And actually I have no clue anymore of why that might happen. I managed to tamper with my HALion Sonic installation so that it becomes corrupt, and then I do also get into trouble, i.e. project load hanging at 50%, but only if the project really uses HALion. Other projects then load fine.
So nothing is loading anymore with you, right? Also the Ligeti project not anymore?
What if you move HALion Sonic SE temporarily out of the way, does it get any better?
HSSE should live in /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Components/HALion Sonic SE.vst3
If you move it out there (just renaming is not enough), e.g. one level higher, the audio engine won’t see it anymore.
Do projects load then (at least some)?
This is all so weird…and I’m really running out of steam…
So that Ligeti piece is the only one that you can load, all others fail. And creating new projects also does work, but then later they won’t load anymore. This sums it up, right?
So we have to nail it down further. It’s going to be a long way, but I’m sure at some stage we will get you back running again.
How about this then: Create a new project, e.g. solo piano and add a few notes. Then go to Play mode and on the right side, unload the HALion Sonic instance by choosing the ‘—’ item from the drop down list. Then save the project, close it and try to reopen it. How does that go?
Okay, next round:
So all the projects that you posted do load on my machines, i.e. the project data as such must be fine.
My suspicion is, that one of your plug-ins is somehow corrupted, because I mentioned, that when I tamper with my HALion installation, I also get a hang at 50%. Now, you told that you moved HALion out of the way but still the same problem, So I had another look and compared your Ligeti and Test project. Of course they are not same, so there are many differences. One thing that I noticed though was, that in the Ligeti project the REVeverence plug-in is not enabled. So could it be that REVerence is the problem? Please create a new test project and then disable REVerence. Save, close and reopen; what is the result?
As a further test, load the Ligeti project and save under a different name. Now start playing around with that renamed project. Close and reopen; should still work. Do some editing, save and reopen; what’s happening? Enable REVerence in the mixer, save and reopen; what then?
I told you it’s going to be a long and stony way, but that’s how to nail it down, so please bear.
Ulf, I think you got it! I created a new project without REV and was able to load it. I tried several times, just to be sure. And adding REV to the Ligeti project, with no other changes, made it hang upon opening. So it seems like the likely culprit. Now what?
(and no need to apologize for the long road. I understand what it takes to diagnose these problems, and while it’s frustrating to have lost Dorico, I’m perfectly willing to go through the steps to find the problem).
Oh, excellent. But we are not quite there, yet. Very interesting to see that REVerence makes trouble, because the plug-in as such is contained in a complete set of plugs, we call it the plug-in-set. So if REVerence makes trouble, I would expect that all other plug-ins included with Dorico cause the same. So could you please try and replace REVerence with some other insert effect? Doesn’t really matter what effect, some other reverb or delay or chorus; just for the sake of finding out. Because when that also fails, it means that the plug-in-set binary is corrupted. If the other effects don’t cause a loading error, then it must be something with the REVerence contents packs. REVerence needs for the room simulation the impulse responses of real rooms and halls. These impulse responses are stored in a contents packs and installed in a different location to the actual plug-in. A missing contents pack shouldn’t cause much havock, just an error message should pop up and that’s it. I don’t know, though, what a corrupted contents pack would cause.
So please first try with other effects, in order to see if it is the plug-in-set or the contents.
One more question, do you have some other Steinberg product installed, maybe some Cubase version, or WaveLab or so?
I still wonder how the installation of the plug-in-set or contents pack can get corrupted…
I was able to add other effects to the Ligeti and the new project and still open them, but then they hang on close and bring down the VSTAUdioEngine, according to Activity Monitor. I created another new project and switched around some 3rd party plugins, and these all seem to work fine. So it does seem like something in the plug-in pack that Dorico installed is causing problems on my end.
So let’s try and replace your plug-in-set then. I’ve uploaded it to my ftp site:
site: ftp://ustoermer.steinberg.de
user: adler
pass: 040210350
It’s a bundle called “VST Aduio Engine Plug-in Set.vst3” and it goes to /Applications/Dorico.app/Content/Applications/VSTAudioEngine.app/Contents/VST3
But before you overwrite your current version, please make a copy and also upload to my ftp site so that I can compare the two.
If that doesn’t do, I have one more idea.
I’m having a hard time getting the file from the FTP. I keep getting an error code that some of the info cannot be read. Is there perhaps another delivery method? Maybe zipping would help?
Ulf - this seems to work! I have to run out, so I have no time for extended testing, but I’ve tried two previous projects and they loaded. I’ll do more tonight and let you know. In the meantime, I seem to not have upload permissions to your ftp, but I’ve zipped my vst file and uploaded it to Dropbox. You can download it at Dropbox - File Deleted
That is very good to hear, but at the same time I really wonder.
Because, I’ve compared your old plug-in-set to the one I’ve uploaded for you and they are actually binary same. So what has changed to make it suddenly work on your system? I don’t know. Maybe different file permissions; it’s mysterious to me.
But if it does now work for you, even better. Do some good testing and let me know if you encounter anything suspicious.
I guess we didn’t really solve it… Everything opens fine, so I wanted to add plugins and see what happens. Then I noticed I don’t have Steinberg plugins anymore. The folder I downloaded from your FTP is in the location it should be, but none of the plugins show up, only my 3rd party plugins. I reinstalled Dorico and now the problem is back. I replaced the VST set with the one from your FTP, and the problem persists. Removing the VST set makes everything work again. So something in the plugins is making me crash, but it doesn’t seem like a corruption. Other thoughts?..
Hm, this is all so wonderfully weird. To be honest, I have no clue anymore and need to think more deeply on how we can approach your problem. At the moment it all doesn’t make any sense. You can create projects but not load them anymore because of the plug-in-set…
I’ll ponder some more and come back soon.
Still just poking around, but could you please zip up the whole folder/Users//Library/Preferences/VSTAudioEngine and send to u dot stoermer at steinberg dot de ?
You’ve already posted logs, but that was when you had the time out issue and apparently you don’t have that anymore, as you can at least start Dorico now.
I also want to check for other files in that folder, so please zip it all up.
I’ve also discussed this with my colleague and he is also puzzled. Could it be that a plug-in pops up an error message that somehow gets stuck behind the Dorico window and thus hangs the audio engine?
For that purpose, could you please try the following:
Create a new project and unload HALion Sonic and REVerence. Instead of REVerence, please load a very simple plug-in like the Chorus from our plug-in-set. Then save the project and try to load again. Does that work?
I was able to create and then reopen a project with the Chorus plugin (no Halion or another sampler loaded). Adding REV to the same project caused it to hang on open.
That is interesting. So it means that the plug-in-set as such is fine, but still the trouble with REVerence.
Now, I had a look at the files you sent me, and I could see that the REVerence contents is not there, or only partially.
What is REVerence contents? For calculating the reverb REVerence needs the impulse responses of real halls and rooms. These impulse responses are basically wave files and they are stored in what we call vst sound archives. Without these REVerence won’t be able to process anything.
These sound archives are normally stored under /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/VST Sound
With a normal Dorico installation there shall be 3 such archives for REVerence namely
FCP_SMT_005_Reverence_ImpulseLibrary_01.vstsound
FCP_SMT_005_Reverence_ImpulseLibrary_03.vstsound
FCP_SMT_005_Reverence_ImpulseLibrary_04.vstsound
That’s right, no number 2, but these 3 are needed.
According to your ContentManager.xml only the first one is installed on your machine under the path /Volumes/Tzipi/Samples/Dorico . 3 and 4 are not found, at least not according to that file.
I’ve uploaded to my ftp site a zip file with the 3 REVerence sound archives. Please grab them and copy to /Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Content/VST Sound . Once you did that, stop Dorico and the audio engine and then remove the folder /Users//Library/Preferences/VSTAudioEngine . When you start Dorico again, that folder will get recreated. The only thing is, Dorico will take longer to start up, because some scanning needs to take place.
With the new sound archives in place, do your projects then load?
If not, please again zip up that VSTAudioEngine folder and send to me.
Acutally, the missing REVerence sound archives shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Normally an error message pops up, but projects should still load and sound (only without reverb).
However, I did some tests here on my MacMini by moving those archives out of the way and I also ran once into this hanging on 50%. But only once, so it is not reproducible like in your case.