Audio export stuck at 0%, sometimes renders, sometimes not

Hi all, trying to figure out the source of a “stuck at 0%” recurring export issue with Dorico. I’ve attached the most Diagnostics dump below–can someone take a look and perhaps provide some insights? I wanted to post this now, but will try the 44.1kHz trick that is in a similar thread.

Many thanks,

John

Dorico 6.1, Windows 11 Home (build 22631), i9-13900K (E-cores, Hyper-Threading and C-states disabled in BIOS; microcode 0x12F), 96GB RAM, ASRock Z690-C/D5 (BIOS 16.01), Audient iD14, all drives SSD. Project uses NotePerformer, multiple instances of AIR Studios Reverb, Pianoteq 8, and Kontakt 7.

Playback of the project works, though it is a heavy lift on the system.

The problem: audio export frequently sits at 0% indefinitely with no error, and the VSTAudioEngine process has to be killed. An export attempted after a fresh system reboot generally succeeds. After that, exports in the same session usually hang.

Critically: fully quitting Dorico and killing VSTAudioEngine6.exe, then relaunching, does NOT clear the condition — only a full reboot does. Yesterday I had a session where the same flow exported successfully at midday, then three attempts in the afternoon all hung at 0% despite engine restarts between them.

Two additional observations from the logs/dumps that may help:

1. Some exports DO complete — but the progress dialog stays at 0% the whole time. During one export that completed successfully (28 July, 19:50–19:56), the audio engine watchdog nevertheless wrote a freezedump mid-render, so the engine appears unresponsive to IPC while rendering offline even when it is working. From the UI, a working render and a genuine hang are indistinguishable.

2. Render speed has regressed: the same 8-minute flow that previously exported in 3m42s (~2x real-time) now takes 6–9 minutes when it succeeds. Ruled out by testing while in the failing state (no change from any of these): Windows Defender real-time protection disabled; Steinberg License Engine / Activation Manager processes killed and respawned; Windows Audio + Endpoint Builder services restarted; audio interface physically unplugged (exported via FlexASIO and Generic Low Latency instead); ASIO driver choice; export sample rate (48k and 44.1k); NVIDIA overlay disabled + current Studio driver; Youlean Loudness Meter removed from the project; removing accented/special characters from project, flow and file names (the export path previously contained “É” and “Ô”) — exports both succeeded and hung before and after that change.

Export destination is a local SSD. Windows virtualization-based security is disabled. The attached diagnostics include full memory dumps from two separate freezes (20 and 22 July) plus a freezedump from 28 July. In the two full dumps the engine’s main thread appears to be waiting at the same location in both incidents, with all worker threads idle.

Happy to test anything or provide more dumps. Thank you!

But you can play back audio within the app without problem?

Hi @driscollmusick , I can see from the logs your described symptoms but I still can’t tell what is going on there. Would you be able to send me the project file? Please send directly to u dot stoermer at steinberg dot de. Full confidentiality guaranteed by me. Thank you for the trust in me.

Yes, as long as I wait a few minutes for the reverb plugins to settle in. Obviously if the Export fails, I first need to force quit Dorico and VSTEngine (the export failure locks up VSTEngine)

I did try switching from Generic Low Latency driver to FlexASIO with 44.1kHz (and 48kHz) output before attempting the render and got the same 0% freeze failure.

Thank you, Ulf. I just emailed you the file!