wav audio quality
The other day I replaced my $3 Panasonic earphones with a professional quality set and I started listening closely to the audio Musescore puts out. By accident I compared Musescore's "wav" output with what Timidity puts out when it does a mid to wav conversion. The level of Timidity output is about 2 db higher than Musescore's., so to make a valid comparison, I had to reduce the volume of the Timidity result with Audicity. According to my ear, the Musescore result lacks a lot of depth that Timidity puts in. Why?
Here are the links:
http://ormusic.home.comcast.net/ThreeLostBodiesCX.mp3
http://ormusic.home.comcast.net/ThreeLostBodiesTim.mp3
CX for the Musescore result; Tim for Timidity. Both audio files were converted using the same options, and both are about the same length. Both use the "Splendid Piano" sound font.
Comments
MuseScore playback is done via a modified version of FluidSynth. As far as I understand Timidity has its own code to do the playback. So you compare two really different piece of software. That could explain the volume difference.
Regarding the "depth", have you tried changing the Display -> Mixer settings in MuseScore?
ThreeLostBodiesCX.mp3 is plain mono.
In reply to mono by [DELETED] 3
So Musescore puts out mono for a stereo sound font whereas Timidity puts out stereo for a stereo sound font?
In reply to Stereo vs mono? by EdwardsRG
It should be stereo but maybe there is a bug. I will check this.
In reply to bug? by [DELETED] 3
I had a serious cockpit error in putting together that Musescore output. I redid it, and Musescore does , in fact, produce stereo. When viewed in Audicity, there seems to be some minor differences in the dynamics between the two types of audio, but now, to the ear, they sound pretty much identical.