MuseScore 4 Playback Is Choppy & Unusable (Reposted)
Hi, I tried to post this issue earlier but apparently I was being a bit too hard on it. I'll rephrase some of the stuff I said in the original post so I won't get this post removed by the admins again. Anyways, I use a laptop with 8GB of RAM, 930GB HDD & an AMD A6 (which doesn't support Windows 11 but I upgraded anyways but I didn't notice anything significant in terms of performance). This problem only affects medium size to large size scores, which I deal with a lot. It has no issues with solo or string quartets, but I still need to open up the mixer. I tried using 4096 buffer size, changing priority of Musescore in Task manager to High & Realtime, ending background processes to the point my system BSODs and even changing windows audio settings doesn't work! I tried using ASIO but it doesn't seem like Musescore supports it. And when Musescore freezes, it also freezes my taskbar and explorer along with it. I just want to use Musescore, can someone help me please? Musescore 3.6 runs perfectly fine on my laptop.
Comments
As you know, your computer isn't powerful enough. You need an SSD. Your CPU is a 2 core. Minimum is 4 core. 6 or 8 preferred. 8 GB ram is the minimum. 16 0r higher preferred. You gain nothing by having W11 on this machine. Even if you try every single setting here:https://musescore.org/en/node/339915, (which you will need to do) you still might need an external audio device. I have a really cheap one that I used. I have been where you are. Don't worry about background services or priority settings in the task manager. They are not the problem. You will still need the mixer open. you can resize it and push it to one side out of the way.
In reply to As you know, your computer… by bobjp
I use 2 GB of Ram and that works fine usually, I see what you are saying but im just saying maybe specify what their computer is not powerful enough for? I Separate MuseSounds cause my chromebook cant handle it well for example, but with only 2 GB of Spare Ram, and 4 GB of Ram Total as well as 4 Cores, it works rather fine and really smooth. It is also possible the persons may have just accidentally set buffer size really low, I've done it before plenty haha. Either way I am just throwing that out there
In reply to I use 2 GB of Ram and that… by jrtgaming9410
I'm going by the specs on the MuseScore download page. Sure, if you don't need Muse Sounds then you might not need that powerful of a computer.
In reply to As you know, your computer… by bobjp
Can you give me workarounds? The reason why I upgraded to Windows 11 is because I was worried I was gonna be stuck in Windows 10. And I have no other PC's and cant afford a new one (or SSD, or RAM). What do I need to do?
In reply to Can you give me workarounds?… by azentertainment
Believe me, I understand. W10 isn't going away anytime soon. I also put W11 on a computer with an incompatible CPU. It ran but was never quite right. Went back to W10 on that machine.
My experience is that if you want to run Muse Sounds, You will need an SSD. I know money is tight. An SSD is so much faster. The computer runs faster. Boots faster (less than 20 seconds). I don't know where you live, but in the US, I've seen SSD's for $60 or so. Including the adaptor you need to transfer stuff off your old drive. The MU4 playback engine needs that speed in order to work with Muse Sounds. Not that hard to replace.
In reply to Believe me, I understand… by bobjp
I live in the Philippines. $60 is gonna cost me about 3,000 (And I'm still evaluating my DAW. I had to switch from FL Studio to REAPER just because of where I live. But that's unrelated). And I think it even costs higher than that! And I had to spend my saved up money for treatment of my bronchitis. And I also have other stuff like bills to take care of. And yes, I know that HDD is slower than SSD and if I somehow get the money to buy an SSD anytime soon, I know how to transfer my files into it. And my laptop is also a bit slow when booting. It boots fast (with fast startup) but it takes 30 seconds - 1 minute to sign in. Thanks for your recommendation, but is there anything I can do right now?
See https://musescore.org/en/node/352635. The usual recommended fix is to set your audio device sample rate to 44.1 kHz. Whether that works or not for you, please respond in that thread and provide the request info, to help us diagnose what might be happening.
In reply to See https://musescore.org/en… by Marc Sabatella
I did but it's the same. I told you, I messed around in Windows settings.
In reply to I did but it's the same. I… by azentertainment
You said you "even changing windows audio settings doesn't work" indeed, but you didn't say what specifically you did. It's important not to be random. Try returning everything back to the defaults - to make sure your experimentation inadvertently make things worse - then change the exact specific setting I mentioned, with everything else still at the defaults. And then report your results in the thread I mentioned answering the questions I ask there. Collecting that information is how we will eventually discover which specific hardware / software / setting combinations cause this.