There's no Synthesizer in View, and no sound when I hit Play
I just downloaded MuseScore 4 last night. Clicking on Play makes no sound. So I searched for possible advice and found MuseScore's statement that I should, quote, "go to the View menu and choose Synthesizer." I clicked on View and the Synthesizer choice doesn't exist there. The advice that follows from MuseScore assumes that "Synthesizer" as a choice exists. So I how do I get sound? Thanks.
Comments
Adding to my above comment: Synthesizer isn't just grayed out. It does not exist as a choice when I click on View.
In reply to Adding to my above comment: … by jimsolheim
Instead, try View/Playback setup and activate the sounds you want to use. If you didn't download the Hub and Muse Sounds, the only choice you will have is Basic sounds.
The synthesizer is in version 3. Spend a little time in the v.4 manual.
In reply to Instead, try View/Playback… by bobjp
Thanks. I did what you said. . . I went to View/Playback setup and activated basic sounds. It works now, but I don't understand why users are expected to know to do this just to get any sound at all out of the software. After numerous searches, all I found was the stuff about synthesizer.
In reply to Thanks. I did what you said… by jimsolheim
You’re not supposed to have to do that at all; sound should just work. MS Basic should be selected by default if you didn’t install Muse Sounds, otherwise Muse Sounds should be. Only if something went wrong in this process - which is extremely unusual, I don’t think I’ve seen any other reports of that specifically - would you need to set that explicitly.
So it would be good to understand what might have gone wrong. Did you try to install Muse Sounds? Did you run into an error? Did you try changing the location where they installed?
Many things about the layout of the UI have changed between MU3 and Mu4, so be sure when researching how to do something, you are looking at documentation about the proper version. The synthesizer window is indeed no longer a thing; it's functions are now elsewhere like in the Mixer.
As for difficulty with sound, are you saying nothing is producing sound at all - not entering notes, not playing back any score? Does the cursor move when pressing play? Be sure your speakers aren't muted of course, but also that MsueScore isn't being muted in your system mixer. If you are using a Bluetooth or other external sound device, try using just the standard one instead to see if the problem has to do with the connection to the audio driver. Also be sure no other audio apps are running that can take exclusive use of your audio. Also check Edit / Preferences / I/O to see if other devices are available to select there.
If you continue to have trouble, please explain in more detail - what OS, what audio hardware, what settings you've tried in Preferences, etc.