Playing back - delay on vocal lines.
A while ago I reported on several playback issues; some of these were accepted, some were proved to be non-events and some were left in limbo. It was a mistake to submit these all at once. In general I'm managing to live with MS4 playback via various workarounds and "getting used to it".
One or two issues I do still think are errors. Here is one.
In the enclosed piece, the voices are often subject to a delayed attack. This is much more evident on the on-line playback than from within MS4 itself - you can hear the difference.
I have enclosed the link to my piece on musescore.com, https://musescore.com/user/1600516/scores/12407080
and attached the local file below.
For example:
In the musescore.com on-line version: Bar 13, where the sopranos and tenors sing a triplet, twice, on each occasion, the triplet starts slightly late, the effect being more like a quaver rest followed by three normal quavers, instead of a true triplet. The same thing happens in bar 10.
There are numerous other examples in the score where a sensitive ear will pick out delays in the vocal production, but I thought I would stick to these to make matters simple.
In bar 30 the soprano quaver at the end of the bar is delayed by approximately a semiquaver.
In 34, the soprano is fractionally late throughout the bar.
You may say that these nuances in playback are trivial, but I use the on-line presentation to share my pieces with potential performers, and it does detract from the overall reception.
As you see on F10 I have Audio effect set to no effect, and the reverb dial on Aux Send at about 10 o'clock. What ever that does!
Thankyou kindly.
Ali W.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Grave Goods 184.mscz | 283.13 KB |
Comments
I concur that vocal triplet playback is not always accurate. And worse in the online version.
No one here on MuseScore.org can do anything about playback on the .com site.
I think what makes the problem stand out more (online) in measure 13 is that there is no distinct down beat. Not like measure 10 where most of the voices start on beat one. In measure 13, other voices are holding and cut off on the and of one. If you are counting, the late start of the soprano stands out. Unfortunately, we can't isolate the soprano line and listen to see how accurate it is. This the nature of playback and mixing of recorded sounds. They just don't always work very good.
But even in your score, playback of many of the triplets is uneven. I changed the voice to clarinet, and it seemed better.
I suspect as general improvements are made to Muse Sounds, some of these problems will go away.
Have you tried the basic vocal fonts. They don't always sound as good. Improvements can be made by applying some of the EQ effects.
In reply to I concur that vocal triplet… by bobjp
Thanks bobjp. I suppose I should report this on the musescore.com site, but surely if I encounter similar problems on the local playback AND the com site - it must be worth considering whether the deficiencies stem locally (i.e. from within my program) and point to a weakness in something that is not musescore.com?
It would indeed simplify the situation to go back to the basic sounds, but I'd be the first one to admit that the Muse Sounds are infinitely better (in most respects) than the basic ones.