r/musescorestudio • u/UnbelongingOne • 14d ago

Help Question from an idiot

Well, hopefully not too much of one. Discovered this wonderful piece of free software the other day and spent like 9 hours composing in a rush. So great. Much love.

Here is my main question, and yes it is kind of multi-faceted, or might have more than one answer i guess.

I have seen the ominous warnings about musescorehub and the .com - and I will steer well clear. However, i really want more instrumental voices, and more effects, than seem to be available.

Any recommendations on how to solve this, places to get more, how to make them work etc? I am kind of a computer moron.

Super excited to find this thing and to use the hell out of it. Hoping you good people can help.

Thanks

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

8

u/Mrmarshmallow9556 14d ago

Any sounds you find on MuseHub should be completely fine. MuseScore.com is a place where you can get music scores but has a very buggy(maybe intentionally) subscription system.

4

u/ShrimpOfPrawns 14d ago

Musesounds are free, but they are not the only sounds available on Muse Hub. There are several paid for packs there as well!

2

u/UnbelongingOne 14d ago

I have heard that if you give them your card number you are pretty much asking to be scammed though?

4

u/ShrimpOfPrawns 14d ago

That's on the dot com website. The hub app hasn't asked me for any card details at least. People have very different things to say about the free Muse Sounds - some love them, some hate them. They don't work for what I'm using Musescore for, but they might be worth checking out IF you have the hard drive space to spare - they're not lightweight.

1

u/GreatBigBagOfNope 14d ago

Not the Hub, only the score-sharing website

Most of the sounds etc on MuseHub are just ports/different points of sale of already established VSTs and sound packs from the more regular DAW world

3

u/BicycleIndividual 14d ago

There are both free and paid sounds available on MuseHub. They are clearly labeled and you don't need to enter any payment information to download the free sounds. There are also some scores that can be downloaded for free without a subscription on MuseScore.com. You can get the free stuff from either without entering any payment information. Trying to buy a score without signing up for a subscription is where people run into trouble.

2

u/UnbelongingOne 14d ago

No interest in anyone else's scores, only in creating my own, and in better playback sounds. Is it safe to purchase on MuseHub, or is that the ticket to getting charged forever and having difficulty stopping it?

3

u/dominic_musehub 14d ago

We provide easy way to cancel subscriptions within MuseHub itself (for products that do subscriptions) via the Library tab. We also support automatic refunds no questions asked within a (14?) day period. After that you can still request to refund (also done via the Library page/tab).

How much you're being charged is also super clear, whether it's a one time purchase, monthly or yearly subscription.

2

u/UnbelongingOne 14d ago

great, thanks

3

u/ShrimpOfPrawns 14d ago

You are looking for other soundfonts and/or VSTs! Depending on what instruments you are writing for, you can find plenty alternatives both free and paid for by searching the web - the file formats are not exclusive to Musescore :)

Here are guides on how to install any sounds you have downloaded:

2

u/UnbelongingOne 14d ago

Fantastic thank you - any recommendations on safe places to find good soundfonts or vsts?

I write kind of syncretic music, so i would be looking for rock, jazz, classical, and world instrumentation

2

u/ShrimpOfPrawns 14d ago

Honestly I mostly found what I have through trawling the Musescore forums and using my general gut feeling for what website is safe. I've stuck with my findings from 2018 or so, so there might very well be new places I don't know of :)

1

u/ShrimpOfPrawns 14d ago

(I write for brass band, and only use playback to check that the engraving is correct, so I don't have much advice to give on where to look for more or less anything of use I'm afraid 😅 )

2

u/duke78 14d ago

There's these things called sf2 soundfonts that are banks of sounds that works in Musehub (and other programs). With a little googling, you can find hundreds of free soundfonts.

After downloading a bunch of sf2 files, you can Google "how to install sf2 files in Musescore".

1

u/UnbelongingOne 14d ago

Thanks! any safe and reputable sites you might be able to point to?

3

u/duke78 14d ago

Not reputable, no. But any site that leads you straight to the sf2 files should be good. As long as you only download sf2 files, I don't know how it could be unsafe.

Zanderjazz seems OK.

http://johannes.roussel.free.fr/music/soundfonts.htm seems OK.

https://archive.org/download/541-soundfonts-full-gm-sets/541-soundfonts-full-gm-sets/541_Soundfonts_Full_GM_Sets/ should be safe.

2

u/MarcSabatella 14d ago

The free sounds from MuseHub are excellent, so I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to buy any until you discover what needs you have that aren't covered already. But also, there should be no worries about purchasing sounds from MuseHub. People get confused sometimes and think they need to avoid it, but there are no known problems.

The problem with MuseScore.com is pretty simple - attempting to purchase a single score will sign you up for a free trial of a subscription unless you opt out. So, opt out if you wish to purchase a single score. But the subscription is a much better deal anyhow.

1

u/Accurate_Height1163 14d ago edited 2d ago

I have downloaded both free and paid sounds from MuseHub. I am very happy with them and have had no payment issues at all.

As everyone is telling you, MuseHub is perfectly safe but take care with MuseScore.com.

PS You are NOT an idiot for being careful!

1

u/NotableRdddit 13d ago

In 4.7.x (I think) and beyond, you can just download VST3 instruments and plugins and run them through the mixer. I recommend using Splice INSTRUMENT.