Volume very low after upload of a few songs to the musescore website
HI guys:
In almost all cases of songs I've uploaded to the musescore web, I include an upload of the audio as well. That is because I use a few soundfonts that are not in the musescore default and I want to capture their sounds by uploading the audio as well. Out of 34 songs uploaded so far, 32 of them have the same volume they played at on my computer musescore mixer. However, two of my songs, including one I just uploaded a few days ago, do not play correctly on the website. Instead, the volume of the audio I uploaded is WAY TOO LOW. I have to boost my computer volume up a lot to hear the song on musescore.com. I have tried re-uploading the audio after boosting the volume control in the musescore mixer, but it does not fix the problem. The uploaded audio stays at the same volume.
Any ideas of what is going wrong? Here is a link to the song I'm having problem with:
https://musescore.com/user/725791/scores/8054628
Thanks in advance
Frank
Comments
It's important to realize that musescore.com like any website can't know the volume level you have your own speakers set to. nor is it ever possible for you to control the volume of other people's speakers. Like virtually all music sharing services, musescore.com relies on standard "normalization" to make all music on that site be sure same basic volume. This is fundamentally to how music from different sources is handled, and has been since the early days of radio.
So, normalization means that the loudest part of your song is the same as the loudest part of everyone else's songs same way it works for CD's and all other digitally-distributed music. Since most of your song is much quieter than that, though, it's going to mostly sound quiet indeed. If you don't want it that quiet, consider louder dynamics. or tone down the loudest dynamic in your song, so the normalization process can bring everything up.
In reply to It's important to realize… by Marc Sabatella
OK, so it is because I've used dynamics of "ppp" and "pp" in different spots in the song and "fff" in others that suggest some portions of the music are playing a lot quieter? My confusion is, in my own computer, the song varies from quiet to loud, but not as severely as the mixer on the website.
I have toned down my higher dynamics and the song is playing louder on MuseScore. Still not as loud as I want, but it will do. Thanks as always for the advice.
In reply to OK, so it is because I've… by fsgregs
ppp is much quieter than fff, so yes, if your score has both, the ppp passages will be much quieter in comparison. This isn’t some obscure MuseScore, it’s just simple physics / common sense.
The difference between the loudest and quietest sections of your piece is the same within MuseScore as on the website, in absolute terms. But the ear doesn’t necessarily hear in absolutely terms, it hears logarithmically. So your ears are probably fooling you into thinking the difference is bigger one way than the other when a sound level meter meter would measure the difference the same.
Under normal circumstances, you should not normally touch the volume in MuseScore. If you like to listen to music louder than it currently is, turn up the speakers in your computer, not the volume in MuseScore.
In reply to ppp is much quieter than fff… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc. I usually do not touch the volume in the mixer, but in this case, I swear that on my computer playing the song through the program, the volume of it in my speakers, is at least 50% less than when I hear the same exact file played via musescore.com's mixer. Ah well!
Thanks again.
Frank
In reply to Thanks Marc. I usually do… by fsgregs
FWIW, my computer volume is at 50% and your score is plenty loud in my headphones.
In reply to FWIW, my computer volume is… by bobjp
It has gotten louder since I removed all of the "fff' and "ff" dynamics, per Marc's suggestion. Glad it worked out.
In reply to Thanks Marc. I usually do… by fsgregs
That could be, but what I am saying is the difference between the loudest and softest passage is the same either way. musescore.com cannot and should know what volume you like to listen to music at; that is not the business of any website to know. Its job is to provide a consistent experience from one song to the next, so each listenerer hears all music at the volume they like and doesn't hear one song suddenly louder or softer than all others. That's the whole point of normalization and why all music that is shared with others via CD's, radio, or the Internet is normalized to a consistent volume, as mentioned. This isn't something you should be going out of your way to defeat.