MuseScore 4 — Delayed sound on clicking a note

• Dec 20, 2022 - 09:10

In MS3 there was a really tiny lag between clicking an the onset of the note's audio.

In MS4.0 I'm experiencing a much greater delay of about a half second. Feels very spongy. Certainly annoying. And I'm running MuseScore on a spunky MacBook Air M2 with 24GB RAM, MacOS Ventura 13.0—albeit with MuseScore 4 running in Rosetta 2.

Anybody else encountering these prolonged note-click delays in MS4? Any workarounds?

scorster

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• Dec 20, 2022 - 18:18

I've encountered exactly the same. My system was built about 5 months ago. CPU, RAM, SSD, Mobo are all new. MuseScore4 was installed on the SSD.
For me, it's not just playback from clicking a note either. the whole GUI is lagging. Clicking on a note, trying to change tempo, etc. Every operation (apart from real time playback, which seems fine) is delayed. The whole UI locks up for about 200-600ms.

I am also using the new sounds by default.

I've never experienced anything like this in MS3 (nor in FL Studio, or any other music related app for that matter)

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• Dec 26, 2022 - 22:59

Same, I've got a brand new souped-up macbook pro with nothing else running. There's about a 0.5 second delay on (1) every click of a note, (2) every press of a key on my MIDI keyboard (hardwired through USB), (3) every spacebar playback, often including a choppy start.

And let me just say -- I'm totally amazed at how fantastic these sounds are, especially being free! I love MS 4, I'm excited for everything that's happening.

BUT the delay, particularly with the MIDI keyboard, is starting to drive me a little nuts. You don't realize how often while composing you need to play a bit to hear some harmonies or what-have-you, and that delay, man, it's killing the workflow. Enough that I interrupted my workflow even further to come here and complain :)

This happens for me whether I activate Muse Sounds or MS Basic. This happens when I increase the Buffer Size, and it happens whether I'm using my audio interface or not. No noticeable difference between the setups.

One other tiny note -- in MS 3 when you're not in Note Input Mode there is infinite sustain. In MS 4 there's a specific short note duration, whether you're in Note Input Mode or not. Just a little thing, but a little janky so-to-speak ;)

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• Jan 8, 2023 - 18:45

I'm seeing a lot of lag between MIDI keypress and sound on MS4 (both release and nightly as of 2022-01-08). On MS3 the sound plays almost instantaneously, but with MS4 the lag is about .5 seconds. Running on Mac OS 12.6.2, and tested with two different MIDI devices. Thanks.

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• Jan 23, 2023 - 13:23

I have the same problem with midi delay - Windows 10 pc - 32 gig ram - high spec processor (can't remember what) - the delay makes step input with midi keyboard unusable. There was hardly any lag with Version 3, so I have gone back to Musescore 3 until solved but have to export loads now a XML so that MuseScore 3 can open the files.

Also, separate MuseScore 4 problem..... If I select "Format", it then takes literally 30 seconds to respond

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• Feb 22, 2023 - 23:16

The same here, I use a powerful MSI gaming PC with 32G Ram, my PC works very fast for multimedia video editting and Cubase recording via a Steinberg UR816C Audio interface.
After open MS4, with midi keyboard connected, upon playing on midi keyboard, there is an unworkable delay/latency before I can here the piano sound. It's impossible to play a phrase of music before start writing in MS4. There the minimum buffer size in I/O setting is 1024 and there is no option to adjust to lower buffer size.
In MS3 however, after MS3 is openned, I can just play the Midi keyboard to get the idea (almost no latency), once happy with a good phrase, then I just have to start writing the music down in MS3.

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• Feb 22, 2023 - 23:55

As you all know, it's not just about how powerful your computer is. It's also about how you set it up. And so it is with MS4. MS4 is not at all like MS3. Period. It is not a DAW, so don't expect it to act like one. It's not recording software.
If your audio interface or device isn't already set as system default, then make make sure it is. Both in Control panel and MS4. System default in MS4 won't cut it. And make sure Exclusive Mode is unchecked. While you are on that screen you might consider dropping the bitrate a notch or two just to see if that helps.
Buffer needs to be higher not lower for most of us, to get better playback. 4096 works best.

If you don't remember how to find exclusive mode, go to Control panel/Sound/select audio device/Properties/Advanced.

Admittedly, I don't use a midi keyboard, but the above settings take out most, if not all, of the lag encountered in using MS4 generally.

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• Feb 23, 2023 - 04:02

I agree that MuseScore 4 is not workable with the sound on for editing if you are trying to experiment before committing it to notation.

My workaround for this issue in MuseScore 4 has been to turn off the "Play notes when editing" (under Edit > Preferences > Note input) and hook up audio for the MIDI keyboard. It isn't perfect: it would be nice if it still played notes when you edited with the mouse, and of course the sound of the keyboard doesn't change to match the staff you are on but it mostly works for me. I've also considered getting a second keyboard: one to experiment on and one to enter notes into MuseScore, but I haven't committed to that yet.

Mostly I find myself using pencil and paper for the first draft because of the many annoyances with notation software (not just MuseScore) in the workflow you describe.

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• Mar 15, 2023 - 01:17

I was excited for this workaround, but I'm finding that getting feedback when I move notes up and down is a critical part of my process.

I'm sort of worried that this issue is fundamental to Muse Sounds. My guess is the delay is happening due to whatever processing happens to make Muse Sounds so smart and responsive, and that engine is getting triggered anew every time the program requests even just one note.

If anyone in that particular department is reading, my question is: Could there be a totally separate protocol that ignores elements like dynamics or even things like pizz. and just spits out a "standard" version of Muse Sounds in the case of MIDI keyboard input, mouse clicks, arrows up and down, etc. ? And then it triggers the full process only on playback? I hope that makes sense.

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• Apr 14, 2023 - 19:08

I often enter notes using my MIDI keyboard. Often there is an annoying delay between the key press and the appearance of the note on the score. I'm using v. 4.0.2 of MS4. In MS3, there's no such problem. I'm not expecting to be able to play as if it were a piano, but do expect to be able to enter a run of notes in fairly rapid succession and have the software respond quickly.

Sometimes there is not much delay and sometimes there's a lot. Perhaps it's due to other things running on the machine (Windows 11) but I haven't noticed any pattern to it.

Are there settings I should experiment with? I increased the buffer size in Preferences/IO to 4096, but that has not really helped.

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• May 22, 2023 - 15:59

I also experience this. Workaround: using an external instrument for real time playback. I jumped on the forum today to report on this issue because I really want to be using MS4 but this makes it unusable. Kinda glad that I am not the only one, but still this is very sad because the new UI is sooooo much better.

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• Sep 25, 2024 - 09:49

There is a clear relation between latency and buffer size / sample rate
Buffer size / Sample rate = latency.
So in theory:
128/44100 = 0.029 latency (in seconds)
but 4096/44100 = 0.092 s latency.

Fixing latency problems is commonly done by lowering buffer size and/or using a higher sample rate.
(e.g. 128/96000 = 0.001 s latency -- if you computer can handle this)

What happens if you lower your buffer size to 128?

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• Sep 25, 2024 - 21:56

Just an observation. When MU4 first came out, I only had underpowered W10 machines. The only way I could get playback was to set the buffer to 4096 and set the sample rate and bit depth almost as low as possible. And use an external audio device. Only then was the program usable. With the last few updates, more normal settings are possible. And there is no delay hearing a note after selecting it. And the audio device no longer is needed.

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