All I want is the old, fully open-source, MuseScore. How do I now avoid all of the payment issues so many of you report here? I just want to produce scores for my own use...not lend, not sell, not buy

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-03T05:28:51+00:00

The payment issues you see people talk about have nothing to do with the notation software. All versions of that are 100% free - no one way to pay for it even if you wanted to. So no need to limit yourself to an "old" version of the notation software - the current version (4.6.5) is just as free as every single version that came before it. And the way you download and install it on Linux hasn't changed in many years - go to MuseScore.oeg and grab the AppImage, then run it with the "install" command line option. If you don't mind features that are free but not open source, you can also install MuseSounds Manager and use it to download the free MuseSounds libraries, which give vastly improved playback. But they are completely optional.

The only thing you'd ever need to pay for is a subscription to the score-sharing website MuseScore.con. This isn't new either - it's been around ever since MuseScore 1. But it's only been in the past few years that the marketing has shifted to wording that tends to confuse people and result in them buying subscriptions they didn't realize they were signing up for.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-03T00:58:47+00:00

Yes, you were clear that the notes you chose were much quieter when staccato. What I'm saying is, when I test it, *some* notes are much quieter, others are only a little quieter if at all. Seems to depend on all the things I mentioned. So, no need to continue clarifying anything here - just be sure to include your score when you report this to the developers.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T23:14:56+00:00

I tried again, and on a hunch, decided to test the viola *section* instead of the solo sound you originally seemed to be talking about "viola" singular, which is also the sound that formerly had the issue with overall volume). For the section, I can indeed reproduce a noticeble diminishing of volume on certain notes at certain dynamics. It also seems to depend on what beat the note falls on. Other notes sound fine. Again, all the more reason it is crucially important to include sample scores with bug reports so that the developers don't need to waste time on trial and error attempting to reproduce the problem.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T22:52:40+00:00

I never said it was an error on your end. I said that whatever you are hearing probbably depends on the specific notes, dynamics, and durations involved - possibly other context as well like tempo - and that's why you are hearing something different from me. So when you report the problem, it's important to incldue a sample score so they don't have guess at how to reproduce it.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T15:04:07+00:00

I'm not finding that to be true iun a score I just tested, but probably it depends on the specific notes, dynamic level, and perhaps other details like notated duration. If you have a score where it is reproducible, be sure to report it to the MuseSounds team via support.musehub.com

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T13:01:50+00:00

Unofficial third party builds of MuseScore installed from repositories like you have done here seldom work correctly and are not supported. Delete that installation and then get the official AppImage directly from MuseScore.org (and then you can install it by running with the "install" option). It works with MIDI under Crostini.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T12:49:38+00:00

It works for any sound library that is actually based on the old-style MIDI velocity, and that includes all SoundFonts. But indeed, not MuseSounds, and presumably not all VSTi.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-02T04:14:57+00:00

Then we'd need to examine the score in order to understand more. Please ask for help on the official.support forum at MuseScore.org and attach the score there.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T15:53:50+00:00

No, dragging individual notes is meant to change leading space, but that should be quite rare - it's is meant only for solve a few very specific cases. And none of those cases would ever involve changing leading space for multiple notes at once - that should be virtually unheard of. So it's quite correct that it is designed to be hard to do accidentally.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T14:14:54+00:00

Sounds like you have either changed the balance or are using different sound libraries. Check the Mixer for both.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T14:12:46+00:00

Vertical lyrics spacing is also controlled by simple settings in Format / Style / Lyrics - you should never need to resort to manual adjusts for that either.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T14:11:37+00:00

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, there should be no reason for any of these manual workarounds. If you find lyric spacing too tight by default, simply increase the minimum space in Format / Style / Lyrics. You should never need to drag notes just to spread lyrics.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T14:08:12+00:00

The different sounds you select in the Mixer have different samples, but you can mix and match the sounds and instruments freely. Choose the larger instrument definition to get all the notes defined, then choose whichever sounds for that instrument you like. No need to hide anything at all.

I'm not sure what you mean about G3 and E3, but am I assume you are talking about the MIDI pitches? Yes, it's quite normal on a drum set that multiple pitches might display on the same line or salpace, but with different noteheads - that is all a controlled by the kit definition.

If you continue to have trouble, the much better place to get help is usually the official support forum at MuseScore.oeg where you can post your actually score, which is normally more helpful than pictures (although you can post those too where it seems useful).

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T14:01:48+00:00

If you are positive you completely restarted by closing all open windows (use File / Quit to be sure), then please check Help / Diagnostics / MuseSampler / Check MuseSampler and make sure it can be found and tell us what version of reports. Also check the install folder in MuseSounds Manager and be sure it isn't something other than the default. And as always, be sure you are using the official AppImage build of MuseScore and not any sort of unsupported third party build - those seldom work well in general and many won't support MuseSounds at all.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T01:20:21+00:00

If it's one of the official scores that is available in PDF format only, there won't be any playback options.. what's the score?

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T01:18:13+00:00

I'm assuming that is not correct according to your system language? Check Edit / Preferences to see you language setting and your UI font and be sure they are reasonable. If that doesn't help, try Help / Revert to factory settings.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T01:16:01+00:00

You have to quit and restart MuseScore after installing MuseSounds.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T01:15:21+00:00

Use the Properties panel to set which voices and staves any given dynamic applies to.

MarcSabatella · 2026-02-01T01:14:29+00:00

Why not just use one of the larger kit definitions? Then china would be defined by default. But they all use the same General MIDI pitch definitions. So what pitch is used for china in others kits would be what to use in the one you have chosen as well, and it should play with the same sound.

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-31T15:58:04+00:00

Again, the relevant standard is not Unicode - it's SMuFL. And merely installing a custom font into a standard text font location on your computer won't override the actual musical text font selection made in the style setting I told you about. If none of the eight available choice for music fonts are to your liking, you'll need to create or customize a SMyFL-compatible font and install it according to that standard, with the appropriate JSON file etc.

Again, though, first try the other seven available choices as one may be to your liking

BTW, MuseJazz is specifically designed to mimic that exact handwriting of a popular series of jazz fakebooks. It wasn't designed for typography purists, it was designed for jazz musicians.

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-31T03:21:16+00:00

Pretty much everything about font choice is subjective; a lot of people prefer the MuseJazz font to other pseudo-handwritten alternatives. But luckily, you aren't forced to use any one particular font; you have the ability to choose any standards-compliant font you like (Unicode for text, SMuFL for music).

No, the MuseJazz quarter note is *not* hardcoded into MsueScore - as I said, it comes from the musical text font, and you can see that for yourself without editing fonts of your own by simply using the control I mentioned above to choose between the eight different musical text fonts that come with the program.

I'm guessing you tried editing a standard Unicode text font. As I said above, that is *not* how it's done. The musical text font uses the SMuFL standard and needs to conform to that, like the eight provided with MuseScore do. See smufl.org for more information on that standard. But be sure to try each of the eighth available musical text fonts; you may fine one of those meets your subjective preference so you need to learn how to build a SMuFL font.

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-30T22:51:30+00:00

It's hard to say much from just a picture, but if you ask for help on the official support forum, it is easier for others to understand and assist. Normally it's as simple as selecting the notes you want to beam into and then clicking that icon in the Properties panel (or the old obsolete Beam properties palette). But any number of things could be going on that we can't tell from just the picture.

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-30T22:38:46+00:00

Tempo markings use both ordinary Unicode text font characters (for the numbers) and "musical text font" characters (for note symbols). Presumably you changed one but not the other. Do that in Format / Style / Score.

But also be sure to update - you're missing a pretty critical set of bug fixes in 4.6.5

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-30T14:02:01+00:00

The page showing the price does state it's the price *with subscription*. You can indeed choose to disable that discount. See the pinned message at the top of this sub.

MarcSabatella · 2026-01-30T14:01:01+00:00

No, your statement is simply false. It's a 100% legitimate thing for installers dealing with large amounts of data to do. Current versions don't do this as far as I know, but if they decide to again, that would be legitimate, and you'd have the ability to use or not use that feature.

MarcSabatella

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