Audio engine waiting for connection/attached to audio engine

Since when does Dorico Elements 2 do not load properly anymore for you?
Is it maybe since a Windows update that it started happening?
Is there anything else unusual, maybe some other window or alert box popping, maybe even just flickering up?
Have a look on your taskbar, when launching Dorico, is there maybe some other window launching but does not get focus?

If it worked before then I’m sure we will find ways of helping you getting it back running again, might just take a little time.

Audio Engine: Waiting for connection
Audio Engine: timeout

This after completely removing the app and reinstalling including a reboot.

It will become a little difficult, but there are several things to check:

  1. Under C:\Users<yourname>\Documents\Steinberg\CrashDumps , are there any crash dump files to be found, especially from the VSTAudioEngine?
    If so, then please zip them up and send to ‘u dot stoermer at steinberg dot de’.
  2. There is a folder C:\Users<yourname>\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\VSTAudioEngine2_64 containing lots of data.
    Please also zip up this whole folder and send me.
  3. You can start just the audio engine by double clicking on C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Dorico2\VSTAudioEngine\VSTAudioEngine2.exe
    A splash screen will appear and disappear after a few seconds again, that is normal.
    Since the Windows built-in Task Manager not reliably shows background processes, please download Process Explorer instead ( Process Explorer - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn )
    Please run that and have a look for the VSTAudioEngine process, is it to be found?
    If yes, then start Dorico and see what happens in Process Explorer, is the VSTAudioEngine process going away, or still running?

Sorry, this is all a bit tedious but unfortunately necessary to find out what is going on on your computer.
Thanks for your cooperation.

The VSTAudioEngine2 is crashing. The splash just sits there looking back at me

Hi Ray,
if the splash screen stays there, that means the audio engine is not crashing but just deadlocked or waiting for something.
It could well be that there is an alert box from a plug-in that gets hidden from the splash screen.
Then the audio engine is waiting for that alert box to be prompted, but that does not happen, since you can’t see the alert.

When the splash screen is there, is there on the taskbar an icon in black and white which looks similar to the Dorico icon?
If you hover with the mouse over it, some little preview appears, that would also show hidden windows behind.
By clicking on it you can bring them to front.

If there is no hidden window (or you can’t find one), then please download Process Explorer (as mentioned previously).
Then when the splash screen stares at you, run Process Explorer, in the list of processes look for the VSTAudioEngine process,
highlight it, do a right click and from the popup menu choose ‘Create mini dump’. Then please send that dump file to me,
as from that I can see where the process is hanging.
Many thanks

Hi Ulf,
Where to begin? … I again loaded the VSTAudioEngine where the splash stayed up with: finishing reading the VST3 plugins
In Process Explorer I removed the VSTAudioEngine exe including the sub files
Came back to reading your input here and as I reloaded VSTAudioEngine dot exe to create a mini dump, suddenly decided it now would read through the VST plugins and the splash disappeared. Eureka!
It now sees all the plugins and Dorico loads as required.
Thanks for your help although I’m not quite sure which bit did the trick. Possibly using Process Explorer rather than Task Manager.
Ray

I’m baffled as well, but hey, since it is working again, let’s leave it as it is.
And should you have problems again, you know where to find us :slight_smile:

FWIW - on Windows 7, having used Vienna Ensemble Pro 7, closing down Dorico 3 will not terminate the VSTAudioengine process. It has do be terminated manually in order to be able to launch D2 or D3 again…

I removed a Waves plug-in from my computer yesterday, and today I have trouble opening Dorico. A pop-up asks me to locate Waves folder. Only after I repeatedly cancel this pop-up, Dorico will start up. I have deleted every trace of Waves from my disk, and restarted the computer, but to no effect. Is there something I can do to not having to go through this every time? Thanks!

What does the pop-up look like? Is it coming from the audio engine, or from a Waves plug-in manager, or somewhere else?

See screenshot. It kind of hides itself under all other program windows, so that I have to minimize them in order to see it — I didn’t notice until it at all I read this thread.

It’s coming from the audio engine, the same happens if I try to start up the audio engine separately.

Then somewhere you still have references to Waves plug-ins that the engine is trying to load. Perhaps you could try manually moving the VSTAudioEngine3 folder from /Users/your-username/Library/Preferences aside, then run Dorico again and see if it still goes looking for Waves things?

I have nothing named VSTAudioEngine3 folder in that location.

Would uninstalling and re-installing Dorico do any good?

No, uninstalling and reinstalling Dorico won’t help. You need to clear the audio engine data.

In the Finder, go to the Go menu in the menu bar, and choose Go To Folder. This will bring up a little sheet in the active Finder window. Paste the following text into that sheet, being sure to include the tilde ~ at the start:

~/Library/Preferences

In the folder that you will be taken to, you’ll now see a folder called VSTAudioEngine3. Move this out of the way, e.g. to your Desktop, or even to the Trash. Then start Dorico again.

It didn’t do anything. Should I also try to move the one called VSTAudioEngine2, or the vstscanner.plist?

Never mind, I tried and it still didn’t help.

Please have a look at the video Solving "Please locate Waves 9.x Plugins folder" - YouTube
Did you delete all WaveShell files as shown in there?

Wow, that was the most helpful minute of my week! Thanks guys, you’re ace!

You’re welcome :smiley:

Issue was an iLok issue for me. iLok wasn’t showing up due to a funky USB port. Changing ports fixed everything.