Sound on Musescore.com
I've been uploading a number of scores to a group page recently, so that the music director and soloists working with me on developing a radio program can evaluate the orchestrations, etc. The problem is that although I am able to make the playback of these scores sound relatively good here in my computer by using a mix of Fluid and Tim, once they are uploaded to the Musescore site they sound uniformly awful.
I have experimented by changing the sounds assigned to the instruments using the mixer, and then re-uploading the scores, but unless I use the default sounds MuseScore 2.0.1 assigns, the uploaded version is likely to play back using instruments sounds completely different to what I specified.I have one score wherein the recorder sound came out as a honky-tonk piano, and another where the viola seems to be a kazoo. In other cases the balance is so badly off that things like timpani are almost inaudible.
What is going on, and/or what am I doing wrong? I have both Tim and Fluid loaded and the mixer drop-down contains them both. Why is the site not recognising my choices properly?
Comments
I've never had this problem, could you please upload the scores causing problems here so others can see what might be going wrong.
In reply to I've never had this problem, by [DELETED] 597046
These are all proprietary commercial scores being prepared for publication, and as such I cannot upload them to an open website. However if you don't mind me sending you a private message through the forum, I will see if we can establish a work-around so you can hear the problem.
In reply to These are all proprietary by Recorder485
MuseScore.com only use the default Fluid soundfont. See https://musescore.com/help/upload#26092
Currently MuseScore.com only uses the default FluidR3Mono soundfont for playback.
Consequently the use of other soundfonts in your own studio will not be reflected in playback of scores you have uploaded to MuseScore.com
FluidR3Mono is a GM Level 2 soundfont and so expects instrument program changes to conform to the General MIDI standard.
Use of soundfonts which do not conform to General MIDI such as the Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra soundfont will result in the wrong instruments being played when the score is uploaded to MuseScore.com and it is my guess that this is what happened with the recorder playing as Honky Tonk Piano, although without access to the score I cannot say for certain.
I would suggest that if you wish to use custom sounds in your score renderings that you should use MuseScore's ability to export audio to produce a sound file you can then upload to a hosting site such as Soundcloud which you can then link to from your score description at MuseScore.com
The ability to upload custom audio to MuseScore.com is currently under discussion by the development team, but I am not sure if or when it will be implemented.
It would be a good idea to drop an email to
Freelinking: Unknown plugin indicatorto let them know about your problem. That will get you through directly to the website maintainers.Hope This Helps
Michael (maintainer of FluidR3Mono soundfont)
In reply to Currently MuseScore.com only by ChurchOrganist
Michael, that information helps enormously. I was somehow under the impression that MuseScore had already implemented the much-asked-for change to custom audio.
The two sound fonts I have installed are Tim and Fluid. Musescore 2.0.1 by default chooses Fluid; for certain instruments (recorder and single violin and viola) I find the old Tim sound font better and will usually change those to that in the mixer while I'm working on a score to go easy on my own ears. But now that I know musescore.com won't recognise those instrument sounds properly, I will change back to default Fluid before uploading.
Is there any chance that you, as the head honcho for Fluid, could see your way clear to merging the 'better' sounds of some instruments from Tim into Fluid so that playback from the server would be improved while the development team considers how to implement custom audio uploads? And please, take a look at the 'velocity' for the timpani; I can barely hear them in playback from the server while they are great here in the computer using the default Fluid font.
In reply to Currently MuseScore.com only by ChurchOrganist
Michael, that information helps enormously. I was somehow under the impression that MuseScore had already implemented the much-asked-for change to custom audio.
The two sound fonts I have installed are Tim and Fluid. Musescore 2.0.1 by default chooses Fluid; for certain instruments (recorder and single violin and viola) I find the old Tim sound font better and will usually change those to that in the mixer while I'm working on a score to go easy on my own ears. But now that I know musescore.com won't recognise those instrument sounds properly, I will change back to default Fluid before uploading.
Is there any chance that you, as the head honcho for Fluid, could see your way clear to merging the 'better' sounds of some instruments from Tim into Fluid so that playback from the server would be improved while the development team considers how to implement custom audio uploads? And please, take a look at the 'velocity' for the timpani; I can barely hear them in playback from the server while they are great here in the computer using the default Fluid font.
In reply to Michael, that information by Recorder485
I would caution that preference in sounds is personal, and I pretty strongly disagree with yours in both of the cases you mention. But neither your personal preferences nor mine should be the deciding factors. We should only consider replacing sounds from a large and well-respected soundfont like Fluid with those from a tiny one like TimGM6mb if there is virtually unamimous buy in from a very large number of users that these really do represent improvements.
In reply to Michael, that information by Recorder485
FluidR3Mono is constantly under review for improvement, but the key philosophy here is to replace samples with better quality versions. In the case of TimGM6MB, whilst having the advantage of smallness, the quality is not as good as fewer samples are stretched across a wider range of notes to save space, with a resulting impact on the overall quality of the instrument.
I am currently working on a replacement for the clarinet, but both recorder and the solo strings are in the list of instruments which require improvement.
I will certainly take a look ar the timpani, but must confess I am puzzled as to why they are sounding quieter on musescore.com - there should be no difference.
In reply to FluidR3Mono is constantly by ChurchOrganist
Thanks; I've replied to you by private message with a link to where you can hear the scores in question. If it turns out you're not hearing the same thing I am when playing back from musescore.com, then I have a whole different problem than I thought I did.