How does one get sound out of MuseScore 4.5.2?

• May 14, 2025 - 20:11

I've been using MuseScore for about 15 years.

Currently, I'm stuck on v2.3.2 because there is no sound out of 4.5.2.

This is the console log output:
14:08:08.715 | INFO | main_thread | ActionsDispatcher::doDispatch | try call action: play

The only option in "Preferences -> Audio & MIDI -> Audio device" is "System Default" (It used to have ALSA and I think Pulse -- that is gone. Pipewire would be ideal).

There are files in the ~/Documents/MuseScore4/SoundFonts folder, extracted from "MS Basic.zip".

What exactly is going on?

Ubuntu 22.04

Thank you.

Comments

Jojo-Schmitz

• May 14, 2025 - 20:20

3.6.2 doesn't have any sound either?

Are you using the AppImage or some unsupported 3rd party build like FlatPak?
There's no "MS Basic.zip" being part of any supported version...

ghedger

• May 14, 2025 - 20:23

Just this:
rwxrwxr-x 1 177620160 May 14 13:31 MuseScore-Studio-4.5.2.251141401-x86_64.AppImage*

Invoked this way:
./MuseScore-Studio-4.5.2.251141401-x86_64.AppImage

Jojo-Schmitz

• May 14, 2025 - 20:27

OK, at least an AppImage... Don't understand the deal with "MS Basic.zip" then. The AppImage brings MS Basic.sf3 along with it, so try deleting the content of ~/Documents/MuseScore4/SoundFonts
Tried Help > Revert to factory settings?

ghedger

• May 14, 2025 - 20:34

Deleted everything within ~/Documents/MuseScore4/Soundfonts and reverted to factory settings.

That doesn't seem to have any effect.

I do have PipeWire installed -- Bitwig studio (which consumes output from MuseScore in the form of exported MIDI) uses it, so I cannot really disable it without messing up Bitwig. MuseScore creates a nice looking score, while Bitwig creates nice sound, so they work in tandem. I might be able to fiddle with PulseAudio though, or find a way to temporarily disable Pipewire, if that's the cause.

ghedger

• May 14, 2025 - 20:28

And yes, you're right. That MS Basic.zip came from one

https://community.outsideshore.com/c/resources/ms-basic-individual-soun…
which came from
https://musescore.org/en/node/339517

as an atttempt to solve the problem.

On further review, it looks like the AppImage, though, stores everything in /tmp, including the soundfont, which is fine.

This no-sound problem is a common one for Linux users.

ghedger

• May 14, 2025 - 20:36

Here's another thing:

Running this from the command line:
pkill pipewire-pulse

Allows MuseScore to "progress" in its playback. Still no sound, mind you, but there is definitely some interplay there.