Only play sound during playback, and not editing

• Apr 10, 2024 - 04:52

Is there any way to make MuseScore only make sound when I am playing back the composition (i.e after pressing the spacebar), as opposed to playing each note I select and each note that I enter as well?

Comments

• Apr 10, 2024 - 06:19

+1

I'd love the option of toggling off playback of a clicked note or the note being entered—and for easy access I'd like to see that switch assignable to a keystroke. And to top it off a toggle button that users can add main toolbar and make prominently displayed.

scorster

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• Apr 12, 2024 - 03:57

OK. I'll answer my self. You want a way to turn off note input sound while editing. So you're asking for a button to be added to the UI or a shortcut to turn off sound.
So let's see. A shortcut would involve inter action with the keyboard. Possibly two or three keys. A button on the UI would involve some kind of maneuver to the button then a way to activate it.
On my keyboard there is a single button that turns off the speakers. One click.

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• Apr 12, 2024 - 23:08

Be aware that plenty of keyboards such as standard 101/104 style keyboards (and the one I'm currently typing on) have no media controls (including mute). That is to say, it is erroneous to presume that there "already is a button on the keyboard that controls sound", let alone the fact that it would not serve the intention of receiving sound automatically during playback yet mute sound upon navigation/editing as with the preference setting earlier mentioned.

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• Apr 13, 2024 - 00:10

Re: bobjp • Apr 12, 2024 - 17:54
"That is what I am saying. For keyboard users there is already a button on the keyboard that controls sound".

I don't know what you mean. I have used Logitech K120 classic keyboards for many years and there is no sign of any mute button on them, (I have just double-checked), nor any other sound control button, nor has there ever been. Hence a keyboard shortcut in MS would be very useful.

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• Apr 13, 2024 - 08:42

I am truly baffled by some of your bizarre responses.
I am talking about a desktop computer keyboard.

The context of this thread is about computer keyboard input via MS shortcuts.

Let me introduce you to an information assistant to help prevent future confusion: https://www.google.com/

You can simply type any words into the input field and press enter, (on your computer keyboard, not your piano keyboard), and find relevant details relating to the words that you entered. The website is known as a "search engine" and is very useful for information on almost any subject.

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• Apr 13, 2024 - 16:59

Dear Yonah-
That was fabulous! I'm LMAO!
My sincere sympathies.
You are not alone -by far-in your exasperation.
Herr Robert is a legend in his own mind.
He fancies himself as some sort of "technical" problem solver concerning the legion of issues with MuseScore.
On occasion he will justify his baffling replies by hinting at his vast array of hardware, his history with MS, and and his "technical expertise"
In fact, he is virtually useless.
His responses can be off-the-charts bizarre.
Here's a Forum exchange between this wizard and myself, going back almost a year now.
I've come to accept him as yet just another issue with Musescore.

Enjoy!

https://musescore.org/en/node/352470#comment-1237027

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• Apr 13, 2024 - 17:02

Am I psychic?
As I said above...
"He fancies himself as some sort of "technical" problem solver concerning the legion of issues with MuseScore.
On occasion he will justify his baffling replies by hinting at his vast array of hardware, his history with MS, and and his "technical expertise""

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• Apr 16, 2024 - 00:08

Of course he shouldn't be shut down. I cannot always decode the usefulness of some of his responses, (on the lines of, "I don't have your issue ... Use whichever version of MuseScore you want"), but he's always polite and tries to help.

To be fair I hadn't seen regular computer keyboards with sound control keys so I mis-understood his response but I think that he maybe assumed that all computer keyboards had such keys.

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• Apr 16, 2024 - 00:14

In relation to the toggle possibilities, out of curiosity, what would an icon look like to represent "Mute editing but not playback"? And uh, hopefully Bob's doin' alright.

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• Apr 16, 2024 - 06:04

It certainly would be useful to have an SVG (two for off/on) already for someone to implement as an optional icon for Note Entry toolbar... I think the format is 24x24 pixels (if that even makes any sense for a vector format...)

As an example here's the natural sign from the toolbar to grab the dimensions from it:

Edit: Actually, I'm not sure two icons would be useful. Nice as an idea, but MuseScore 3 (what about MS4?) at least doesn't have any icon changing at all whatsoever except for a drop down list for the Note Entry styles after being selected. Everything else merely highlights for on/off....

Attachment Size
note-natural.svg 473 bytes

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• Apr 16, 2024 - 09:50

Interesting. I hadn't consciously noticed that MuseScore doesn't show alternate icons—for instance, showing on hover an icon depicting the pending result state.

Anyhow, it sounds like you just need an ON icon (in SVG format) which you can size however you want without degradation. And you can set an alpha transparency (for instance to 20%) to get a gray OFF icon.

I've attached the SVG.

And here's a png version, where the pencil point is not evident enough. I can rework it tomorrow:

      Sound on Edit 01 w bounding box.png

scorster

Attachment Size
Sound on Edit 01 w bounding box.svg 2.56 KB

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• Apr 17, 2024 - 23:12

Thanks! Yes, the GIF was pretty quick, but I was able to figure out the steps.

I found the artifact and was about to install from the disk image, which requires a trip to the terminal on MacOS ... but then I remembered that there's a giant 3.7 audio devices issue in recent versions.

After running xattr to unquarantine the app MuseScore 3.7 opens, but with playback disabled, and no devices selectable in Settings>I/O.

All to say, if that show stopping bug is extant I won't be able to test.

Will look into it later.

scorster

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• Apr 18, 2024 - 04:41

  
Yes, a real bummer ...
  

• This is the latest version of 3.7 I have that runs without the audio issue:

OS: macOS 10.16, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.7.0.4524440406, revision: f3d36a3
  
  
• This is first version of 3.7 (that I downloaded) with the audio/playback issue:

OS: macOS 13.5, Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.7.0.7709149398, revision: cbcca1a

Obviously there may be many builds in-between without the audio issue, but here we are.

scorster

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• Apr 18, 2024 - 19:55

That version of 3.7 appears to open and immediately abend without a post mortem report.

I'll post more info shortly.

Update: Initially (post attr -c) MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.7.0.8734326368, revision: 5eab99e behaved as reported: abending immediately without a crash alert.

After restarting my Mac MS 3.7.0.8734326368 now opens fine ... but sadly Port Audio>Device is empty, as are all other I/O>Port Audio drop-down menus.

scorster

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• Apr 18, 2024 - 21:15

Back to the heart of the request ...

After installing 3.7.0.8734326368 and dequarantining it with xattr -c

    • On opening the Edit Toolbar dialog, i.e. View>Toolbars>Edit Toolbar>Customize Toolbar

    • I don't see Toggle Editing Sound Playback under Note Input>Available Actions (or under Actions)

UPDATE: Thanks to Jojo's input I dequarantined worldwide worry's MacOS build .0766

     • It opens fine ... but only after restarting my Mac
     • And indeed the Toggle Editing Sound Playback appears under Note Input>Available Actions!

––––––––––
I decided to refine the SVG icon. Once rendered in the menu bar it lacks sufficient white space between the pencil elements (between the eraser and the stalk of the pencil; and between the point and the stalk of the pencil.)

SVG version 02 and PNG version 02 attached.
––––––––––

Otherwise everything looks good and functions as expect! (Except as noted, the lack of auido— due to a separate issue.)

Attachment Size
Sound on Edit 02 w bounding box.svg 2.56 KB
Sound on Edit 02 w bounding box.png 1.04 KB

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• Apr 19, 2024 - 03:40

I did consider the standard diagonal pencil... but then there's very little room for the "sound/speaker" image.

I'll mull this ...

The current version is certainly not clear as I'd like at the "24DPI" scale.

BTW, Did you use the SVG or the PNG as the Toolbar icon resource? I'm just wondering if MuseScore renders the SVG "directly" on screen or if we're seeing a fixed PNG in the toolbar. If so, it's not doing a great job.

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• Apr 19, 2024 - 03:52

I was thinking maybe we could rotate it to be upright and fit it like you have (for the sake of uniformity, not because of any flaw of your design). I actually used your first PNG and traced it to convert into SVG. This was slightly before you provided an SVG on the forums, ...kinda beat you to it (that's why it's not super crisp... didn't really care at the moment just wanted to get it functioning for testing, so it's not one-to-one with your design at the moment. In the mean time you can't even hear a difference for the core functionality :-/ But it's no thing to update the SVG so let me know over here and I'll replace it. I can use what you most recently posted soon. It'll be no problem to update it

Aside: It would be neat if somehow the audio problem was resolved for your Mac situation. By the way, have you tried using the Wine translator for running Windows apps on your Mac? I wonder if that would actually work (provide audio....) Could be worth a shot in the meantime...

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• Apr 19, 2024 - 17:07

I'd also welcome some options for entered or clicked note volume. For instance,

1) as requested here, a clicked note emits the same volume as it would during playback, in other words, plays at a volume consistent with its velocity and dynamic level combined.

2) with regard to a note being entered
     a) it could sound at a volume equal to the preceding note
     b) it could sound at a user assignable fixed velocity/volume

NOTE: a) and b) would only affect the volume during entry, not during playback.

Please post replies at the link supplied.

scorster

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• Apr 19, 2024 - 18:19

Oh, I forgot about that. I've had a playback option in my build for years to use the score dynamics instead of stuck at mf or whatever so that navigating the score sounds like what it will playback as.

I had a few PRs back then like updating the on-screen keyboard to show ornaments (trills/tremolos/mordent/turns) on playback about the same time, and getting SVG export to honor the "staff type changes" on output, quick voice-1-4 filter via shortcuts etc but most "fell through the cracks" when they stopped 3.6 development in order to "focus on version 4" and so I never tried to pull-request. I wonder if someone in the modern development will implement some of this stuff sometime.

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• Apr 19, 2024 - 23:01

Re " I wonder if someone in the modern development will implement some of this stuff sometime."

I get the distinct impression that MS4 is still in fire-fighting development mode. So much resource has gone into the UI and sound engine that much MS3 essential functionality and useful functionality is still playing catch up in MS4. On top of that, it looks like a major rewrite and is thus still suffering from bug exterminations that a more mature product has already been through.

Using MIDI Out into a VST3 with MS3 produces fantastic playback so until MS4 catches up with the functionality of MS3.7 I won't be making the transition. MS3.7 sets the standard for free notation software.

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