Overview

Basic playback functions are accessed from the Play toolbar at the top right of the program window:

From left to right, the icons are:

• Rewind to start position: Playback returns to the beginning of the score, or to the start of the loop (if one is set).
• Start or stop playback: See Start/stop playback.
• Toggle loop playback: See Loop playback.
• Play metronome: Toggles metronome ON and OFF.
• Playback settings: Opens the playback settings dialog (see below).

To the right of the playback controls are counters showing

• Time elapsed from the start of score to the cursor position.
• Bar number and beat at the cursor position.
• Tempo in 1/4 notes (crotchets) per min.

This panel can also be undocked giving you access to additional controls—see play position and tempo, (below).

Playback commands

Start/stop

To play back all the instrument parts

1. Click on a note or rest to establish the starting point.
2. Press the Play button, or press Space.

To play back selected instrument parts only

1. Select a measure that you want to start from (by clicking on a blank space within that measure);
2. To play back more than one instrument part, extend the selection up or down as required.
3. Press the Play button, or press Space.

Notes: (1) If no selection is made before activating Play, playback returns to the place it stopped at previously; or, if no previous playback, to the start of the score. (2) The Play button changes to a "stop" icon while music is playing.

To stop playback

• Press the Play button; or press Space.

Rewind

To rewind playback click on the Rewind icon on the Play toolbar. Rewind returns the playback to the beginning of the score or, if a loop is set, to the beginning of the loop.

Loop

To loop playback over a section of music:

1. Stop playback (if it is on);
2. Ensure that the loop playback button is "off" (i.e. not colored blue);
3. Select a range in the score, encompassing the instrument staves you want to play back;
4. Click on the loop playback button in the Play toolbar. Flags will appear around the selection and the button change color.
5. Click on the Play button.

In the example below, playback will cycle over the selected two bars of Violin 2 and Viola, the region marked by the blue flags. Use the "Loop playback" button to toggle the loop on or off.

Metronome

If you want to hear a metronome tick during the performance, click on the metronome button. Click again to turn it off.

Play position and tempo

The current playback position is shown by counters to the right of the playback controls. One shows the position in terms of time elapsed, the other in measures and beats (see image in overview).

The numbers in the time and measure counters can be edited after clicking on them; playback will be resumed from the edited position.

When the Play toolbar is undocked from the toolbar area, it automatically expands to include two slider controls. By dragging the sliders you can adjust the playback position and tempo of playback. Note that tempo overrides are only temporary, and do not affect the actual written tempo(s); returning the slider to "100%" restores normal playback.

In the following example the position of playback is about one third of the way through the score, and the playback tempo slider is set to 78 quarter note beats per minute (bpm); or 130% of the nominal metronome mark, 60 bpm, displayed in the score.

Other commands

Click the settings button (cogged gear) on the Play toolbar to show the following controls:

You can uncheck or check these options as desired.

Enable MIDI input

Enable MIDI input to write music to your score with a linked MIDI device (such as a keyboard or drum machine) during playback. See Working with Midi for details.

Play repeats

Uncheck this option if you want playback to ignore any repeat indications in the score.

Play chord symbols

Uncheck this option if you want playback to ignore chord symbols in the score.

Pan score automatically

When checked, this option pans the score during playback; uncheck if you want the view to remain stationary.

The mixer allows you to

• change instrument sounds;
• load virtual instruments and effects;
• adjust volume and panning, and make other adjustments to the playback for each stave.

A channel strip is automatically created for each instrument in the score (this includes when a mid-score instrument change is applied to a stave). There is also a dedicated metronome channel strip and master fader.

Users of previous versions of MuseScore should note that the concept of a “part track” with subsidiary “channel tracks” does not exist in MuseScore 4 due to compatibility issues with the new playback engine. It may be reintroduced in later versions.

Opening the mixer

You can display/hide the mixer by:

• Clicking on the Mixer button in the Note input toolbar.
• Clicking View→Mixer.
• Using the shortcut F10.

Mixer controls

Each channel strip contains the following controls (described from the bottom of a channel strip upwards):

• Mute (M) button: Disables the playback volume (Muted staves will not be heard).
• Solo (S) button: Enables playback volume for the selected (soloed) stave and mutes all other staves. (Where only one stave is soloed, disengaging the solo mode will automatically unmute all other staves.)

Mute and solo controls can be used in combination to change which instruments are heard during playback. For example, it is possible to put multiple staves into solo mode, so that only those staves are heard. It is also possible to mute a soloed stave.

• Volume fader: This can be clicked and dragged to increase or decrease the playback volume. Double clicking on the volume fader will return it to a neutral level (0 dB gain).
• Pan knob: This can be clicked and dragged to send the audio signal to the left or right speakers. Double clicking on the pan knob will return the pan to center position.

Audio FX and sounds

Sound row: the virtual instrument to use, exactly one must be selected. Supports three types: SoundFont(.sf2,.sf3), Virtual Studio Technology instrument(VSTi) and MuseSounds(MuseGroup proprietary).
Audio FX row: VST effect to use, allows stacking of multiple, is optional.

Compatible VST plugins installed on your computer will be automatically made available, find VSTi inside Sound drop-downs, find VST effects inside Audio FX drop-downs.

Manual sf2, sf3 preset/bank selection is unsupported (yet, as of Musescore 4.0). In the meantime, try workaround methods in SoundFonts.
sfz files are supported indirectly through a VST sampler, see SoundFonts.

To select a sound

Exactly one sound (virtual instrument) must be selected for each instrument.

1. Hover over a Sound slot
2. Click the dropdown button that appears
3. Locate and click on an item from the dropdown menu

To add a VST effect

1. Hover over a empty Audio FX slot
2. Click the dropdown button that appears
3. Locate and click on a plugin from the dropdown menu

The plugin will load as a separate window above your score. When you load an audio FX plugin, a new slot appears in the track

To disable a VST effect

1. Hover over a Audio FX slot
2. Click on the power icon that appears

This deactivates the plugin without removing it from the mixer.

To remove a VST effect

1. Hover over a Audio FX slot
2. Click the dropdown button that appears
3. Click No effect

This removes the effects plugin from the mixer.

See also

• installing Muse Sounds

MuseScore supports the SoundFont format (.sf2, .sf3), which is a single file containing one or more virtual instruments. MuseScore comes packaged with, MS Basic, a essential set of instrument sounds for common score creation. Visit Handbook (for MuseScore 3)'s SoundFonts and SFZ files Chapter for a list of downloadable sf2, sf3.

For a more realistic, high quality virtual instrument experience,

• use 3rd party VSTi, see Working with VSTi , or
• install the free Muse Sounds using the Muse Hub, see Installing Muse Sounds.

Install a SoundFont

Once you’ve downloaded a SoundFont to your computer, there are two ways to install a SoundFont in MuseScore 4:

1. Drag and drop the SoundFont file into MuseScore 4
2. Place the SoundFont file in the directory specified in MuseScore 4

Drag and drop installation

[Content on its way]

File directory installation

By default, MuseScore looks for SoundFonts in the following directories:
[Content on its way]

You can also specify in which folder(s) on your computer MuseScore looks to find SoundFonts. If a SoundFont is installed in a recognized folder (“directory”), it will automatically be available in MuseScore.

First, specify the SoundFont directory in MuseScore 4:

1. Open Preferences (Mac: MuseScore > Preferences or shortcut Cmd+;. Windows: Edit > Preferences)
2. Select Folders (under General)
3. Click the folder icon in the SoundFonts row
4. Click Add directory in the dialog that appears
5. Choose and Open the folder location you wish MuseScore to look for SoundFont files
6. If desired, you can add further directories by repeating the above five steps (optional)
7. When you’re done, click OK. The specified directory (or directories) will appear in the text field in the SoundFonts row.
8. Click OK in the Preferences dialog to confirm your selection.

Once a SoundFont is installed, all you’ll need to do is choose the SoundFont you want for each instrument in your score. To do this:

1. Open the Mixer
2. Hover over the plugin slot next to Sound
3. Click the dropdown arrow that appears
4. Hover over SoundFonts
5. Select the SoundFont you wish to assign to that particular instrument

Repeat this process for each instrument. In most cases, MuseScore will automatically map instruments to their correct sounds in the specified SoundFont, as long as that SoundFont is using the correct MIDI instrument definitions.

Uninstall a SoundFont

To uninstall a SoundFont, simply open the folder where its file is installed and delete it.

Selecting sounds with a SoundFont

When you select a SoundFont for a given instrument, MuseScore uses the General MIDI standard to automatically select the corresponding sound from within the SoundFont. However, this may not always be sufficient. The SoundFont in question might not be GM-compatible, or there might be multiple variants of a sound you wish to choose between, like fingered versus picked for electric bass.

When you select a SoundFont with only a single sound or only a single drum kit, MuseScore will use that. But for SoundFonts that represent collections of sounds, manual selection of individual sounds within a given SoundFont is currently not supported (as of Musescore 4.0). Therefore, if you need to select a sound for an instrument other than the one specified by General MIDI, you will need to employ a workaround for now. The ability to select individual sounds within SoundFonts is planned for MuseScore 4.1, but meanwhile, the following methods provide similar functionality:

• You can use this special version of MS Basic that provides all of the individual sounds and drum kits as separate soundfont files
• For other soundfonts, you can use a free tool such as sf2-split or SF2 Splitter to split them into separate files yourself
• You can use edited to customize it as needed (see below)
• You can use a a VST sampler such as Sforzando, FluidSynthVST, or juicysfplugin

Editing .sf2, .sf3 and sfz

You cannot edit .sf2, .sf3 and sfz files inside Musescore. Use a 3rd party software such as Polyphone, see Soundfont, MIDI velocity and instruments.xml.

A note on the Zerberus player and SFZs

Users of MuseScore 3.6 and earlier may be accustomed to using the Zerberus player, which supports the .sfz file format. In building a new system that now supports VST instruments, changes were required that necessitated the removal of the Zerberus player, as well as the Synthesizer found in previous versions of MuseScore. Consequently, some functionality has been lost in this process, including the ability to map specific instrument sounds like pizzicato and tremolo to specific MIDI channels. Our highest priority in future releases of MuseScore 4 is to again support this functionality for VST, SoundFont and the Muse Sounds libraries. Users who rely extensively on mapping .sfz sounds to specific performance directions are advised to continue using earlier versions of MuseScore until we re-enable this capability in MuseScore 4. It is worth mentioning that the new systems we are planning will be much more flexible, easy to use and powerful than those found in MuseScore 3.

For those who wish to still use SFZ sounds in MuseScore 4, good alternatives would be the open source VST samplers, Sfizz (Windows, Mac & Linux) or Sforzando (Windows & Mac), both of which support SFZ playback.

Visit Handbook (for MuseScore 3)'s SoundFonts and SFZ files Chapter for a list of downloadable sf2, sf3 and sfz.

Installation via Muse Hub

Muse Sounds is a library of sophisticated plugins that provide realistic playback for MuseScore.

Muse Sounds are installed using the Muse Hub application, which can be downloaded here on musescore.org.

Once installed, Muse Hub can be opened by clicking the application icon in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows). Click Get under any sound you’d like to have in your library, and it will begin downloading and installing right away.

Muse Hub also contains a range of effects plugins. Download and install these from the Effects tab.

Once a plugin is fully downloaded, it will appear in the Mixer the next time you launch MuseScore.

Using Muse Sounds in MuseScore

Any Muse Sounds plugins you’ve downloaded will be automatically assigned to the appropriate instruments in your score.

You can tell MuseScore to always use available Muse Sounds plugins via the Playback Setup dialog.

1. Go to view → Playback setup
2. Select Muse Sounds in the Profiles section
3. Leave Set as default for new scores checked if you want all future scores to also use Muse Sounds
4. Click OK

The Muse Sounds playback profile will ensure that all Muse Sounds plugins will be assigned to every available instrument in your score. You can also manually assign a Muse Sounds plugin to a single instrument via the Mixer. This can be helpful for scores with more than one instrument, where you may wish to combine Muse Sounds plugins with other VSTs or Soundfonts.

1. Go to View → Mixer to show the Mixer (Shortcut: F10)
2. Hover over a plugin slot next to Sound
3. Click the dropdown button that appears
4. Navigate to Muse Sounds and select a sound from the desired library

Available sounds in Muse Sounds

Muse Sounds currently supports the following instruments:

Choir

• Sopranos
• Altos
• Tenors
• Basses

Strings

• Violins 1
• Violin 1 (Solo)
• Violins 2
• Violin 2 (Solo)
• Violas
• Viola (Solo)
• Violoncellos
• Violoncello (Solo)
• Contrabasses

Woodwinds

• Alto Flute
• Alto Sax
• Baritone Sax
• Bass Clarinet
• Bass Flute
• Bassoon
• Clarinet in Bb
• Clarinet in Eb
• Contrabass Flute
• Contrabassoon
• English Horn
• Flute 1
• Flute 2
• Oboe
• Piccolo
• Soprano Sax
• Tenor Sax

Brass

• French Horns a6
• French Horn
• Trumpets a4
• Trumpet
• Trombones a3
• Trombone
• Bass Trombone
• Cimbasso
• Tuba

Percussion

• Bass Drum
• Bell Tree
• Bongos
• Cabasa
• Castanets
• Claves
• Cowbell
• Crotales
• Field Drum
• Glockenspiel
• Gong
• Marimba
• Mark Tree
• Piatti
• Shaker
• Sleigh Bells
• Snare Drum
• Suspended Cymbal
• Taikos
• Tam-Tam
• Tambourine
• Timbales
• Timpani
• Toms
• Triangle
• Tubular Bells
• Vibraphone
• Wood Blocks
• Xylophone
• Metronome

Keys

• Celesta
• Grand Piano
• Harpsichord
• Soft Piano
• Upright Piano
• Hammond Organ
• Suitcase Piano
• Wurly 200A
• Dream Piano

Harp

• Harp

Any instruments not supported by Muse Sounds will remain assigned to MS Basic by default.

Overview

MuseScore allows you to transpose the playback of a staff without changing the music notation (written pitch). This simulates the effect of a capo on a guitar (or other stringed instrument).

Adding a capo marking to your score

To a single staff

1. Add staff text to the note/rest from which you want capo playback to start;
2. Open the Staff text properties dialog.
3. Click on the Capo Settings tab;
4. Check the “Capo Settings” checkbox, and set "Capo fret" to the fret number you wish to apply the capo at (each fret increases the pitch by a semitone);
5. Click OK to apply your changes;
6. Edit the wording of the text as desired.

To a staff / tablature pair

Use one of the following:

• If linked, add the capo to the standard staff—not the tablature.
• If unlinked, add the capo to both staves.

Note: Any capo playback settings apply until overridden by a subsequent Staff text with “Capo Settings” enabled.

See also

• Chord symbols: Capo fret position

Overview

Music in “straight” time is performed strictly as written in the score. By contrast, music in swing time interpets straight eigth and sixteenth notes as triplet pairs, with the first of the pair being roughly twice as long as the second. This gives the rhythm a characteristic bouncy feel—often asssociated with Jazz music. e.g.

Swung eighths:

Swung sixteenths:

Rather than notate swung music exactly as performed, it is accepted convention to write it in straight time and simply provide the written indications “Swing and “Straight” at appropriate points in the score.

Swing markings have a playback effect on the score. The default swing ratio is 60% (3:2) but you can vary this to suit the feel of the piece if required.

Adding a swing or straight marking to your score

To add a swing marking

1. Click on the destination note or rest
2. Click on the Swing text in the Tempo palette.

Alternatively, you can drag and drop the Swing text from the palette onto the note or rest in question.

You can, if desired, add a visual swing marking as well.

To add a straight marking

1. Click on the destination note or rest
2. Click on the Straight text in the Tempo palette.

Note that the above markings are a form of System text and therefore the playback effect is applied to all staves in the system. If you want swing to apply to only one staff you can use Staff text instead: see below.

Changing swing playback

Adjust the type and degree of swing

1. Right-click on the Swing text in the score and select System text properties.

2. In the Swing settings tab edit the “Swing” and “Swing ratio” as required.

   

Note: Swing settings are found in both system and staff text.

Apply swing to one staff only

If you want swing to apply to only one staff in the system, use staff text instead:

1. Select the destination note or rest.
2. Click on the Staff text indication in the Text palette.
3. Edit the text to create the desired performance indication
4. Right-click on the text and select Staff text properties. Alternatively select the text object and in the Properties panel, click on the Staff text properties button.
5. In the Swing settings tab edit the “Swing” and “Swing ratio” as required.

This section needs to be organized / written by someone with an understanding of how to use MIDI input/output in MuseScore 4. If JACK is still supported, it could be discussed here too, or in a new page.

Introduction to VST

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface licensed under Steinberg that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. Most VST plugins are either instruments (VSTi) or effects (VSTfx); VSTi includes software simulation emulations of well-known hardware synthesizers and samplers.

In MuseScore 4, any compatible VST plugins installed on your computer will automatically be made available in the Mixer, where you can easily switch between VSTi plugins, stack multiple VST effects, and access plugin interfaces for further customization.

MuseScore 4 supports VST3 plugins only (VST2 is not supported due to licensing restrictions). Support is currently only for Windows and MacOS, but Linux support is in the pipeline.

For alternatives to VSTi’s, try one of the following:

• install Muse Sounds
• use the built-in MS Basic SoundFont
• download and use 3rd party virtual instruments in sf2, sf3, or sfz formats (see SoundFonts).

Note: (1) Any sounds you load in the Mixer are automatically saved with the score. (2) SFZ files are not directly supported—host these in a third party VSTi sampler instead. See SoundFonts.

Enabling, disabling, removing and replacing VST plugins

To learn more about working with VST plugins in the Mixer, see Audio FX and Sounds.