MuseSound Quality
I would love to use Muse Studio as my main composing tool. However, the MuseSound instruments, which are supposed to be optimized for the Muse Studio playback engine, in my experience, do not deliver the minimum quality of playback performance to justify switching to Muse. And it's not only me. I paid for the First Chair instrument package back in September of 2024 and wrote a review highlighting the improvements that need to be made. And it's not just me. Most of the reviewers noted the same issues that made the library unusable. And sadly, seven months later no updates to correct these problems have been issued. Believe me, I appreciate the effort that have gone into making MuseScore a contender in notation software, but have to wonder if there is anybody out there listening to the issues in the MuseSounds libraries. I browsed all of the pay-for libraries in MuseHub and read all of the reviews and I find that with few exceptions, all of them have received poor ratings. So the bottom line is, I paid for one sound library that I cannot use, why would I buy another that gets the same thumbs-down ratings?
Comments
The question is, when you bought something on MuseHub.com, why are you complaining about it here on MuseScore.org?
In reply to The question is, when you… by Jojo-Schmitz
So let me try to clear about this. On MuseScore.org there is a forum topic named Playback with the description: "Discussing instrument sounds and playback technologies such as Muse Sounds..." If you read my post carefully you will note that my concern is with the playback quality of the Muse Sound instruments, exactly what the forum invites one to discuss. I want MuseScore Studio to be successful, but that success is, at least in part, dependent on having high quality playback instruments or, at the very least, instrument that are useable. By pointing out that many of the Muse Sound instrument reviews highlight similar deficiencies across multiple libraries there is the possibility that it may not be the instrument libraries themselves, but something is going on with the playback engine, hence the posting in the Playback forum. If some one can verify that there's nothing wrong with the playback engine and that all the poor reviews on MuseHub are the result of faulty libraries, I will take my discussion elsewhere.
In reply to So let me try to clear about… by dwcrook
Yes, we read your post. The forums are the place to discuss problems. The goal being to find out if there really are problems. In which case said problems need to be reported to the proper place. Problems with muse sounds need to be reported to the HUB. Playback problems that aren't caused by sounds should be reported to GitHub. I don't see any report on the HUB First Chairs with your handle.
It might help if you describe specific problems and provide scores and audio examples. Saying the sounds are terrible doesn't help much.
In reply to Yes, we read your post. The… by bobjp
I’m new to the MuseScore forums and I guess I’m not familiar with all the protocols. In any case, I’m sorry to have bothered you.
In reply to I’m new to the MuseScore… by dwcrook
It isn't a bother. Users need to know if there are problems. What kind of issues are you having. Perhaps an audio file would help to show us.
In reply to So let me try to clear about… by dwcrook
I believe you are correct. MuseScore Studio playback is quite inconsistent. I can't believe that the various sound library providers- especially 'big names' in the field would all make libraries for MuseScore that are so problematic. I think it has to do with the MuseScore playback engine itself. Perhaps it's not quite ready-yet- for prime time. Maybe in Version 6? Until MuseScore addresses and fixes this issue (and, by the way improves score & part formatting options), the only real advantage MuseScore has over other notation software is that it's free. It does have some amazing potential, though.
In reply to I believe you are correct… by Garygoofry
Thanks Gary…, I am glad I’m not the only one that realizes that the common denominator with the playback issues across multiple instrument libraries may rest somewhere other than the instrument libraries themselves.
In reply to The question is, when you… by Jojo-Schmitz
That is not the question at all, you are trying to be clever again. It is perfectly right to raise the issue here.
In reply to That's not the question at… by rjchalkes
You can raise questions wherever you like, the question though is whether you'd get a sufficient answer.
Have you tried any VST3 instruments with MS4? I have recently installed MS4.5.1 on Windows 11 without Muse Sounds and have found that VST3 playback is excellent. For reference I'm using Modartt's Pianoteq with the Classical Guitar presets. They have other instruments available and a free trial mode.
It might be possible to try other VST3's before committing to a purchase.
In reply to Have you tried any VST3… by yonah_ag
Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, I am currently trying other 3rd party VST3 instruments as well as other platforms. Some I find very good, others I have found issues with. A few days ago I found one I really liked but had problems with the installer. I wrote the product’s support team and below I have copied their response. Note that the product and my issue are irrelevant so I omitted those facts, but otherwise, the response I received is copied verbatim. The point I’m trying to make is that when you report a problem you don’t expect to be belittled because you report an issue. Here’s their response I got and note, this should serve as a lesson for any product team that wants to give a user a second chance:
Hi David,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
My name is … from technical support and I will be more than happy to help you get this up and running.
I do apologize for any issues caused.
I do apologize I have looked into this a little more and I think this should fix your issues for you, can you navigate to C:\Program Files\…. Then restart your DAW and retry.
Please let me know if this fixes your issues for you.
Kind Regards
……..
Software Support Team……………..
This is not the kind of response I got from Muse, so sadly I’m moving on.
In reply to Thanks for your suggestion… by dwcrook
This is the response of a paid software support person, which is not what you have here. You did receive meaningful responses that were trying to be helpful. You simply chose to take them as personal insults when they didn't match your idea of the right answer.
"Moving on"? Your choice. Hope you find something half as good that costs only 100 times as much.
In reply to Have you tried any VST3… by yonah_ag
Yes, I own products from East-West and Garritan but you can’t take full advantage of the instruments because MS doesn’t support keyswitching or CC messaging. Otherwise, they work fine.
In reply to Yes, I own products from… by dwcrook
Sorry, but you were asked what kind of playback problems you were having. No one can help without details.
In reply to Sorry, but you were asked… by bobjp
Anybody that was really interested in the playback problems with Muse Sounds should just read the reviews. The plug-in that got this whole conversation started, First Chairs, has a 20% positive rating. A recent review dated April 13th is titled “Absolutely unusable.” In my review (Sept. 13, 2024) I explained the problems I encountered so I don’t think I need to repeat them, but if you only focus on my issues you’re missing the big picture.