MuseScore 4 question(s)

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MichelRE
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MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by MichelRE »

So, Musescore 4 is out. it looks very nice and all, but can it actually do anything remotely complicated?
or even not terribly complicated but more involved than a mozart symphony?

Can anyone list any shortcomings of MS4? things it still cannot do, things it does poorly, etc?
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OCTO
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by OCTO »

MichelRE wrote: 18 Dec 2022, 20:00 So, Musescore 4 is out. it looks very nice and all, but can it actually do anything remotely complicated?
or even not terribly complicated but more involved than a mozart symphony?

Can anyone list any shortcomings of MS4? things it still cannot do, things it does poorly, etc?
I have done this in Musescore 3.
Yes, you can do everything, but be sure to spend some time. Why I did this in MS3: both Finale and Sibelius were too unstable for this kind of music. MuseScore has ability to fine tune objects extremely well and when it is placed there - it stays fixed.

So far I haven't seen anything more complicated to this (not even close).

The best is to - test.
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Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
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John Ruggero
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by John Ruggero »

Great job OCTO and MuseScore!
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

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swetom2011
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by swetom2011 »

As suggested by OCTO, I've spent some time to engrave Stenhammar's interlude in MS 4, which I've already engraved in Lilypond.

It has been really frustrating and a lot of "blood sweat and tears" experience. MS 4 is not very stable and I lost the work two times because of a corrupted file.

I think the biggest drawback is that you work on score level and if you experience a crash, it affects every single instrument in the score, basically everything is lost.

I'm compiling a list of comments, maybe from a Lilypond view point so it could be biased. Maybe some of the comments can be removed when I get more experienced with MuseScore. Working on a score with many instruments is also complicated as you cannot, even on a very big monitor with high resolution, see all instruments at the same time.

At some time I will publish my comments somewhere.
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OCTO
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by OCTO »

swetom2011 wrote: 19 Jan 2023, 00:05I think the biggest drawback is that you work on score level and if you experience a crash, it affects every single instrument in the score, basically everything is lost.
I suggest using MuseScore-3.6.2, the latest stable version. I don't remember it crashed anytime.
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
swetom2011
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by swetom2011 »

Just now is just an experiment for, so it's just frustrating to lose something in a crash. As I'm not a composer or arranger of music, I prefer to engrave the different parts first and when all are ready, to use the "music" and other support files to generate the score. I do not know if this is possible in MuseScore. In fact, working on s big score, 34 instruments in my current case, you cannot see all staves att the same time anyway and what's even worse, you cannot even see the bar numbers or rehearsal marks when you work at the lower parts of the score, e.g strings section. This makes navigation very difficult. Maybe there is a MuseScore solution for this, but I've not found it yet.
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John Ruggero
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by John Ruggero »

I just set up a large orchestral score template in MuseScore 4. It was very "intuitive" and I do see the whole page of score on my monitor. I think Mahler 8 would fit just fine. Perhaps that isn't the case on a laptop. Putting the score together from the parts is an interesting approach. Do you wait until the score is assembled before putting in the cues, bar numbers and rehearsal letters?
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swetom2011
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by swetom2011 »

I'm just a beginner with MuseScore and coming from Lilypond, MuseScore is absolutely not intuitive.

From profession I'm a space engineer, in the field of spacecraft attitude control, deep space navigation, software and operations. This has probably biased me because in engineering using for example MATLAB for simulations, Lilypond is very intuitive where you put common elements in dedicated files and then just call them as they are needed.

Now in Lilypond I put all general items like rehearsal marks, repeats or whatever in a dedicated file. Then I've files for specific definitions, e.g. if the existing dynamics is not sufficient (in my last piece I needed a sfp which I then simply defined). Then I put the pure music in a file, one for each instrument. Then files that generate the parts and a file that generate the score.

Score and parts are generated automatically. A crash of the software, i.e. Frescobaldi/Lilypond in my case, is extremely unusual but would only affect the file not saved. All other files are not affected whatsoever.

Hence, for the last piece I engraved, the common files are only established once and then never changed again. Specific files are then only the instrument parts and the score.

As an example, when you generate the score, you \include the files needed, in my case something like 40 files for the score. It probably sounds complex, but it's not really.

Lilypond as well as MuseScore, I assume, difficulties starts when you need to tweak the engraving to achieve the "perfect" score or instrument parts. By default Lilypond generate a quite good engraving output but there is always something that need to be improved.

Lilypond files are in fact simple ASCII files that can be processed with any text editor. I've engraved quite some music in a text editor sitting in the satellite control room with my work computer as our IT safety rules do not allow any non authorized SW on our work computers. Privately I use Lilypond in combination with Frescobaldi which provide a quasi WYSIWYG feature.

My main interest is music engraving for our orchestra and for that Lilypond is, in my view, perfect. For composing or music arrangement, a SW like MuseScore is probably better.

You mentioned Mahler in your posting. I agree, when I started to engrave Stenhammar's Interlude in MuseScore, I could see all empty staves on my monitor but filling the staves with music pushed the staves "outside the monitor". Of course you can reduce magnification to see more of the score, but then it becomes so microscopic you cannot read the music anyway without a magnifying glass.

That was a long reply. I hope it answered your questions. If not, you can reply here or send me a PN.
swetom2011
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by swetom2011 »

I forgot your remark about cues. Isolated cues, I put in the files containing the music or in a separate file. If I need the same cue music for many instruments, I put them in a separate file, then I've only need to write them once.
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John Ruggero
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Re: MuseScore 4 question(s)

Post by John Ruggero »

Thanks, swetom2011. Ah, Lilypond. That explains your approach. I think you mentioned that in your original post, but I had forgotten.You are getting great results. MuseScore is not for me either. I just had trouble getting it to change zoom levels by typing in a percentage. It doesn't seem to accept three digits, but then it does, or something. I sense a lot of little issues that would drive me insane.

I work on a 24 inch monitor in portrait orientation and can fit whole pages of music on it at a decent magnification for most tasks. Then for fine tuning I crank it up to 800%.
M1 Mac mini (OS 12.4), Dorico, Finale 25.5, GPO 4, Affinity Publisher 2, SmartScore 64 Pro, JW Plug-ins, TG Tools, Keyboard maestro

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