Elastic and inelastic incoherent neutron-scattering experiments are simulated for simple models: a rigid solid (as used for normalization), a glass (with a smooth distribution of harmonic vibrations), and a viscous liquid (described by schematic mode-coupling equations). In cases where the input scattering law factorizes into a wave-number-dependent amplitude and a frequency-dependent spectral distribution, the latter is only weakly affected by multiple scattering, whereas the former is severely distorted.