixer, I change the instrument from Ukulele to Clean Guitar or to Grand Piano or whatever, but the playback sound doesn't change.

Just to be clear, by 'playback instrument', I mean the instrument that plays the score when I press play.

See the attached image for more.

Attachment Size
Screen Shot.jpg 45.69 KB

Comments

In reply to by memeweaver

Hey, thanks. I assume you mean Edit/Instruments? The F7 shortcut doesn't do anything on my PC, I guess it is not one of the default keys.

Edit/Instruments doesn't do anything for me, as I can only add an instrument in here, not change the existing one. However, if I right click on the acoustic guitar staff - which is the instrument I want to change - and select Staff/Part Properties, there is an option to change the instrument in there. When I click on 'Change Instrument' and change it to piano, say, MuseScore simply crashes. I go back in and change it to a different instrument, the same thing happens.

I'm running MuseScore 3.3.4.9134 on Windows 11 Pro.

In reply to by backinhumanform

There are numerous bug fixes since version 3.3.4. So first update to version 4.0.2 from here https://musescore.org/en/download. Or if you are concerned about the changed/missing features compared to version 3 (see here https://musescore.org/en/node/334701) at least update to 3.6.2 from here https://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/musescore-nightlies/macos/3x/stable/

The crash is most likely a result if one of the bugs that have already been fixed. So, having updated, try again and come back if it still crashes. To help diagnosis attach the score you are having problems with and give precise steps to reproduce the crash.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I’ve upgraded to MuseScore 4.0.2, so the steps taken are different to those I took in MuseScore 3, but the end result is the same.
Press F7 to bring up the Instruments window.
Click the settings icon adjacent to the ‘Acoustic Guitar’ logo.
Click on Replace Instrument.
Choose a different instrument – I chose Keyboards / Piano and clicked OK. The program crashed. On a second try, I chose Brass / Trombone. The program crashed.
I’ve described what I did above, but the reason I sent you the video is that it eliminates any lack of clarity in my explanation, since you can see exactly what I did.

In reply to by backinhumanform

Videos are usually much less clear than text since it isn't always obvious what exactly you are actually doing unless you've turned on display of keystrokes and also made your mouse pointer easier to see, plus as mentioned, we have to go to the extra trouble of downloading a file and finding a program capable of playing that specific format, plus it takes much longer to follow that to simply read the steps. Occasionally if the issue involves something really specific about how you are are moving your mouse the video might be a necessity to clarify, but in most cases a simple text explanation is far simpler to work with (and to create!)

Anyhow, I followed your steps but no crash for me. So probably there is something else about what is going on with your system that is relevant here, but hard to say what.

Your picture shows two different mixer channels. Be sure to select the correct channel before changing the sound; otherwise you are changing the other instrument.

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