Playback and audio · Manual

Maestro plays your score with its own sound banks, following dynamics, articulations, tempo changes, repeats and jumps. The playback bar below the score works like Finale’s Playback Controls: it gives you speed, swing, accompaniment, metronome and sounds in one place. Every command is also in the Playback menu.

The playback bar

On the Mac you show and hide it with View → Playback Bar (⌥⌘B); on Windows it is always at the bottom of the window. From left to right you’ll find:

Transport: rewind, previous measure, play/pause, stop, next measure, and record from a MIDI keyboard (see MIDI keyboard).
A counter on a dark display: measure, beat and elapsed time.
The tempo (♩ = …), the TAP button and the speed slider with its percentage.
Four compact menus: swing, accompaniment, sound bank and the panel below the score (none, automatic, piano, drums, or guitar and bass: see Virtual instruments).
The metronome, loop and follow switches.
Buttons for the mixer and the tuner, lit while their window is open.

In narrow windows the bar shrinks step by step: first the “Looping…” label goes, then the menus show only their icon, then other items disappear. Anything you can’t see is still in the Playback menu.

Typing values into the bar

Click MEASURE, the elapsed time, “♩ = …” or the percentage to type into it. Enter confirms; Esc or a click elsewhere cancels.

A measure number becomes the starting point, or jumps there straight away during playback.
An elapsed time (“1:30”, “1:30.5” or “90” seconds) takes you to the point in the piece that plays at that moment.
“♩ = 96” sets the playback speed to reach that tempo, without changing the written tempo.

Listening to the score

Space starts and stops playback, from the selected measure or the starting point.
⇧Space pauses; playback resumes from the same spot.
Esc stops.
Listening under the mouse: hold ⌥ on the Mac or Ctrl on Windows and the pointer over the score turns into an ear (a speaker on Windows). Hold Space too and you hear the notes of every staff at the point under the mouse; move it back and forth to hear other points, note by note. Release the keys to stop. Handy for checking a chord or a voicing without starting playback.
On the Mac: rewind ⇧⌥⌘←, previous measure ⌥⌘←, next measure ⌥⌘→. On Windows use the bar buttons or the Playback menu.

When stopped, the transport buttons move the starting point, shown by the green line. During playback, jumps are immediate and follow the performance order; clicking a measure jumps there. If you have count-in measures set, pause or stop interrupts the count-in.

Speed and tempo

Speed ranges from 25% to 200% of the written tempo, with the actual tempo shown next to it. The tempo written in the score doesn’t change. To get back to 100%, choose Playback → Original Speed (100%).

Playback follows the tempo markings above the system (“Allegro ♩ = 132”, “♩. = 60”) and those imported from Finale. Rit., rall. and allarg. slow down gradually, accel. speeds up, “a tempo” and “Tempo I” go back to the written tempo, and a note under a fermata is held longer, as much as the playback style wants. If you prefer a steady tempo, turn off rit., accel. and fermatas in Settings → Playback.

Tap tempo

Tap the beat on the TAP button or with Playback → Tap Tempo (⌃⌥T on the Mac). Each tap sounds the metronome, and from the second tap on the tempo shows in orange. When you stop for a second and a half, it becomes the score’s tempo, undoable in one step. A two-second pause starts the count over.

Swing

From the ♫ menu in the bar or Playback → Swing, choose:

Automatic (the default): follows the written markings. “Swing”, “Medium Swing” and “Shuffle” turn it on; “Hard Swing” and “Light Swing” set the amount; “Straight 8ths”, “Rock”, “Latin”, “Bossa” and “Funk” turn it off.
Straight, Light swing (3:2), Swing (triplet, 2:1), Hard swing (3:1): apply to the whole score.

Eighth notes are played long-short while the notation stays straight. Written triplets and compound meters are left as they are. Swing is saved with the score and also applies to MIDI and audio export.

Playback style

Like Finale’s Human Playback, Maestro can interpret the notes like a musician instead of playing them like a machine. In Playback → Playback Style choose the score’s style; new scores start with As Written:

As Written (the default): the notes exactly as they are, with only dynamics, articulations and tempo markings.
Standard: the first beat of each measure a little stronger, a phrase under a slur that starts present and ends light and detached, more weight on tenuto notes, acciaccaturas just before the beat, a short pause after breath marks and caesuras. Above all, phrasing: each four-measure phrase swells toward the middle and fades at the end, the higher melody sings out, the tempo pushes a little and breathes on the last beat; on top, small differences in strength from note to note, the same at every hearing.
Baroque: notes detached where there is no slur, ornaments on the beat, trills starting from the upper note, shorter fermatas and a ritardando on the last measure.
Classical: like Standard, with trills from the upper note and a slight final ritardando.
Romantic: more freedom in tempo and dynamics, long fermatas, a broad ritardando over the last two measures.
Jazz: accents on beats two and four, no ritardando. Swing is chosen separately.

With Playback → Playback Style → Intensity… you decide how strongly the style comes through, from 0 to 200%: at 0% the score plays as written, at 100% the style is the one described above, at 200% accents, phrasing, varied strength, breathing tempo, fermatas and the final ritardando are twice as marked. The style’s choices (trills from the upper note, grace notes before the beat, baroque detached notes) stay the same. The intensity is saved with the score.

The style is saved with the score and applies to playback and audio export. The exported MIDI file stays as written, unless you turn on Settings → Playback → The exported MIDI file plays like playback: then it also carries the style, expression, continuous glissandos and interpreted tempo changes.

The style does not move the note attacks: it varies the strength from note to note and lets the phrase tempo breathe. For small random variations in the attacks as well, like a real musician, turn on Settings → Playback → Small timing variations between notes (also at the bottom of the Playback → Playback Style menu). It is off by default because on the Mac, with some sound banks (GeneralUser GS, for example) and many notes together, playback may drop a few notes (audio export plays them all).

In playback strings, winds, voices and guitars really slide: a glissando between two notes, entry and exit slides (scoop, plop, fall, doit) and bends change pitch without steps. Keyboards and harp, which can’t slide, play the scale on the keys; and where another note sounds at the same time on the same staff, the glissando is played as notes.

Pizzicato and mute

Technique markings written above the staff are heard. With the built-in sounds “pizz.” plays violins, violas, cellos, double basses and string ensembles with the pizzicato sound until “arco” (or “ord.”), and “con sord.” puts the mute on the trumpet until “senza sord.”. With an SFZ library or a plug-in that has keyswitches, the instrument chooses the technique with its own samples (see below).

Orchestral libraries and plug-in articulations

A part can play with a plug-in (Audio Unit on the Mac, VST3 on Windows) instead of the sound bank: in the mixer, open the Sound menu of its column → Plug-ins. With orchestral libraries (Spitfire, VSL, Kontakt…) then choose Articulations… in the same menu and write, for each articulation, how the library plays it:

Commands: the ones in the library’s manual, separated by spaces. A note is a keyswitch (C0, F#-1, Db2; middle C is C3, that is 60), “CC32=56” a controller with its value (for example Spitfire’s UACC), “PC5” a program change (from PC1 to PC128). You can write more than one: “C0 CC1=0”.
MIDI Channel: for libraries with one articulation per channel, such as a Kontakt multi with arco on channel 1 and pizzicato on channel 2. The notes of that articulation, and its commands, go to that channel; expression, pedal and glissandos reach every channel of the instrument. “Same as Normal” uses the channel of the first row.

The articulations are: normal, legato, staccato, spiccato, accent, marcato, tenuto, pizzicato, tremolo, trill, sul ponticello, sul tasto, harmonics, col legno, flautando and muted. Maestro chooses the one for each note like this, from the most important:

the way of playing: “pizz.”, tremolo (on the note or “trem.”), trill, the diamond notehead (harmonic), then “sul pont.” (or “s.p.”), “sul tasto” (or “s.t.”), “col legno”, “harm.” and “flaut.” written above the staff;
the marks on the note: staccato and staccatissimo (spiccato after “spicc.”), marcato, accent, tenuto;
the mute (“con sord.”);
the slur: slurred notes, the last one included, play legato;
otherwise the normal one.

If the instrument does not have an articulation, the next one is used: a staccato note under a slur, with no staccato in the map, plays legato. Staccato and spiccato, accent and marcato stand in for each other. “ord.” (or “nat.”) goes back to normal, “arco” ends pizzicato, tremolo and col legno, “senza sord.” the mute. A trill or tremolo that the instrument has stays one held note, played with its samples. The commands are repeated at the start of every measure, so when you start in the middle of the piece the instrument is already on the right articulation. The map is saved with the score.

Ready-made and saved maps

So you don’t have to rewrite the map for every score, Start from a Map at the top of the window fills it with:

Spitfire (UACC, controller 32): the UACC values of Spitfire libraries (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic, Chamber, Studio…), with the most common combinations and dynamics on controller 1. In the library, choose “Locked to UACC” in the keyswitch lock menu;
One MIDI channel per articulation (Kontakt multi): normal on channel 1, legato on 2, staccato on 3 and so on, in the order of the window;
Keyswitches in a row from C0: normal C0, legato C#0, staccato D0…, to adjust with your library’s notes;
Virtual Playing Orchestra, strings “KS-C2”: for the strings of the free SFZ library Virtual Playing Orchestra (the “…-KS-C2.sfz” files played with the sfizz plug-in): normal, tremolo, accent, staccato and pizzicato;
the maps you have saved and those of the other plug-ins in the score (“Same as Violin II”).

Save as Map… adds the map to these, with a name. Show Maps Folder opens the folder where they are kept, one file per map, to copy to another computer.

Writing and testing the map

On the left is the list of articulations, grouped in the order Maestro chooses them (basic sound, marks on the note, playing techniques, mute), with the combinations at the bottom; those with commands or a channel have ✓. Choose one to see on the right when the score asks for it (for example: from “pizz.” to “arco”) and to write its commands, channel and advance. On Windows the list is the Articulation menu. The ? button at the top sums up how to write commands.

While you type a command, Maestro shows below the field how it reads it: “C1 = note 36 (C2 if middle C is C4)”. Many libraries, and .sfz files, call middle C “C4”: if the library manual says C2, write C1 in Maestro (or the number, 36).

Listen, next to each articulation and combination, sends its commands to the plug-in (or MIDI port) and plays a note of the part, using the map as it is written in the window, even before you save it. Then the instrument goes back to normal.

Combinations

Many libraries have a sound of their own for two articulations together: staccato with mute, legato sul ponticello, tremolo with mute. In Combinations, choose the two articulations, then Add Combination, and write its commands and channel. A note that has both plays with the combination. Following the order of importance above, for each articulation Maestro first tries its combinations with the ones that come after it, then the articulation alone: with “sul pont.” and “con sord.”, a staccato note plays sul ponticello unless the map has a combination with sul ponticello.

Timing and dynamics

An articulation’s Advance (ms): its notes start that many milliseconds earlier, for articulations with a slow attack. Many legatos arrive 50–250 ms late: the library’s manual gives the right value.
Command advance (ms): keyswitches, controllers and program changes arrive before the note (never before the previous note on the same channel), for libraries that only change articulation when the command arrives a little early.
Dynamics: with Velocity only, the strength of each note comes from the written dynamics. With a controller (usually 1, modulation; or 11, 2 or 7), the library swells and fades with dynamics and hairpins even within long notes, as when you move the wheel while playing.

Output to a MIDI port

If your libraries live in another program (Vienna Ensemble Pro, a DAW, a separate sampler), a part can play there instead of inside Maestro: in the mixer, open the Sound menu of its column → MIDI Output, choose the port and, in the same submenu, the channel. On the Mac use the IAC bus (turn it on in Audio MIDI Setup) or the program’s own port; on Windows a virtual port such as loopMIDI. Each part can go to its own port and channel.

During playback Maestro sends that port the notes, dynamics (velocity and expression, controller 11), pedal, glissandos and the commands of Articulations…, with the same per-articulation channels as plug-ins. The mixer’s fader and pan arrive as controllers 7 and 10; mute and solo stop the notes. The sound does not come back into Maestro: that mixer column shows no level, and in audio export the part plays with the sound bank. If the port is not connected the part plays with the sound bank, and the menu shows it as “not connected”. Remove MIDI Output (or choosing a sound or a plug-in) brings the part back inside Maestro. The choice is saved with the score.

Accompaniment from chord symbols

With Playback → Accompaniment → Play Accompaniment from Chord Symbols, bass, piano and drums play the chords written as chord symbols, so you can practise a solo the way you would with iReal Pro. The styles are Swing (walking bass), Ballad, Jazz waltz, Pop / rock and Bossa nova. Automatic picks the style measure by measure from the written markings, plays 3/4 as a waltz and, with no markings, takes its cue from the harmony.

The same menu turns the individual instruments on and off. In the mixer the accompaniment has three columns of its own, “ACC”. It stays silent before the first chord symbol, and each chord lasts until the next one. To write chord symbols, see Chords and arranging.

Sounds and sound banks

The speaker menu in the bar chooses the sound bank. Maestro comes with GeneralUser GS (recommended); more banks are a click away in Download Sounds… (see below). Add a Sound Bank… adds a SoundFont .sf2: it is copied into Maestro’s sounds folder and selected right away.

Compressed .sf3 SoundFonts, MuseScore’s format, work too: the first time, Maestro converts them into an .sf2 with the same sounds in its sounds folder (a few seconds, with a progress bar), then they work like any other bank. The .sf2 takes more space than the .sf3, because the sounds are no longer compressed. The .sf3 files in MuseScore’s SoundFonts folder also appear in the list of banks and are converted when you choose them.

On the Mac you can also choose the macOS General MIDI sounds or a DLS bank, and change the bank in Settings → Playback.
On Windows you can also choose the bank from Playback → Sound Bank, which also has Show the Sounds Folder.

Download Sounds

Download Sounds… (in the Playback menu on the Mac, in Playback → Sound Bank on Windows, and at the bottom of the speaker menu) opens a small catalogue of free sounds: click Download, Maestro checks that the file is the published one and selects it right away; sounds already downloaded show Use, the one in use ✓ In Use.

FluidR3 GM: every General MIDI instrument, brighter than GeneralUser (included in the Mac version up to 0.9.35).
MS Basic: the MuseScore 4 bank, especially careful with piano, strings and winds; it downloads compressed (51 MB) and takes about 490 MB once installed.
MuseScore General: the lighter version of MS Basic, the one from MuseScore 3, for less powerful computers: it downloads in 40 MB and takes about 216 MB once installed.
YDP Grand Piano: a Yamaha grand piano sampled note by note.
VSCO 2 Community Edition: an orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and harp) in SFZ format, about 2.3 GB; it becomes the SFZ library and plays the instruments it has, the others stay with the sound bank.

You can close the window and keep working while it downloads. The sounds stay in Maestro’s sounds folder, each with its licence next to it.

Reverb is one for all instruments, not for the metronome: choose the room (from small room to church) and the amount in Settings → Playback; in the mixer each instrument has its own send, that is how much of it goes in. Bank and reverb also apply to audio export.

Mixer

Open the mixer with the button in the playback bar, or with Window → Mixer (⌃⇧M) on the Mac and View → Mixer (Ctrl+Shift+M) on Windows. It’s a console, dark by default, with one column per instrument:

Sound: General MIDI, chosen by family.
Pan, the left knob: drag it up or down, or use the scroll wheel; click the value to center it.
Reverb, the right knob: how much of that instrument goes to the reverb, from 0% (dry) to 100% (the default). Use it for example to keep drums and bass drier than the strings; click the value to go back to 100%.
M (mute) and S (solo).
Fader from −∞ to +6 dB; double-click it or click the dB value to go back to 0.
A level meter with peak hold and a clipping light.

You hear every change immediately, even during playback, and you can undo it with ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). On the right are the MASTER, METRONOME and REVERB faders, which apply to the whole app (the REVERB fader sets how much reverb there is overall, the channel knobs how it is shared among the instruments). Volume and pan are also written to exported MIDI and MusicXML.

Right-clicking a column (or ⌃-clicking on the Mac) opens a menu:

Set Values…: volume in dB (from −60 to +6), pan (from −100, left, to 100, right) and reverb as a percentage, typed in. The cursor starts in the control you clicked. You can also type “−6 dB”, “L 30”, “R 45” or “C” (the pan readout under the knob shows left and right as “S 30” and “D 45”).
Volume, Pan and Reverb: ready-made values (0 dB, −6 dB, hard left, center, 50%…).
Mute, Solo, Listen to This Instrument Only (solos just that one) and Clear Mute and Solo for All.
Copy and Paste Volume, Pan and Reverb, and Apply to All Instruments.
Default Values: 0 dB, centered, reverb at 100%.
Color: the color of the strip at the top of the column, instead of the one for the instrument’s family. It is saved with the score.

On the master column the menu offers the exact value as a percentage and the ready-made values.

Mixer appearance

At the bottom of every right-click menu (and when you right-click the empty background of the mixer) there’s Mixer Appearance, which applies to all scores:

Channel Width: narrow, normal or wide.
Show: hides or shows sound, pan, reverb, mute and solo, meters and the master column, for a more compact mixer.
Stereo Meters: two bars per column, left and right. On the master column they really measure the two sides of the output; on the instruments they split the level according to the pan.
Theme: dark, light or match system; and the Accent Color of knobs and values.
Default Appearance puts everything back as it was.

Metronome and visual metronome

The metronome switch in the bar (or Playback → Metronome) turns it on and off without stopping the music. In Settings → Playback choose its sound (woodblock, claves, cowbell, side stick, closed hi-hat, ride bell), an accent on the first beat, the number of count-in measures before playing (0 to 2) and its volume.

The visual metronome (Playback → Visual Metronome, on by default) shows a light for each beat in the counter: it flashes in time, orange on the first beat and blue on the others. It works with the metronome off too, for silent practice or playing on headphones.

Repeats, loop and follow

Play Repeats (Playback menu, on by default): repeats, endings, D.C., D.S., Fine and Coda are played as written. When off, each measure plays once in written order.
Loop Selection (⌥⌘L on the Mac): the selected passage, or the whole score, starts over seamlessly until you stop.
Follow Playback: the score scrolls with the music. Turn it off to look somewhere else while it plays.

Exporting audio

File → Export Audio… (⌥⇧⌘E on the Mac) saves the score played just as in playback: sounds, mixer, swing, tempo changes, repeats and accompaniment. You choose:

the format: M4A (AAC, a small file to send around) or WAV (lossless);
what to export: the whole score, each part alone, or a backing track without each part, to practise your part by playing along (one file per part, named after the part it leaves out);
whether to include the metronome.

Rendering is much faster than real time and can be cancelled. Your choices are remembered. For audio of several pieces at once, see the setlist.

Tuner

Playback → Tuner (⌃⌘T on the Mac) listens to the microphone and shows the note, the frequency and how many cents it is off. The needle is green within 5 cents, orange up to 15 and red beyond. You can set the reference A (415–466 Hz) and a transposing instrument (in B♭, E♭ or F) to read the note as written in your part. On the Mac, macOS asks for microphone permission the first time. The microphone closes along with the window.