Instrument playback has gone silent
~Repost from the issue tracker; thanks, Marc, for pointing me in the right direction.~
Hello all! I'm at my wit's end at this point and would greatly appreciate assistance.
I recently (today) updated Musescore from 2.0.3 to 2.1 via the automatic update feature. I'm running on Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6. After the update, I noticed that playback had gone completely silent. The tracking bar still runs across the measures and the notes light up as if they're being sounded, but no audio comes through. Clicking on notes already entered does not cause them to sound either (I have "Play notes when editing" checked in the Note Input tab in Preferences). It isn't any one specific file; any file I load up is silent. I ran the gamut of suggestions that I repeatedly came across while searching the site here. The volume sliders on both the Synthesizer and Play Panel are above 0. The Synthesizer displays "FluidR3Mono_GM.sf3" in the soundfont list as it should. My I/O settings in "Preferences" are set to Port Audio, API: Core Audio & Device: Built-In Output, as they were before I updated. I tried adding different soundfonts. I've done a factory reset multiple times. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the program multiple times. I've checked that MuseScore is looking in the right folder for soundfonts, and it is. Nothing is muted in the Mixer, and my system is not muted either (I'd be highly embarrassed if that was the case). And to top it all off, the strangest part of this is that the metronome continues to make noise just fine. I've run out of options and am quickly running out of patience. Please help! I am more than willing to try any options suggested. Thank you.
Marc Sabatella recommended I reboot the system, which I have, multiple times. No dice. This is one heck of a mystery to me...
Comments
for reference: see #197546: No playback
If your OS provides its own application Mixer (like Windows and Linux do), make sure that MuseScore isn't muted or turned way down there.
Also, what happens if you export a WAV or MP3 file, then play it using iTunes or some other program?
In reply to If your OS provides its own by Marc Sabatella
@Marc: Apparently Apple doesn't have a built-in sound mixer like Windows does (that was one of the first things I looked for when I was assessing this problem initially). I'm pretty sure the system doesn't have the capability of processing different programs' volumes separately outside of the programs themselves. I exported a WAV file and it sounded just fine. Would've done MP3 too to be thorough, but it appears I'm missing libmp3lame.dylib in order for the export to work properly (I'm not looking to get MP3's out of MuseScore any time soon anyway, and since the WAV functioned properly I think it's immaterial at this point). So I'm still convinced it's something within MuseScore itself.
@miltonbobbit: According to my research, you can't update Apple's built-in sound cards separately and sound card updates are applied with general OS updates. I of course checked to see if there was an OS update available, but, sadly, there isn't. It would be odd for it to be a sound card issue, imo, since everything worked fine until I updated MuseScore itself.
Thanks for your continued help.
I had exactly the same problem until just now, but I'm using Windows. Could be a driver conflict because updating the driver on my inbuilt sound card fixed it. I tried everything which you did and nothing worked. Strangely the sound card in question is not the one I am using with MuseScore :/
Quick update, I guess. A few days ago (I wish I had remembered to post this when it happened), I booted up MuseScore on a whim and, surprise! Playback was completely functional. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary or updated any portion of the software, so I just counted myself lucky and said "I'll make sure to let the good folks at the MuseScore website know."
Today I went to boot up MuseScore again and...playback is once again gone. I am so confused. I've done nothing. I can't find any common threads. I've closed every program except for MuseScore to run it on its lonesome and nothing changes. Still waiting for a good answer, I'll take what I can get at this point.
Oh, and the metronome still works. Why would everything but the metronome not work?
In reply to Quick update, I guess. A few by Dudeman42
Two things come to mind: a volume problem (since metronome volume is set separately from the synthesizer in general) or a soundfont problem (since the metronome does indeed work even with no soundfont loaded). As far as I know, most other things that would go wrong would totally disable playback - play button completely grayed out, no metronome, etc. A factory reset *should* fix both problems if the program is installed correctly, but since you say that's not the case, I remain at a loss. Or it could turn out to be some Mac-specific installation issue I have even less insight into.
Hi, I am having exactly the same issue.
I updated from 2.0.3 to 2.1.0 and now have no sound except for the metronome.
I have tried starting from the terminal with the -F flag and using the help menu reset to factory default. Neither helped.
This is the output from the terminal when I start MuseScore:
Phils-MacBook:~ philsumner$ /Applications/MuseScore\ 2.app/Contents/MacOS/mscore -F
initScoreFonts 0x7fdbf08aa570
in stat: : No such file or directory
in stat: : No such file or directory
in stat: : No such file or directory
in stat: : No such file or directory
Init midi driver failed
Ignore SSL error: 6 The certificate has expired
Vector smash protection is enabled.
2017-05-15 22:49:09.968 mscore[11021:2285040] Error loading /Users/philsumner/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Picasa.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Picasa: dlopen(/Users/philsumner/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Picasa.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Picasa, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
/Users/philsumner/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Picasa.plugin/Contents/MacOS/Picasa: mach-o, but wrong architecture
2017-05-15 22:49:09.968 mscore[11021:2285040] Cannot find executable for CFBundle 0x7fdbf2567640 (not loaded)
Anything else useful I can provide?
MacOs 10.12.5 Beta (16F60a)
In reply to Hi, I am having exactly the by pmsumner
I too am having the exact same issue, even after trying all of the same remediations. However, I did not upgrade to 2.1.0; I was a new install of 2.1.0. Many thanks to the commenters above who mentioned that they upgraded; that gave me the clue that I could downgrade to 2.0.3 to get audio to work.
I hope that audio will be fixed on 2.1.0 soon. It's clear this is a problem affecting several people.
In reply to I too am having the exact by steve.roth
"Several" seems to be the operative word though - it works for many thousands, but only fails for a small handful. Perhaps some other application or driver on the systems of those handful of people will turn out to be the culprit. So those of you who are having the problem, if you find yourself with time to spare, consider helping out by testing uninstalling various other programs to see if it fixes the problem. One odd incompatibility that came up recently was with some sort of third party PDF software, for example.
I used to have the same problem but I solved it by downgrading to Musescore 2.0.3! If anyone wants to download it: here .
This is what worked for me (MacOS High Sierra, MuseScore 2.2.1):
Menu: MuseScore > Menu Item: Preferences > Tab: General > Button: Reset all preferences to defaults
Hope this helps!
In reply to This is what worked for me … by fmzk
Good that it worked, but this here most probably is a different issue, see #270996: No sound on upgrade to 2.2 if default soundfont was saved as default and also the workarounds listed there
I also am now having this problem in 2023 on MuseScore 4 but it is a little different. My score plays well for two pages, and then halfway through the third page, each system plays softer and softer until it is entirely silent. This is a score that I have been working on for the past 6 months. I have no idea what to do. I am on MacOS and I tried all the suggested fixes and nothing works.