Working with MuseScore 4 and FL Studio

I love MuseScore 4. It’s great for laying things out and overall balance, and their free Muse Sounds are fantastic. For the past three tracks I’ve completed, 75 percent of the work has been in MS4.

That last 25 percent is done in FL Studio. My workflow’s gone a little something like this:

1. Write it in MuseScore with an eye towards the final export

While their Muse Sounds instruments sounds better than anything free has a right to sound, it’s still not perfect. I crescendo or diminuendo anything more that a one-level change to avoid pops.

2. Pay extra attention to the brass

There is a bigger jump between mezzo-forte and forte in the brass than there is for the winds and strings. I’ve had to do additional level automation each time. Also, in the louder dynamics, any notes faster than a quarter can sound especially scratchy.

3. Re-center and dry it out

In some cases, I’ve found that I’ll want to pan to a slightly different location in FL than I will in MS, so I want to keep that flexibility. Speaking of, while it’s nice to use MuseScore’s reverb as a reference when composing, letting FL Studio handle it gives me more options.

4. Organize, then export

Why am I worrying about the export so much? Because, overall, I simply like Muse Sounds more than Spitfire’s free version of BBCSO.

And that means exporting a ton of .wav files. I’ve found it easier to make a separate folder for each set of exports, because you inevitably find that you’ll have to tweak something and re-export it.

5. Final pop-check of the .wavs in Edison

In spite of all efforts, some pops may come across in the export. I’ve been reviewing each files separately after adding it to FL Studio using the spectrum to find pops faster (If it’s sticking out of the top like an antennae on a skyscraper, there’s a fairly good chance I’ll find a pop there). I highlight the wayward strand and “blur” it in Edison until I can’t hear the pop with the scrubber.

Final thoughts

This brings me to my last thought: I’m getting to a point where the difference I perceive in the sound between BBCSO and Muse Sounds may not be worth the extra effort of double-checking 30-40 WAV files.

I know I focused on some potential issues with Muse Sounds’ brass instruments, but I personally think their brass in particular sounds better than BBCSO, and if MS ever opened Muse Sounds as a VST that can be used in other DAWs, I’d absolutely try that first.