Import mp3 feature planned? DAW sync? Importing tempo map?
Hey all. I've been a Sibelius user FOREVER, but have been looking into alternatives for a little while now. I love Reaper, and the community there, and thought that Musescore might offer something similar for the music notation world. I've spent the last 45 minutes googling, and finally decided to just log in here and see if anyone knows the answer to this.
I often write and record string arrangements to songs that are pretty close to finished. Right now, I link Sibelius to Reaper, and can get it to use the Sibelius playback for what I'm writing, but sync to Reaper's tempo and also play along with the prerecorded audio I've been sent. So, if I'm to make the switch, I need to be able to hear Musescore playback, tempo synced with prerecorded audio, one way or another.
Are there any plans to be able to do this? It would seem that possible routes would include:
-----Importing mp3s + importing midi tempo maps
-----Importing mp3s + ability to fine tune tempos inside Musescore to sync them up (like Finale)
-----sync with a DAW (I looked into Jack, but it looks like I would have to assign my own sounds inside Reaper, which when you factor in articulations and dynamics, sounds like a nightmare. )
I'm hoping there will be a native non-hacky way to do this. I see that you can get the sampler to play back audio, but that seems kinda janky. I can't really have to have a complicated process to accomplish this every time I need to sync audio to Musescore playback.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for reading and I'd really appreciate any feedback you can offer!
Comments
AFAIK, no way to do this in MuseScore 3.6.2. Look into MU4, which is now in Beta.
In reply to AFAIK, no way to do this in… by bobjp
Is there anyone who's familiar with the upcoming features of Musescore v4 that could chime in on this?
In reply to Is there anyone who's… by vsthem
There is no new feature for this, except that MuseScore 4 does allow you to use VST3 instruments, and I imagine there probably exists one that can play arbitrary audio files.
In reply to There is no new feature for… by Marc Sabatella
So, playback would need to trigger a note assigned to a vst3 instrument, which would play a long sample after being triggered... if I'm understanding this correctly.
Theoretically, what would happen if the trigger note is on Bar 1, beat 1, but I want to start playback at bar 32 inside musescore? Would it know to "look back" and trigger the sample and play it from it's position at bar 32? Or would I need to start playback at bar 1 every time I wanted to hear it?
Appreciate you chiming in.
In reply to So, playback would need to… by vsthem
That I can't answer, but it would presumably depend on how the VST in question was implemented.
In reply to That I can't answer, but it… by Marc Sabatella
Gotcha. I can probably test this out on my DAW in the meantime.
I've been poking around with Musescore and have been really impressed. If I can find a clean way to do this I may switch over. I hope you'll consider adding a native feature to include audio playback sometime in the future.
Appreciate the timely and helpful responses!
I think you can use Jack and its transport control to do what you want. You can sync MuseScore with somthing else that can do jack, like Ardour. Those work on WIndows too, if that is what you are using.
https://jackaudio.org/faq/jack_on_windows.html
In reply to I think you can use Jack and… by AndreasKågedal
It looks like though that if I set that up, I'll have to send the MIDI to my DAW, and assign every sound, including the articulations and whatnot. Unless there's an easy solution to that part, I'm hoping to use the software's internal sounds for playback of the written material. Or, is there a way to sync the transport while still using Musescore's sounds for playback of written material, and the DAW for other audio?
In reply to It looks like though that if… by vsthem
I would have assumed it was possible. You will have to experiment.