Notation Software - MuseScore 4 is in the making

[sgcim]

I'm happy with Musescore 3, does everything I need really. I'm currently typing in the chart for Israel (from the 'Birth of the Cool' score book), eventually I might export it to Reaper and record something with it.

Attachment 100375

I'm so conditioned to using MS 3, I kept trying to click on play!
With MS 4.0, they don't go back to the beginning of the score when you click rewind. They play it, but the screen doesn't go back till you start hearing the score. Don't ask me why..

[RJVB]

edit: oh. I forgot. to code this. it is freaking insane. imagine about 500 tiny elements that have to fight for space. all the combinations. there is no nice way to code it. it is larger than chess.

<must resist...>
I'm getting curious how results obtained with WYSIAYG applications like MuseScore compare to those obtained with MusixTeX
</must resist...>

rabbit holes galore... (I had a few months "off" between the formal acceptance of my PhD thesis manuscript and the moment I had to hand it to the printer [person/company, not device], which I spent hacking around in the LaTeX implementation files to get rid of the stereotypical look. The printer thought I had a pro typesetter in my family when he saw the file )

Introduction
https://texdoc.org/serve/musixtex/0

[sgcim]

MuseScore 4.0 gets better and better. They've got all the things you commonly use up on top so you don't have to go to the pallets anymore. Accents, triplets, slurs, marcato, staccato, etc...

Even the sound of the steel string acoustic guitar is better. Instead of sounding like a freaking harpsichord, you can literally hear a pick hitting a string. In the pallets they've got something called "jazz sound" which may be able to be applied to the guitar.
I'm literally twelve measures from completing my 58th big band chart. Just need an ending for a prog tune.
Then I'll check out the electric guitar. They've even got distortion. This thing is better than having a studio.

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

<must resist...>
I'm getting curious how results obtained with WYSIAYG applications like MuseScore compare to those obtained with MusixTeX
</must resist...>

rabbit holes galore... (I had a few months "off" between the formal acceptance of my PhD thesis manuscript and the moment I had to hand it to the printer [person/company, not device], which I spent hacking around in the LaTeX implementation files to get rid of the stereotypical look. The printer thought I had a pro typesetter in my family when he saw the file )

Introduction
https://texdoc.org/serve/musixtex/0

I never understand why people still use MusiXTeX when Lilypond (which was originally based on MusiXTeX) gives so superior results even in the default settings. It integrates very well into LaTeX btw. (I use ConTeXt -- much more control over the layout than LaTeX. Lilypond can be integrated into ConTeXt as well).

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

[...] I've been hacking around in the MuseScore code (mostly fixing crashes) and indeed written code for various relevant other problems. Feathers in a hat I rarely wear anymore.[...]

Can you by any chance tell me which files of the source code I have to change if I want to compile Musescore with other SMuFL music fonts than the included default ones?

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

In case someone has doubts about the capabilities of Musescore for professional music engraving: Here is an example of some avantgarde music done with MS posted on an professional notation forum.

[GuyBoden]

A delightful bug in Musescore3. When using a fast tempo, then you close the app and later open the app, via clicking another file, it plays at the previous fast tempo.

Or, it does in the Linux version at least.

[RJVB]

Can you by any chance tell me which files of the source code I have to change if I want to compile Musescore with other SMuFL music fonts than the included default ones?

No, I have never felt the need to look at that. My guess would be that they will be found and made available if you put them in the proper place, have you tried that?

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

No, I have never felt the need to look at that. My guess would be that they will be found and made available if you put them in the proper place, have you tried that?

No, I haven't tried to compile MS myself at all so far. But I always thought it would be nice to have some other music fonts available since I started using MS 3.6.

At MS's Github repo there is a folder for all the fonts included. If I find the time I will try to exchange some of the fonts in that folder (I don't need fonts that mimic a handwritten Real Book look) and see if compiling works.

[RJVB]

My guess would be that they will be found and made available if you put them in the proper place, have you tried that?

I meant runtime changes! If those are TrueType fonts they should be installable in a system location, but MuseScore might also have a location of its own where it looks for additional fonts. I do know you can add SoundFonts to the default ones!

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

I meant runtime changes! If those are TrueType fonts they should be installable in a system location, but MuseScore might also have a location of its own where it looks for additional fonts. I do know you can add SoundFonts to the default ones!

While you can edit texts to use system fonts in MS, the music fonts are hardwired into the binary and restricted to the ones in that Github folder.

[sgcim]

A delightful bug in Musescore3. When using a fast tempo, then you close the app and later open the app, via clicking another file, it plays at the previous fast tempo.

Or, it does in the Linux version at least.

Did you save the previous fast tempo version?

[RJVB]

While you can edit texts to use system fonts in MS, the music fonts are hardwired into the binary and restricted to the ones in that Github folder.

I see that I did hack around in that, as far as I can tell in order to be able to run MuseScore under X11 on (or rather, from a) Mac. It's been a while, but from the looks of it the Mac version usually gets its fonts from the Resource folder inside the app bundle.

However, you're right that the known score fonts are hardcoded (in the 3.6x version at least), in libmscore/sym.cpp and mscore/editstyle.cpp . It will be a bit tedious but relatively straightforward to replace fonts in a custom build *). It should also be possible to teach MuseScore about fonts installed in your system; it beats me a bit why they haven't considered this.

*) You'd place your intended font(s) in the fonts directory and then search the code for the existing fonts (e.g. the nicely unique petaluma name) to reference the font(s) you added and remove the one(s) you don't want.

FWIW, I agree that the fake hand-written font looks stupid and is unreadable. I don't know why it's popular in jazz ...

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

[...]You'd place your intended font(s) in the fonts directory and then search the code for the existing fonts (e.g. the nicely unique petaluma name) to reference the font(s) you added and remove the one(s) you don't want.[...]

Thanks for the tip which reduces the search results in the Github repo to 2 pages instead of 100 pages when searching for fonts.

It will take a while till I find the time to try this but i will let you know if I succeed.

[jackalGreen]

I think MS 4.0 made it easier to have two different voices in a measure. There's a new thing at the bottom that you can click on called 'two parts'
I've been afraid to try it, but I really need it for my piano parts. I gave up trying to figure it out and gave the poor pianist leger lines on the other stave.

Ah. That settles it, for me. I've used MS mostly for breaking apart contrapuntal music, and in the past it was a PITA to get note stems in the direction I wanted them, rests for each part of, you know, four or five or more voices. With the option to include those different voices on the same staff, for legibility.

Not just a piano/organ thing....I find it's good to make up little "practice scores" of complicated legit music as one's learning it, and I can see making that a part of my guitar practice, if I weren't such a lazy bastard.

And, yes, nobody really wants to read extreme *extreme* *flaming hot!* *extreme* ledger lines...you know, within reason is fine, but no one likes to read that shit.

I'm in, MuseScore 4 for me, as soon as I get off my duff and do it up.

[sgcim]

MuseScore 4.0 gets better and better. They've got all the things you commonly use up on top so you don't have to go to the pallets anymore. Accents, triplets, slurs, marcato, staccato, etc...

Even the sound of the steel string acoustic guitar is better. Instead of sounding like a freaking harpsichord, you can literally hear a pick hitting a string. In the pallets they've got something called "jazz sound" which may be able to be applied to the guitar.
I'm literally twelve measures from completing my 58th big band chart. Just need an ending for a prog tune.
Then I'll check out the electric guitar. They've even got distortion. This thing is better than having a studio.

I ended my prog chart by writing 8 bars of a 12 bar blues and then adding a 4 bar coda, so I checked out the guitar sounds on MS 4.0 and the Electric guitar is still that horrible twangy, treble sound, so I added "jazz sound" to it, and all it did was make it sound like you had a piano sustain pedal on it, and everything ran into what was played before!
It has a guitar pallet now, and I tried out distortion (horrible) Overdrive- horrible but better than distortion,. tremolo, non-existent, Harmonics- they were distortion harmonics, even on acoustic guitars!.

On the positive side, the two acoustic guitar sounds are good, nylon and steel string,and you can notate classical guitar multi-voice things with that two parts thing at the top, but there's a learning curve on doing it, so prepare to read the handbook on how to do it right.

For guitar teachers, there are fingering marking tools that look good.
There's slide guitar available, but if it's anything like the other f/x stuff, I don't want to even try it.

So while playback is still bad for guitar, you can notate their horrible sounds much easier, so the player will know what to do. Just don't submit your scores to anyone that is going to listen to them on MS,( like I'm preparing to do.) with those markings on a guitar part.

[GuyBoden]

Did you save the previous fast tempo version?

Sorry, I was referring to the play back tempo.

The bug is when the tempo is set in each score, the play back tempo doesn't change when a new score is opened and played. On Linux anyway.

[sgcim]

Have they already come up with a version to replace 4.0? I noticed they had 4.0 2 on the MS.org page.

Has anyone tried it? Did they fix all the bugs on the 4.0 version?

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

Have they already come up with a version to replace 4.0? I noticed they had 4.0 2 on the MS.org page.

Has anyone tried it? Did they fix all the bugs on the 4.0 version?

These are the release notes for 4.0.2

https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/releases

This is open source software. If you encounter bugs, something that annoys you or something you miss, open a Github account and post your findings here:

Issues * musescore/MuseScore * GitHub

Hopefully your issues will make it into the next version.

BTW I can work very well with the latest version. I do mainly lead sheets ATM.

[sgcim]

These are the release notes for 4.0.2

Releases * musescore/MuseScore * GitHub

This is open source software. If you encounter bugs, something that annoys you or something you miss, open a Github account and post your findings here:

Issues * musescore/MuseScore * GitHub

Hopefully your issues will make it into the next version.

BTW I can work very well with the latest version. I do mainly lead sheets ATM.

I've had it with 4.0!
It's lost an entire score I've had played (luckily, I printed out all the parts, and the bandleader liked it.
It has a 1st trumpet part which sustains a high Bb for 20 measures, and I can't turn it off (remind me to fire that guy)
You can't write higher than a highC for trumpet, even though there are plenty of guys who can play higher than that. At least it prints it out, but you can't hear it on playback.
I've already complained to them, but they can't fix it.

[sgcim]

I've had it with 4.0!
It's lost an entire score I've had played (luckily, I printed out all the parts, and the bandleader liked it.
It has a 1st trumpet part which sustains a high Bb for 20 measures, and I can't turn it off (remind me to fire that guy)
You can't write higher than a highC for trumpet, even though there are plenty of guys who can play higher than that. At least it prints it out, but you can't hear it on playback.
I've already complained to them, but they can't fix it.

I figured out how to turn off the high sustained trumpet. I erased a tremolo on the first trumpet part, and it went away like magic.

[sgcim]

Got 4.0 MS playing well on playback by adjusting buffers.