Crash while attempting to add notes to a percussion stave with non-drumset sound patch

Ok, here it is. It is still unfinished.

The score was created under Musescore 2.0. I worked following more or less the following pattern: I started by writing a few measures of the violins, then added the cellos and contrabasses, then the brass instruments, then woodwinds, then percussions, but this order was not strictly followed all the time.

I suspect it may be some sort of a MIDI channel conflict with another instrument, but if this is so, I can't explain why the bug occurs after having written 28 measures of the same rhythmic pattern and not before.

I got the notification for 2.0.1 update and installed it. First time I opened the file in the updated version, it worked very smoothly, so I could write the three notes on measures 52-53. Then the bug reappeared. I tried deleting the concert bass drum and writing it again from scratch, but it didn't work. So, I guess that bug is reproducible by doing what I did: delete the instrument, add it again, write a measure of the pattern, copy/paste it for 28 measures at the place where it is, then try adding any notes or silences in the following measures. If it works then, the bug should appear at next startup.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that all the instruments are mixed up because I'm using Sonatina. As it is not GM compatible, I had to reassign every instrument to the proper MIDI channel to get decent playback.

I unticked the Drumset box because it only gives a selection of sounds that belong to a rock drumset, whereas I want to have a concert bass drum sound. As far as I know, it is the only way to get it, but if I'm wrong, please tell me.

Indeed, Marc, I don't have Sibelius on my computer. I created the score from scratch (more precisely from the symphony orchestra template) and then customized the different instruments. I must admit that I didn't have all the instruments created from the beginning, and specifically the percussions which I added later. However, the concert bass drum is the only one that causes a crash. I have no problem whatsoever with the cymbals and timpani.

Yes, I also bumped into that impossibility to enter notes, but not being able to enter notes has never caused a crash for me. Most of the time, I noticed that an "Edit Drumset" box appears at the bottom of the screen, but it is not always so. When it does show up though, I only have to click once on the note displayed inside that box, then I can enter notes on the score.

However, I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with the crash since I got the exact same "issue" with cymbals, yet this staff works fine. Actually, I think it has more to do with the unticking of the Drumset box in the mixer, for the Concert Bass Drum I select in the mixer list is absent from the original Musescore instrument list (Edit Menu > Instruments). So, maybe this instrument is exclusive to Sonatina and makes a conflict with the Drumset input expected by Musescore. What I still don't understand, however, is why the crash happens quite late into the score and not since the very first measure.

Besides, Musescore plays that percussion very well until the pasted pattern stops (measure 44). After that, it does not play it any more, which corresponds to the moment from which entering notes to that staff will cause the crash. Actually, it is even more than that: you simply can't *touch* this staff any more. To simply click on a note on it will play that note in the speakers and a second later Musescore crashes.

Maybe I should simply try and find another soundfont, for Musescore even has trouble playing it at startup. Playback will always get slowed down very much, saturated with several notes played together with screeching sounds that echo for several seconds after I stop playback, which makes the whole thing quite unbearable. I have to go to the synthetizer, select the Fluid soundfont, play it for a few seconds, then select back Sonatina, and then it will accept to play it normally.

Ok, here is a step by step instruction to reproduce it:

1. Install Sonatina.
2. Start Musescore.
3. Open my score.
4. Open synthetizer, select Sonatina and save it inside the score.
5. Open mixer and reassign MIDI channels according to the score instruments. For percussions, no staff must have its Drumset box ticked, but the proper instrument selected instead in the dropdown list (cymbals, concert bass drum and timpani).
6. Try playback.
7. If it works (it should), try entering notes on the concert bass drum staff after measure 44, or simply try to click on a note of this staff.
8. If Musescore doesn't crash here, save the document, close Musescore, restart it and reopen my score.
9. At this point, clicking on a note of the concert bass drum staff or trying to enter a note on it should cause the crash.

(Sorry about the assignment thing, I'm not very familiar with the rules of this forum since it is my first post on it.)

Right. Well, truth is- I didn't do anything in particular! Actually, I was left lost with a crash when I simply tried to enter a note the regular way or click on an existing note. Ok, let me give me some details about this.

First, I created the staff through Edit Menu > Instruments, selected a generic drum that seemed to fit, i.e. military drum, moved it to the correct place on the score, then moved on to the mixer. In the mixer, I unticked the "Drumset" box in order to be able to choose the proper sound, and selected the concert bass drum.

Back to the score, I clicked on the bar I wanted to write in, clicked on the "Note input" button, selected the sixteenth note, clicked on the note showed inside the "Edit Drumset" box that popped up at the bottom of the screen (a single note at the top of a five-line, regular staff portion with the letter A, if I remember well), and wrote one bar of the repetitive pattern I intended to create. I had no problem whatsoever in writing that bar. Then, I selected the whole bar by clicking once between the notes and made a Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V on each of the following bars until measure 44.

Once this done, I went on writing the other instruments (some of them were already written, such as a few brass ones). First crash I encountered was when I accidentally clicked on a note of the concert bass drum staff. I relaunched Musescore, reopened my score and tried entering a note on this staff, which led to another crash. I restarted Musescore once again and tried playback. I was actually really surprised to hear the concert bass drum play for many measures from the first one, then suddenly go mute at measure 27. It was still version 2.0.

Then I got the 2.0.1 update. First time I opened my score, I could see that the bug seemed to be gone, since I could write on the staff (the three quarter notes measure 52, along with the timapnis). I saved my work when I was finished. On the next day, I opened my score and wished to go on writing the concert bass drum. It crashed instantly. I could notice, though, that Musescore plays the whole pattern for the 28 first measures in 2.0.1, that is until the first pause after the pattern occurs. Then, it doesn't play what's written (the three quarter notes) and, as I said, crashes whenever I endeavour to *touch* that staff.

I hope this helps.

Yes, that's it. If it doesn't crash on the first time, it crashes when I restart Musescore.

If it is really so, having a drum set staff with no drum set defined, I don't know how to solve this issue. I need to have an undetermined-sound percussion, which produces a single-line, drum set staff, with the correct instrument.

My guess is to try and install another soundfont, GM compatible this time, but I'd like something at least better than Fluid. If you have any ideas...

Or, the thing is to write the score with Fluid and then go through a DAW and set a virtual orchestra. Once again, if you have any ideas about something at least decent, free and compatible with Musescore, I'll be glad to hear about it.

Really? I thought I'd understood Musescore doesn't support more than one soundfont at a time. Besides, I wouldn't know how to put a particular soundfont on a given instrument.

Thanks fo your advice anyway.

Awesome. Thanks.