Playback Too Slow At Half Note = 140
I use MuseScore 4 with a screen reader. When I create a score with a tempo marking like half ote = 140 and play the music back, the output I hear from the instruments is way too slow. I did some research on how to increase the tempo during playback, but everything I found incorporated at least one visual aspect, like dragging the mouse, which is not a function that a blind person would do. Is there a way you can make MuseScore more accessible and screen reader friendly?
Comments
My comments here are only about changing tempo, generally. They do not touch on your problem of playback being too slow. Hopefully, someone else can comment on that.
There are two ways to change tempo in MuseScore. They work in radically different ways and are for different purposes.
1) To permanently change tempo, include a tempo marking in the score. Either a "metronome marking" (e.g., [quarter note] = 148) or one of the traditional Italian terms (e.g., andante, allegro, or presto). The Italian terms are associated with a specific metronome speed and this can be adjusted from the Properties tab of the tempo marking. If a score has no tempo markings anywhere, it will play [quarter note] = 120, by default.
2) To temporarily change tempo, slide the Play Panel off the menu bar using the 'six dots' button and adjust the Tempo slider to a percentage of the tempo marking included in the score (or the default tempo if the score has no tempo marking). This tool only works while the score is playing and is probably (?) most used by composers trying to find the "right" tempo for a piece. Once they've identified that they want it at X bpm, they can include the appropriate (permanent) tempo markings in the score.
I agree that the latter method is definitely not "screen reader friendly". At this time, I'm unaware of any way to get around this if you need that particular function. I (without any vision problems ... yet :-( almost never use it.
However, your problem is that your piece--which includes a metronome marking--is not playing at the marked tempo. Another issue entirely from either method of changing tempo and hopefully someone can address this more directly.