MuseScore 3.6 is Out!

• Jan 14, 2021 - 17:57

MuseScore 3.6 Stable is Out!

We are pleased to announce the release of MuseScore 3.6. This is our 'engraving release', which addresses many of the biggest issues affecting the layout and appearance of your sheet music and is the result of a massive collaboration between our community and internal team. It is the first big step towards the type of world-beating engraving capability that we aim to achieve in the future.

Two of the most notable additions in this release are Leland, our new notation font and Edwin, our new typeface. Leland is a highly sophisticated notation style created by our head of product, Martin Keary and our engraving expert, Simon Smith. The aim of Leland is to provide a classic notation style that feels 'just right' with a balanced, consistent weight and a finessed appearance that avoids overly stylised quirks. Here's a video created by Tantacrul that breaks down how Leland was created. Our new typeface, Edwin, is based on New Century Schoolbook, which has long been the typeface of choice by some of the world's leading publishers, chosen specifically as a complimentary companion to Leland. In addition, we have provided new default style settings (margins, line thickness, etc) to compliment Leland and Edwin, which match conventions used by the world's leading publishing houses.

Equally as important as our new notation style is our new vertical layout system. This is switched on by default for new scores and can be activated on older scores too. It is a gigantic improvement to how staves are vertically arranged and will save you hours of work by significantly reducing your reliance on vertical spacers and manual adjustment. We have also created a system for automatically organising the instruments on your score to conform with a range of common conventions (orchestral, marching band, etc.). In addition, newly created scores will also be accurately bracketed by default. You can even specify soloists, which will be arranged and bracketed according to your chosen convention too! These three new systems are the result of a wonderful collaboration between Simon Smith and our community member, Niek van den Berg.

We have also greatly improved how we display the notation fonts: Emmentaler and Bravura, which more accurately match the intentions of the original designers and have included a new jazz font called 'Petaluma' designed by Anthony Hughes at Steinberg.

Lastly, we have made some very useful improvements to our export process, which now includes a new dialog containing lots of practical, time-saving settings. This work was implemented by one of our newest community members, Casper Jeukendrup.

We have lots more to do to improve the engraving capabilities of MuseScore, including important overhauls to our horizontal spacing and beaming systems. MuseScore 3.6 may be a massive step but there are many more steps ahead!

Additional Engraving fixes

  • Overhauled style defaults, both general and Leland-specific
  • Added feature to indent initial systems of sections
  • Improved adjustment of stem lengths on chords outside the stave
  • Improvement to the appearance of tremolo and buzzrolls markings
  • Correct interpretation of beam spacing and ledger length settings in SMuFL fonts
  • Improved positioning of flags, honouring their orientation and design in their respective fonts
  • Bracketed accidentals can how have customisable padding inside their parentheses
  • Improvements to placement and spacing of accidentals with regard to ledger lines
  • Improvements with spacing involving invisible items

Regarding MusicXML Import

  • There is an issue with some MusicXML imports, which do not always accept our new defaults without some manual work. Depending on the source of the file, font faces and sizes may be specified locally for each text item. A dialog will be presented when importing an XML file to ask if you wish to apply the text font Edwin to the file or not; this will force the font change but may not affect size or other attributes. It may be possible to reset styles more comprehensively by opening Format → Style and selecting the 'Reset all Styles to Default'
  • Option on the bottom left corner of the dialog. After that, you may also need to choose 'Format > Reset Text Style Overrides'. Ultimately, it may be necessary to reset some text items manually.

See also the handbook page for the new changes and features

Full release notes are available here

Download MuseScore 3.6 Release

Windows 64-bit

Windows 32-bit

Windows Portable

 macOS 10.10 or higher Linux AppImage
(64-bit only)

Comments

• Feb 25, 2021 - 05:38

A couple of days? Are you sure? It's already late February!
I'm on 3.5.2 for the Mac, and I see nothing about 3.6 nor any update when I open the app. Instead, the adherent "Check for Updates Automatically?" pop-up shows up.
Am I missing something? How can I get the 3.6 update? Or is it not yet safe to work with?

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• Jan 15, 2021 - 13:57

If we use the new fonts and style in some score, or "upgrade" some one to the new layout... Will be it recognized and read into the MuseScore old versions (3.x.x)? ???

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• Jan 15, 2021 - 19:02

It might seem strange because it's completely empty, but when is the last time you saw a published score consisting of 32 empty measures? It is best to start adding some music before evaluating whether you need to make changes to the defaults. Otherwise, changes you make now to your empty score will most likely turn out to counterproductive in your actual score.

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• Jan 18, 2021 - 11:08

I would agree it is not pleasing to the eye: mainly because there are so many bars squashed in there. One would very rarely if ever see so many bars per system, anywhere, in real life. A piece with 32 bars in it would always take up more than two systems.

I always immediately change the minimum width setting. But I have no idea why the minimum width isn't set wider, anyway, as the default.

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• Jan 23, 2021 - 21:14

I agree with Lofo. As a professional engraver with many years experience in classical and educational music I'd say this would be the correct layout. Bars would only be expanded when notes and rests are added, otherwise it would just be a waste of space on the page. And extra pages would be expensive for the publisher.

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• Jan 24, 2021 - 00:33

Hmm...
Judging by the prodigious output @miL_not_sniW has posted on dotcom:
https://musescore.com/user/34296022/sheetmusic
I find it odd that (s)he could regard a blank score as "hideous".

My own use of MuseScore began when I was looking for something to print blank music staves. I was ignorant of MuseScore's capabilities and got rid of all the measures and barlines. Back then, I thought the default "My First Score" with 4 bars per system looked less "hideous". I mean, after all, how can passages of various note durations notes be crammed into such small measures? Coming from paper and pencil notation, I had no idea that the staves expanded as the notes were entered.
That was way back, when I thought this was considered "engraving":
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=henle+verlag&&view=detail&mid=4519…

Today, I am in awe of what can be accomplished with MuseScore.

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• Jan 15, 2021 - 23:03

Oh boy this is fun...I'm switching from Bravura to Leland/Edwin and the scores low key feel like they came from Sibelius...
On a technical note, some of the default fonts stayed FreeSerif. Easy to fix but just a note in case you want to fix that minor setting.

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• Jan 16, 2021 - 01:10

I remember the header, footer, and maybe the Instrument Change fonts remaining in FreeSerif in the Styles pallete. The restore button let me change them to the new fonts without me searching for them. I rarely touch text fonts because I just use the default and like consistency; I just noticed that my footer font was different than my Staff Text, etc. when I was updating.

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• Jan 16, 2021 - 02:00

Is there a way where I can make the measures in the score bigger and if someone can show me a video to properly do it? Thank you

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• Jan 16, 2021 - 04:04

"Bigger" is subjective, but you can:
A) Format -> Page Settings -> Scaling; increase the staff spacing there, everything scales with it. The preview will give you the general idea of the change before you apply/OK the action.
B) Select the measure(s) and hold Shift + } to stretch the measure(s) horizontally. (Using '{' shrinks the measure).
C) Similar to B), but applies to all measures as a default for empty staves. Format -> Style -> Measure; increase the "Minimum measure width."
If you search around on Google or Musescore forums/manual, you'll find plenty of guides for this and other things.

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• Jan 16, 2021 - 05:28

I do not yet see the update prompt in the software, I am using windows and my current version is: 3.5.2.311*
when will the update be shown in "check for update"?

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• Jan 16, 2021 - 13:55

Gosh the engraving and font standards have really stepped up with this release. Scores feel (and look) a lot more (IMHO) the old high-quality publishers like the G. Henle Verlag München and Breitkopf & Härtel Wiesbaden. A lot is the choice of fonts, but the stave placement looks good too - it wasn't bad before, but it looks top-notch now - without having to do much manually. Thanks developers!

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• Jan 19, 2021 - 08:28

Thank you for your amazing contributions! It's kind of weird how the concept of open-source software has made such a legacy(?), in my opinion. But of course, seeing users saying "thank you" could be commonplace for you, I guess... But I have more to say (bare with me please).

First of all... I watched both the trailer of the new Musescore (nice as usual), and Tantacrul's video on the new fonts he created with Simon Smith. I have to say: you are insane! But people like you two try to bring Musescore closer to "its own perfection" ;) . And please, Mister Tantacrul, I didn't understand why you found strange the fact Simon didn't want to show up on your video. My point is, I want you to respect people who try to stay away from shady companies, who steal their data. If we keep "feeding" them then expect someday that people will have 0 privacy. I believe that's what we should be concerned about, even if we don't see any obvious misuse of our information, even if Simon didn't have this idea in mind. Other than that, thank you both for providing this amazing and well "hand"crafted font.

I also can't believe that Musescore is the first (with GUI) notation software compatible with Linux! I have to say, the GNU/Linux community gets better thanks to programmers/developers like you! If I ever become a programmer I'd like to contribute some designs or code for this amazing project (I mean Musescore) and other open-source software.

I guess people must think "Oh ho, he is a Linux addict". (I'll start talking about non-Musescore related stuff now). I just wish people would appreciate the work of the people behind GNU/Linux. And stop saying based stuff about them. Proprietary software is not necessarily bad, but who would have thought there were so many programmers who wanted to contribute open-source software? I'm so impressed by their huge contributions... Musescore, KDE, Inkscape... to think all those can match industry standards (no, don't say they don't, and if not now then soon enough they will). I'm so moved by their, and your, efforts. Common masses just trashing your works is so unfair. I write this for people to notice how amazing the philosophies behind GNU (and linux) are. Sorry if this was overbearing.

And thank you for reading! I know half of the stuff I said is not actually related to this website specifically.

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• Feb 2, 2021 - 17:08

Not sure what kind of comment you want, except that if you wish to have a discussion about some shady company that steals data, best to do so on some other site dedicated to such a company, and keep discussion here focused on MuseScore.

As for other GUI-based notation programs, there front-ends to LilyPond out there that are not terrible to work with, but indeed, nothing like MuseScore.

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• Jan 19, 2021 - 20:37

I'm simply in love with the new look! And I never realized how big a difference the auto-vertical adjustment would make! Its quite fitting that MuseScore 3 started and concluded with huge updates to the engraving (autoplace initially and now the new font and engraving-overhaul). Thank you to everyone involved for all your hard work!

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• Jan 20, 2021 - 01:35

After I updated to 3.6, whenever I open the program, it instantly crashes. I have no idea if this is an issue with my computer or the program itself.

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• Jan 20, 2021 - 02:48

First, thank you for this upgrade; I am an engraver not a composer, so I really appreciate what you have done!

Is it possible to have 3.5 and 3.6 installed on the same machine (Windows 10)? I am worried that if I open an existing score to make a small correction, unexpected/unwanted things may happen even if I tell MuseScore not to update anything. And I might not notice such inadvertent changes since I will only be looking at the corrections that need to be made; I don't want to have to proofread a long, complex score after doing a small fix. (I will move to 3.6 for all new projects.)

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• Jan 20, 2021 - 06:45

It should work if you direct the installed to install into a different directory. You won't be able to run both at the same time, and only the on installed last will start on double-click on a score file.
Another option is to use the PortableApp, for either 3.5.2 or 3.6, or even both
Assuming you're on Windows that is

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• Jan 21, 2021 - 02:47

As I've said in the YouTube channel:
Thanks a lot to the development team of Musescore, it's been a great experience enjoy and go over some difficulties, but finding in the community a solution and response.

Keep going, and Tantacrul, thanks for the videos and the efforts to get a nicer look in the engraving experience with Musescore.

Greets from Venezuela, warm hugs.

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• Jan 21, 2021 - 05:29

Hey guys I know this is not the right place to comment, but only this page was opening, I am getting a 502 bad gateway error on all pages of musescore other than the homepage , i am not able to view messages or anything regarding my profile, can someone help?

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• Jan 21, 2021 - 23:27

Semibreves look weird in Leland. The hollows look more like quadrilaterals rather than ovals. Is this intentional or is it still going to be smoothed out? Also, the minims have uneven hollows.

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• Jan 22, 2021 - 06:37

Thank you for this new version, it seems great!
Some details:
1) Many modern programs, including earlier versions of MuseScore, respond to the wheel of the mouse according to the panel the pointer is on. I noticed that 3.6.0 has a strange behavior. Start with a new score, add a note and select it to enable some content in the Inspector panel. Open one or more palettes so that the full content of the palette pane exceedes the screen size. The wheel allows scrolling up and down. Now move the pointer to the main (central) area. The wheel ceases to control scrolling. Now go to the inspector. The same happens. Notice the note is still selected. Now click on the note as if you where selecting it again. Now the wheel allows scrolling the score and the inspector (if, as happens in a laptop screen, it exceeds the bottom of the screen) according to where one locates the mouse pointer. Now try to scroll the palette panel: nothing happens until one clicks on it.
2) When scrolling the inspector area with the mouse wheel, unlike what happened in earlier versions, if the pointer happens to be over a selection box (such as Head group) the scrolling keeps going and the property doesn't change. This is a great improvemnt. But if one opens the box once and closes it by selecting anything, then the if the mouse pointer is over the box when rotating the wheel the property is changed instead of scrolling the inspector content. This isn't cool since one might be inadvertently altering a property when just intending to scroll the inspector.

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• Feb 9, 2021 - 06:40

And not a single word on the improvements done to MScore. (Incidentally, it’s still mis-named Emmentaler, which it certainly has not been for a long time, it’s an independently developed derivative.)

I feel underappreciated somehow. It would have been so easy to say “oh btw we also beefed up the old standard notational font a little”. Just that.

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• Feb 17, 2021 - 06:56

Congratulations on the new update, and I'm very excited to start adapting to the fonts and settings. Wonderful job as always, and keep improving.

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