I think this new window showed up in 4.0.31. When I load a project, the new window says “Activate playback for this project? This will cause all required VST plug-ins to be loaded, and allow this project to be played back.”
I’m not sure what this means and haven’t found any information (yet) online. If I only use the Halion sounds library, should I answer “Do Not Activate”?
You should activate. Halion is a VST plug-in
Ah, now I’ve tried “Do Not Activate” and see what you mean. I wish the popup window explained this a bit better, something like “Dorico will use the beep sounds instead of VST”.
If you are using large sample libraries or lots of instruments then loading everything required for playback can take a noticeable amount of time. In some cases you may not care about playback, e.g. if you are opening a second project just to copy and paste some material from it into your first project, and so you may not want to wait for all the sounds to load. The Activate Playback feature is designed to allow you to control this.
It is also described in detail in the Dorico 4 Version History PDF. See page 98.
Daniel’s link explains it – I’ve not loaded multiple projects at once since getting Dorico 4.0. This message is only needed when more than one project is loaded.
I started a new project (from an XML file), and didn’t get an option to activate playback. It isn’t playing, and I can’t find where to activate playback. I used shift+control+P, but don’t see anywhere to activate on that panel.
Try assigning a Playback Template in the Play menu.
Until I realised that you can disable this feature in Preferences, I was finding that it always turned my cursor into the wristwatch icon. I was eventually able to select one of the options (with the wristwatch still showing) but only after waiting for a few seconds. I thought it might help if I set my default playback template to Silence, but it didn’t. And I wasn’t able to check the “Remember my choice” box at all – the wristwatch wouldn’t let me. I assume it has the same effect as choosing “Always” or “Never” in the Preferences, as the case may be, but I never found out.
