Musescore 3 and 4 not working
Whenever I try to use Musescore 4, the playback is messed up in some way. Whenever I open it with my headphones plugged in, the playback is at half speed and an octave too low. If I unplug my headphones and try to play it again using my speakers, it's at about 4x speed and an octave and a half too high. If I open Musescore without my headphones plugged in, the sound is at 2x speed and an octave too high, and if I then plug in my headphones in, it's at 1/4 speed and an octave and a half too low.
I've tried unplugging my speakers and headphones, restarting my computer, uninstalling and reinstalling Musescore, using different versions of Musescore 4, and changing every sound setting I could think of. (This probably doesn't matter, but if I switch to mono audio on either device, I can click the play button, but nothing gets played.)
I decided to just try to use Musescore 3 instead, but all of the buttons on the playback bar are always grayed out and don't work. (This is the reason I switched to Musescore 4 in the first place) I've tried all of the same things I did with Musescore 4 with Musescore 3 as well.
I only have 2 other things I can think of at this point.
I could factory reset my computer, but I feel like I'll screw up something in the process, or I could just go back to Musescore 2, which I don't have installed on my computer and don't even know how to find.
Comments
Also I'm on Windows 11 if that helps at all.
Have you ever had any version of MuseScore working properly?
In reply to Have you ever had any… by Jm6stringer
Yes I have, just not within the last month. Before that, all of my Musescore versions worked perfectly fine.
In reply to Yes I have, just not within… by Yonisbomb
For MuseScore 3, what often seems to get playback working (if it is broken) is to click "Restart Audio and Midi Devices" in Preferences->I/O.
But to be honest, it is has been working fine in the past, it might be the result of a driver update in the OS as well. The occassions where playback in MS4 is not the expected sounding pitch/speed, this could be caused by a "disconnect" between what MuseScore is using as the sample rate and what your device/audio driver is set to use. Most drivers keep separate profiles/setting for Speakers, Headphones, etc. so that can explain the difference between using the headphones or speakers. Check in your OS sound setting what sample rate is used and how many bits are used. You can find this is the advanced settings of the sound settings for the playback device. In these settings there is also a button to reset to standard settings, which might help as well.
Other option is indeed to verify your driver was updated recently and rollback to the previous version to see if that is fixing the issue. Or check if there is another driver available for your device.
In reply to For MuseScore 3, what often… by Henk De Groot
Neither of those fixes worked for me.
In reply to Neither of those fixes… by Yonisbomb
Uninstall Musescore 3 and 4 completely. Then do a clean installation of Musescore 3.6.2. Check your audio rates as described above again. Make sure your sound card drivers are up to date. Make sure your Windows installation is up to date. Finally, check for viruses and malware. If you're using a desktop, don't be surprised if your hardware is malfunctioning. Maybe your sound card has crapped out. Check for dust issues if using a desktop. If you're on a laptop or some other device then all I can say is make sure the sound works at all with any other software.