I almost never have to turn my computer up above half of my volume. For as long as I can remember, Musescore has always been very difficult to hear even when my volume is at 100%. This is incredibly annoying and it seems like you would want people to be able to hear what they're composing.
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You do realize you can set MuseScore's volume to whatever level you like? (See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/synthesizer#volume if you were not aware of this.) And that it still depends on the dynamics in a particular score, and setting the default too loud would mean that playing a fortissimo could damage your speakers?
Let's try it out. That's the most common complain about MuseScore by newcomers. I will increase the default volume drastically in both master and 2.0.3. Let's me know how it goes.
Fixed in branch master, commit f22dc4c2fd
fix #86981: increase default volume
Fixed in branch 2.0.3, commit cb02e71539
fix #86981: increase default volume
Tested this with a few SATB+piano scores I have lying about.
What I did was open up the same score in 2.0.2 and master, as well as a youtube video of the song. Set my headphones to a 'normal' level using the youtube song, then comparing volume levels with MS. Volume levels in the mixer and synthesizer are at defaults.
2.0.2 is quiter, as in probably about 45-50% when playing 4 voices (clarinet sound from default soundfont) + piano at mf dynamic.
master however seems to overshoot it on the other end by nearly doubling the volume. Distortion already happens when the 4 voices go to forte, with piano still at mf.
For me, knowing very much that this is a personal opinion, the sweet spot is very likely somewhere around 50% between the 2.0.2 and current levels.
I believe the low volume output may be due to a bug in the synthesizer. See: Volume drop-off when synthesizer delay module (Zita1) is ON .
What about the new compression controls in the Synthesizer? I don't know how to work them myself, but might they also be helpful here?
BTW, I've noticed that in many cases MuseScore.com plays louder than the MuseScore desktop app.
Fixed in branch master, commit a90eb53213
Revert "fix #86981: increase default volume"
This reverts commit f22dc4c2fd7f851b1dd1012546d6cb1aff1087d0.
Fixed in branch 2.0.3, commit 2f900243b9
Revert "fix #86981: increase default volume"
This reverts commit f22dc4c2fd7f851b1dd1012546d6cb1aff1087d0.
OK. So it was worth a try but changing the default gain of the master synth is not enough. A given value on my Mac and the same value on jeetee's Windows gives totally different results. It plays fine on my Mac, but it clips on jeetee's Windows.
@geetar Could be indeed that zita1 is a problem.
@IsaacWeissCardshark The new compressor could be useful indeed. But first the zita bug...
MuseScore playback is an MP3 rendered by MuseScore, similar to File > Save > Mp3. In this case, MuseScore does 2 passes, one to get the highest volume, a second to normalize the audio at -3dB below the max.
Fixed + unfixed = active, I think.
Now that #98036: Volume drop-off when synthesizer delay module (Zita1) is ON is fixed, the volume is noticeably higher on startup. I put this on fixed. There is probably some more room for improvement, in particular check why the volume is different without zita on Mac/Windows/Linux, or add the compressor effect after the reverb.
Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.