Ties does not work when using a specific sfz sound font.

• Nov 2, 2019 - 09:42

Hello,

I have posted this matter to the General discussion forum because I'm not sure it is pure musescore issue or not but there was no response from anyone for over 2 weeks then let me post here again.

I'm using Musescore3 with Virtual Playing Orchestra sfz files.
When I set two whole tones and ties (total 8 beats length), and if I play it, there are cases that it sounds shorter than 8 beats length. Played beats length seems depends on using instrument and pitch.
Here is an example.
I set two C4 tones with ties, two G4 tones with ties, that means 8 beats length respectively.

NG cases
1st-violin-SEC-sustain -> it become about 7 beats length
1st-violin-SEC-tremolo -> C4 is about 3 beats length, G4 is 8 beats length
viola-SEC-sustain -> C4 : partially about 5 beats length, remains is 8 beats length, G4 is 8 beats length

OK cases
viola-SEC-tremolo
cello-SEC-sustain
base-SEC-sustain

Here are other notes.
- If I write another pitch, its behavior is different but still short in most cases.
- It seems this behavior happens on Musescore3. If I use Musescore2 and Virtual Playing Orchestra, it seems this issue does not happen.
- recent build, MuseScoreNightly-2019-10-08-1157-master-2e7a18c-x86_64.7z has the same behavior.

Environment
- Musescore : Windows 7 SP 1 (6.1), Arch.: x86_64, MuseScore version (64-bit): 3.3.0.8677
- Virtual Playing Orchestra
-- Wave files : version 3.1
-- sfz scripts : standard orchestra version 3.1.2

Just in case, I attached the sample mscz file which I used to create this post. It includes synthesizer setting of the Virtual Playing Orchestra in it.
I would like to know if there is any wrong my setting/usage or not.
Although I’m not sure this is known issue.

Attachment Size
sample_04.mscz 4.51 KB

Comments

• Nov 2, 2019 - 12:03

While Musescore can play the VPO soundfont, it is not fully supported.

What this means is that some elements will work well, while others will not work properly or work at all.

The reason for this is very simple - in order to utilize the full capabilities of the VPO soundfont, additional opcodes must be supported in the Zerberus synthesizer.

The only SFZ soundfont that is fully supported by Musescore is Musescore Drumline.

Full support for SFZ is certainly an area where there is quite a lot of work left to do. This spreadsheet can give you a clearer idea of what is still left to do in order to provide support for SFZ on the level of Sforzando, Garritan Aria Player, and LinuxSampler.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xZ8zAM5Hd-NljbpSFME0qH0aWSVXzFo…

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• Nov 10, 2019 - 11:14

Hello Daniel,
Thanks for your quick reply and providing current situation of Musescore.
I just want to confirm that this behavior I met is not a bug and just lack of features which may be supported in the future. And the features which are supported in Musescore2 won't necessarily be supported on Musescore3. Is my understanding correct?

Best Regards,

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• Nov 10, 2019 - 22:03

My guess is what you are describing has nothing to do with ties at all, the sounds you are using simply don't have looping enabled so they can't play for more than some fixed amount of time. Which is to say, I think you'll get the same result if you create an 8/4 measure rather than two tied whole notes, or for that matter if you simply slow the tempo.

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• Nov 10, 2019 - 22:36

I discovered a score today that does not play the second note of a tie. It was created in 2.something and I've fixed it in my current score. It also doesn't use MDL at all. There have been other reports of such problems. I could try opening the score again and see if I can try to see how much of the score is necessary to recreate the problem. I'm not 100% sure these are the same but they do seem similar.

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• Nov 10, 2019 - 23:06

It's the fact that the OP mentions a specific SFZ soundfont, and knowing that loops have proven problematic for SFZ soundfonts in the past, that leads me to believe this particular problem is about that and not the tie itself.

As for the other problems with similar symptoms with ties, there have also been issues if another staff or voice on the same instrument comes in before the first note stops, also problems with the combination of ornaments and ties. In general, though, a tied note is handled internally the same as a long note - by the time the synthesizer & soundfont get involved, there is no record that this was notated using a tie versus any other long note. The issue with conflict with ornaments (which I believe is no longer an issue, at least not in the same form as in earlier releases) is the only one I am aware of that is truly about the tie and not just long notes in general.

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• Dec 14, 2019 - 15:07

Well, if there is, it only would affect roll/tremolo, not ordinary notes. For your case, as I said before, it almost certainly is just a fault of the soundfont, not having long enough samples or not being set to loop. Otherwise the problem would affect all soundfonts.

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• Dec 22, 2019 - 07:43

Hi Marc,
Thanks for your explanation. I think I understand that there may be an issue(s) on the soundfont side. And I also thought that the requirements to soundfonts may be changed between 2 and 3 because, as I told, it seems that soundfont works correctly on the Musescore2.

Regards,

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• Dec 22, 2019 - 12:21

I missed the part about it working with MuseScore 2. I still suspect the issue is specific to the soundfont - otherwise you’d see the same with other soundfonts, and so would everyone else. But whether it is an actual bug in the soundfont or a bug in MuseScore that is only triggered by some
unique property of that soundfont, I cannot say.

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