Important Differences Between MuseScore 3 & MuseScore 4

This video take you through the major differences between MuseScore 3 and MuseScore 4.
Links:
Get MuseScore 4:
musescore.org
Our online score sharing catalogue:
musescore.com
Free VSTI players that support SFZ
Sfizz: sfz.tools/sfiz...
Sfortzando: www.plogue.com...
The MuseScore 4 handbook:
musescore.org/...
Tantacrul links
/ tantacrul
/ tantacrul

[@musescore]

Interested in learning more? Check out this video about how MuseScore 4 was made: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5TXZ3-Bl9OYgbM

[@enzolescure5833]

I love you.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

I've used an earlier version and I just have to ask: Does this version finally allow truly dynamic dynamics? As in, can the volume of a note change while the note is still sounding? Because that's something which was notably missing in the version I was using. The only way to change the volume of a note was to actually stop playing the note and re-start it.

[@jt_jeetee]

@@melkiorwiseman5234 Single Note Dynamics have been available in MuseScore since version 3.1 (2019)

[@CaptainStereo]

For something as available and free as this, it is astronomically good, I've been using musescore 3 for the longest time and it's great but you somehow made it better. Seriously great work team!

[@bolttracks]

MuseScore is going to be the industry standard in no time

[@CanelonVegano]

Consider supporting them on their forum!

[@elephantgrass631]

@@bolttracks It won’t and even if it did it wouldn’t happen fast. The engraving industry is stuck in the Finale past. If they went with better software they would have made the switch to Sibelius long time ago. They’re comfortable in their ways. The new kids will use it but will have to learn Finale if they want to get in a engraving house for a steady job. Musescore is definitely encroaching on all the notation softwares piece of the pie though.

[@Gunnar120]

I'm a choir and general music teacher that uses Musescore every day in all of my classrooms. I can't tell you how incredibly helpful these changes to playback are. I often use musescore for playback since most schools don't have a budget for a full time accompanist. I never realized how much fo a pain muting and soloing instruments was before trying out the new way to do so, and the new sounds are absolutely incredible. Thank you Martin Keary and the whole Musescore team!!!!

[@adhillA97]

I love the fact that there's a reference to New All snuck in there 😂 Can't wait for the full release!

[@liguy181]

@@Logan21590 The score is called New All Forever

[@yoavshati]

@@liguy181 I'm pretty sure it's the piece he composed for the 5 composers challenge with David Bruce

[@The8BitPianist]

I've been using a nightly build of MS4 lately, and I gotta say this so far unfinished app is already so much better than 3.6 Great job, team. Can't wait for Muse Sounds

[@runarcn]

Do you recommend switching to MS4 for those of us who still need a semi-stable notation platform? I want to go over to the Alpha-version, but I'm unsure of whether or not it's unwise given that I need to use MuseScore for school etc.

[@The8BitPianist]

@@runarcn Honestly, not yet. Alphas are buggy, it'll crash on you sometimes. Usually it will restore the score even if you didn't save, but I'd at least wait for the beta. As of now, stability is still an issue, albeit a minor one.

[@mike-williams]

@@The8BitPianist beta still crashes way too often

[@batatanna]

@@The8BitPianist the replay is also weirdly heavy, enough to eat 60% of my 8th gen i7 cpu, which sometimes lead to audio cracking and the display gets frozen. Sometimes ending up in crashes. Still good tho

[@GamingGardevoir]

My biggest gripe with ms4 is that I can’t change the midi sounds like I could in 3, like I can’t get access to the Harmon mute trumpet sound because that isn’t a selectable instrument and there isn’t a list in the mixer to change to that sound

[@alexr3912]

I do have one suggestion that applies specifically to a niche that no other digital audio workstation accomplishes very efficiently, and it’s for alternate tunings. While Musescore currently allows altering tuning of notes by cents, creating some sort of standard that you can change, so that, for example, any B will have the same tuning adjustment when you place it, or so that notes with the customizable accidentals can also have a set tuning standard, would be very useful. This would be extremely helpful for composing in alternate tuning systems, especially ones where, for instance, sharps and flats are different notes (eg G# and Ab), which is currently quite a pain.

[@BrassPlayr]

You can just select all of the notes with the selection filter and change them at the same time in the side panel.

[@alexr3912]

@@BrassPlayr this suggestion would still allow for the playback to be correct while writing the music, not just after it’s done and all of the tunings have been altered, which is a very big deal

[@abnermuniz8106]

I'm a programmer, but I play the saxophone in my free time and I started to compose some small pieces last year. I was already satisfied with version 3, but then I was really shocked when I saw all of this improvements in version 4. The new instruments sounds are perfect! Thank you all for this great tool! P.S. the Dev team should be really proud of themselves 👊🏽👊🏽

[@Theguyhere]

Been using musecore since MuseScore 2, and the improvements have been insane. Great work guys, you're doing a huge service for everyone!

[@RedstoneManiac13]

Absolutely crazy stuff guys, this is absolutely insane

[@nicholaswise5818]

Why does it say this was posted 5 months ago when the video was posted today?

[@JScaranoMusic]

@@nicholaswise5818 The video was _published_ today. It was uploaded at least 5 months ago, but unlisted. Probably only people who were testing the beta version were given the link.

[@uptothe7thstorey]

Insanely brilliant work. I've been contented with MuseScore 3, and never expected how much better it could be. :') thank you for being accessible and empathetic to musicians and educators all over (e.g. to us here in Eastern Europe!)

[@MartinSmithMFM]

Exactly. World class, democratic input! Art will save the world! God bless you there! (from Sakartvelo)

[@uptothe7thstorey]

@@MartinSmithMFM many blessings to you too! Cheers from Lietuva!

[@Dparrey]

Theres so many annoyances fixed and the small details that don't even get mentioned. Like the styling and UX design just bring the software up to a professional level. I'm super impressed.

[@beigehere]

I'm going to miss multiple score in one window but everything else that has been changed is making me cry tears of joy so I'm excited about this update to say the least. Y'all doing god's work with this release

[@musicaremcasa7628]

This is HUGE!!!! Almost everything I have posted on the musescore forum has been included. The last few things I'm not in a hurry for, but will probably make a video about them. Mainly, making it easier to link generative processes from programs like Max and Pd via Midi or OSC into score "transcription" or actual writing comands. but this is INSANE!!!!! Your hard work really shows! and I can't be more ecstatic!

[@musicaldude9429]

thanks, musescore for years of great support for us composer/arrangers no matter what skill level we are at, i never cried for a Sofware update more than the musescore 4 update, without muse score i don't think i would have continued in music

[@aldeayeah]

It's nice to see The Eye make an appearance in the Instruments panel, albeit in a more humble form than the original concept.

[@jojopuppetstudio]

This is truly amazing! I haven’t been on musescore in a few months ,but now i feel like i can finish a lot of the scores i’ve written :)

[@uhulpires]

This version is just awesome! Nice to finally see what Tantacrul had to add do the team, and congratulations to everyone in the team for the group achievement. I'm each day more passionate about MuseScore!

[@michelcamachomusic]

I almost cried cause I love musescore 3 but was struggling all time with some missing features or limited options, but now it's gone and you made a better version which it has more than what I expected in the past. Musescore is my professional tool to make arrangements, compositions and transcriptions but this is a definetly yes to staying forever! well done!!

[@charliechimento852]

Holy crap this is just so exciting. Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

[@Khanh1200]

Such a great work team, thank you. Now I'm still using MuseScore v2.2. And I am trying to update to MuseScore 4.1. It was incredible!

[@BlackDragonStudio]

The new update is amazing! It has long been overdue for a UI update, and finally feels modern. Also the playback improvement is much better, I can't way to try out the new VST support.

[@acepokemontrainer1]

Amazing, thank you to the whole team for all the hard work!!

[@nosy-cat]

Huge thanks to everyone involved!

[@Temulgeh]

the selecting and playback thing is gonna save my life this was the only essential feature that was really missing for me

[@phoenixrising4995]

Hopefully Linux VST3 support is coming soon. Also, maybe having community muse sounds that can be added as well for other instruments would be nice.

[@Color_Splsh]

making a community muse sound would be fucking tough considering that unlike VSTs and MIDI, muse sounds aren't real-time and instead context-sensitive.

[@phoenixrising4995]

@@Color_Splsh Maybe then at least having some company make them, maybe EastWest or something makes stuff for Musesounds, but it would need to tie into their app.

[@breadnote]

An update much needed. Thank you so much! Can't wait for more updates to come

[@Lyra.katrina]

Amazing! I shall be switching to MuseScore immediately...

[@Sonja-B-Neidhardt]

Cool update - I'm really overwhelmed and very happy! Thanks so much.

[@Lucas-pt9ut]

Huge congrats on the major improvements made on MuseScore 4 ! As a free software, the amount of features is incredible, and knowing it is first supposed to be a notation software but having such an amazing playback makes it more enjoyable ! There is many things that could be included or improved but this is already a great work !

[@lydia.l.]

Gotta admit, I was dreading the update because so often they're useless and just confusing. But these changes are actually super helpful! Thank you so much to everyone working on this!

[@dontmindme8709]

I am looking forward to the release. It looks amazing!

[@davidlopez-white3185]

Thanks for the huge update, and great series of videos! I'm a lover of design, UI in general, and editing tools for creators in particular. Can't wait to try out the new version, just getting set up now...

[@JSmithOLMC]

Crazy to see how far MuseScore has come since I started using version 1.0 almost 15 years ago. Good work all!

[@FakeYourDeath18]

MuseScore is literally the best thing on this planet so far. Love y'all.

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

Awesome. THanks very much! Now we wait to cc automation in the next update. Keep reading the suggestions on VI-Control

[@TheRuloRuless]

😍Esta versión es como "una joya en proceso de pulido"; 😭 ojalá fuera programador para poder apoyarlos en esta enorme tarea.

[@dirtyharry1881]

VSTs???? VSTs???? I love you, man. You're the best thing that happened to the musescore community!

[@Harlequin_3141]

I love hearing Tantacrul here. Excellent work!

[@sitearm]

this helped a LOT thank you - I hesitantly recommend ALways trying to use the new version without help, cursing fluently when things aren't the same, hunting and pecking and finding the familiar (like where they hid the continuous display) and not finding (like no side by side display for the nonce) - and THEN coming to this video to go "ahhh...." - all kidding aside t'ank... erm... thank you for your hard work and looking forward to using it!

[@StefaanHimpe]

Not mentioned (or not clear to me): please ensure playback will also be possible to hardware midi devices (keyboards, synths) in addition to the VSTs and soundfonts. Also I hope that this time the entire API of musescore will be available to make plugins? In mscore 3 it was simply impossible to get to certain information.

[@cookicha]

Great video, I feel like it's a friend guiding me through this! Awesome! Now, to try the new update!

[@MrvlZmb]

I get why you chose to open new scores in a separate instance -- because of the playback engine. But for me, playback is absolutely the lowest priority, and engraving is the highest. Hope to see an option to use a single window in the future.

[@MrBilloven]

Unbelievably great stuff! Well done team Musescore!

[@dylanpetrieux-bakerprofess4903]

Wow, what an amazing improvement ! I'm gonna test it all right away and hope it will be as smart as it's shown in this video ! Whatever, thanks for MuseScore 4 🙏🏻

[@Diembee]

Just when I thought MuseScore couldn’t get more New or more All. I think this is the peak, MuseScore 4 is officially ‘New All’

[@EliasDORNELES-mf8yk]

This is so exciting!! Bravo to everyone involved!!

[@trondordoesstuff]

Really liking the new release so far; will say that I had some trouble with the software automatically placing me back into note placing mode after starting playback, and also just uninstalled the software unintentionally.

[@aoi_mumei_a1960]

翻訳が乱暴で失礼になってしまっていたら、ごめんなさい。 このソフトウェアの変化は素晴らしいですね。 そして学習の為に、いつもそれを使わせて頂いて感謝しています。 私はMuseScore3(MS3)を次の様に使っています（多重録音までの接続例） (MIDI_chやGM音源名及びそれに伴うプログラムチェンジNo.やVolコントロール) もちろん、楽譜を作成しながら学ぶ事も重要な事の一つです。 これらの事をする為に、 ミキサーの操作における 自由な設定や制御はとても有効でした。 MuseScore4では、その機能は無くなっているようですね？。 私が貧しい事が、色々な事の原因なのですが 古い機能を捨てずに蓄積して使用している者は、いつか排除されますか？

[@larsulrichnuts]

VST plugins with musescore are amazing

[@angelocherymusic]

The Quality of the New Instruments is Insane!

[@Empire526]

This needs to be in a playlist please.

[@alexismelo19]

Thank you!! These are some major incredible updates!

[@sebandsound7426]

Guys functional rits are here we don't need to input a thousand tempo markings

[@MartinSmithMFM]

What a really nice presenter and amazing transformations! Vivat MuseScore! Lovely!

[@riveravaldez]

Really impressive. Congrats to all the team for such an amazing job! Long Live Free/Libre Software!

[@jacobmcculloch]

I love this and as a composer is something I’ve been waiting for a while! One question: will MuseScore 3 users still be able to open files made in Musescore 4, or will they have to switch to the newer versions?

[@musescore]

There is no backwards compatibility between 3 and 4 I'm afraid. The apps are too significantly different (VST support / Muse Sounds support / new engraving engine, etc.) V3 just couldn't gracefully handle this stuff. V4 can open any file from V2 or V3 though.

[@mike-williams]

@@musescore v3 needs a small update to not crash when it tries to open v4 files. Seriously a file version check shouldn't be too much to ask for!

[@clickrick]

@@musescore Then please add a feature in Musescore 4 to export the best it can in Musescore 3 format. Other applications such as Word allow this "save for earlier versions" functionality.

[@aidangrivas7060]

This is so cool!! Thank you for all of your hard work!

[@ZuzuBell]

so excited by these changes.

[@HaasioArt]

awesome!! These changes are fantastic Super hyped for increased VST support. Are there any plans for MIDI ports (ex: real time interfacing between musescore and a DAW such as LMMS?)

[@markmadonna4099]

MS4 = many notable improvements. BUT: The loss of the option for a single window with multiple works (files) open in separate tabs is a huge step backwards, whatever the reason (as noted in the video without elaboration, something to do with the playback engine).

[@TimothyZhou0]

3:00 omg the all-seeing eye of Terpsichore has finally arrived!!

[@roboss5426]

It looks like the same thing but better. Well done to the Musescore team!

[@Lianpe98]

😮 That is so much simpler and intuitive

[@minniang]

Amazing improvements, very, very impressive!

[@thenotsookayguy]

10/10 best Christmas gift

[@calogiga]

Thanks for this wonderfull work, free for everyone... you are amazing...

[@DeeFeeCee]

Thank you sooo much! You've done great work & I can't wait to make music with greater ease now that rit/acc & plugins are part of the workflow. Hopeful for the future of MS. :^)

[@steffenismer]

A great job, thank you. It certainly takes some time to get used to all the functions. The sound is already fantastic. If you load scores from MS3, the choir disappears in the sound. But I'm sure I'll get that sorted out.

[@cloverarcondas3049]

When I updated I was expecting some minor housekeeping changes but when the program opened I had a small panic that I had just ruined my musescore. I was immediately annoyed that the save button is not just there anymore, I have to open a drop down menu to get to it. So that's annoying. but now that i've watched this video I'm actually really exited about it! I'm not a fan of change in general so it's def gonna be annoying to have to relearn some things but it looks like it was overall a lot of good changes! really hope the save button becomes more accessible though

[@DHealey]

Is MIDI out per instrument possible? When working with large templates it's nice to host the plugins outside of the DAW/Musescore so that when switching between projects you don't have to reload all your samples .

[@burning_KFC]

As always writing a comment to support the channel

[@juliearangio487]

I re-installed musescore 3 after trying musescore 4 because I was quite unsatisfied with it. I can't find the option to apply dynamics to a single part rather than to the entire staff. Until musescore 4 gets that option as well, I'm going to continue using musescore 3

[@RevoMusic]

Wow thank you guys!

[@RockStarOscarStern634]

More instruments in MuseHub such as Baritone Voice, More Brass instruments, etc are coming

[@LV4EVR]

Looks amazing!

[@ongyuxuan6989]

Is it possible to add a color theme that resembles the old interface more? I realized the white theme is a bit too white for me. Feels like the interface was optimize for the black interface more. Currently it is only possible to change the background color of the interface back to blue. But there is no option to change the color for the top menu bar and the properties tab etc. If possible I would like to have the option to change the color back to grey. I also realize that it is now not possible to scale the palette tab on the left anymore, any possibility of bringing that feature back in the future? Tq

[@HearBetweenTheLines]

I absolutely love where this is going, but....: MICROTONAL SUPPORT? :D Switching between tuning presets (different temperaments/ EDOs / just intonation) fluidly (not just for playback but also when selecting and inputting a note) would be a dream come true. To be able to define what cent deviation an accidental means and being able to access the master tuning of A - G would be incredible. Some hopes for the next release, you're building the future of music notation here!

[@bladejohnson4784]

i do like musescore, even back when the actually software was janky i still liked the idea of being able to upload my scores and access them anywhere. Another thing that was super helpful for awhile was the songbook feature, basically allowing you to save scores to devices so you can access them without service. This was the main reason i used musescore, for my charts. And now *songbook is only available for paid members*. Yep, musescore did it too, they put already existing features behind a paywall. I still plan on using the notation software, but I now have no reason to upload my scores and contribute to that community so I'm done with that. smh

[@tahademir27]

I was really impressed that software like MuseScore 3 was free, but now I am even more unexplainable level impressed of MuseScore 4. It's way modern, easier to use and more sounds.

[@psychosocial50able]

the one thing I miss from musescore 3 is being able to have multiple scores open in 1 window of musescore

[@dedede5586]

what a helpful video! thank you!

[@soundtaxiproject]

Great work... ✌ Sound Taxi Project

[@severtone263]

This is a game-changer!

[@aithlinnn5843]

still can't believe it is a free app. Been using it for over 8yrs now, it's insanely good for a free to use app.

[@EduardoRohdeEras]

Now all I need is time to use this!

[@anzatzi]

wow wow wow!! looks amasing!

[@quin2392]

Thank you for this!

[@99xara99]

Software for almost any purpose is usually unavailable for casual users, because it is simply not affordable, unless you really use it on a daily basis! So we have to make up for it with freeware, which gets the job done somehow but it is always clunkier, uglier, requires work-in-time, is less conventionally used (harder to find help or tutorials + difficulties with file formats). So you have no idea how grateful I am that muse score just offers an amazing software for free! Now with an even more user friendly UI and up to date design, it honestly looks heaps better than some of the expensive payed software I'm using and it's the best freeware I've come across so far. No compromises! I've been using muse score 2 and 3 for a long time as a hobby and I can't believe a company ACTUALLY did a good thing for once and made it even better! (Because you know, they usually always f.k s.t up somehow) I wouldn't have written all of the scores I have if it wasn't for muse score. Hope you keep it up for a very very long time!

[@AmirhosseinRashidi]

This is a very great improvement. Though I gotta complain, you've got all the essential sounds in muse sounds for an orchestra but there are 2 things that are pretty useful yet they're not found in the sound; Classical guitar (or nylon guitar) and a solo Contrabass!

[@StefHaynes]

Let's goooooooooooooooo

[@clennam62]

Many great things but I really miss having all my scores tabbed in one window. I really hope this is put back.

[@musescore]

This was an unfortunate necessity for projects with VSTi and Muse Sounds, which puts a re far greater load in CPU. Sorry!

[@maxfurtado]

I had installed Musescore 4, and some functions does not work, staff text,, does not working for the expressive violin function

[@ike8028]

I noticed in the beta that a lot of playback features seem to no longer function properly; pedal lines have no effect, repeat signs do nothing, and 1st & 2nd endings seem to be messing up in all sorts of ways. I'm not sure if this is a result of opening a Musescore 3 file or if this is a general software issue, but I think it's something worth pointing out.

[@sorenficklin5884]

This is so freaking exciting

[@MaxBitx]

Just opened Musescore 4 for the first time and the playback is completely broken. Instruments are playing 2 or maybe 3 octaves lower than written with the new muse sounds and the program just crashed when I wanted to playback a trumpet line that I wrote. Additionally if you are importing a musescore 3 file somehow the tempo gets fucked up and there is no quick way to fix it. And lastly in Muse Hub it does not show what kind of sounds you have already downloaded. If you click on them again it just says "downloading", if you pause and restart the download the programm realizes that the sound file was already downloaded (just a minor issue). Please fix those issues! Otherwise it looks like an absolutely amazing update and it is getting closer to other very costly notaion software. Keep working, I am looking forward to the new updates!

[@clickrick]

Playback is indeed completely broken. Totally unusable because it's "juddery". I know that the dev team is aware of the issue so I'm waiting for a fix, but how did this release version get past QA and to the public?

[@Muzer0]

Did you deliberately sneak the phrase "popup switch" ("popups which") into this video?

[@putinmysie8102]

Hello Musecore team! Thanks for your really nice app, I didn’t expect it can be for free🎉 I have some advices for you or let’s say questions. When I compose and try to listen music I can’t hear it as fast as I want, like there is some delay and sounds are becoming from the silent to the loud for some time, it’s kinda annoying because I need to listen piece from other measure, hope you understand what I mean, if I can change it, please tell me. And also, your muse sounds are pretty nice but I needed more range of harpsichord sound, I hope you can add some notes there because the height note there is A of second octave. That’s some minuses I found, thanks for this incredible app!

[@marcusunlimited]

Amazing!

[@jslovelymusic]

Y'ALL........MY JAW HAS NEVER BEEN DROPPED THIS FAR FOR THIS LONG. THIS IS LITERALLY EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED FROM MUSESCORE. @Tantacrul you are SO amazing for this.

[@warren_jayy]

Does musescore 4 support Virtual Drumline? Yes I'm aware of MDL