BBCSO playback template crashes on M1

Dorico
1

Hi all,

With a new M1 macbook pro I’m trying to run BBCSO natively, instead of through VEP. I can load up and run the plugins individually but the Dorico version of the BBCSO playback template crashes the program every time I try to load it up. When I try to ‘e’ edit the plugin it just hangs. Also crashes the audio engine.

I’ve also got two versions of the keyswitch map loaded. One has every instrument available and one just has sections, but only the sections map correctly maps articulations. Weird.

Could the playback template be looking for an older version of the spitfire plugin? I’ve just updated to 1.5 and have confirmed I’m using the intel versions of the plugins for now, until silicon support happens here and in my other DAWs.

thanks
john

2

Hi John,
would you please do in Dorico ‘Help > Create Diagnostics Report’ and attach the corresponding zip file to a reply in here? That will contain the crash files as well as other logs and useful information. After having seen all that, I can say more about your case. Thanks

3

My immediate thought is RAM, or in M1’s case unified memory. How much do you have? Do you see Dorico/BBCSO eating up all of your ram?

4

Its not RAM, I’ve got 64 gigs. I also have a smaller 12 player project and I tried to just switch it over to the BBC playback template and that causes the same issue. It looks like it loads but then never gets to a green playhead saying its ready. Instead I get a lower right corner error alert saying that the audio engine is disconnected.

5

It certainly sounds as if the audio engine is crashing. Please generate the diagnostic report as requested by Ulf so we can take a look.

6

Thanks, Daniel.

I tried switching a file into the BBC playback setting and it gave me SPOD. But launching the BBC template file let me generate a diagnostics file.

Dorico Diagnostics.zip (685.4 KB)

7

Thanks – it certainly looks like it’s the BBC Symphony Orchestra plug-in that’s causing the crash, but I’ll check this with Ulf.

8

Well, it is true that that one crash file points at BBCSO as being the culprit of the crash, but that crash happened during shutdown of Dorico. On the other hand, John reports mainly problems during loading of the template files, so that means they are two different issues.
But since there is only this one crash file, it seems that the loading only gets stuck but does not actually crash the engine.
@gzapper could you agree on having a remote screen sharing session, so that I can see myself how the whole system is behaving?

9

Sure, Ulf, we can do a remote screenshare. Is a zoom screenshare enough or do you need to log in?
When is good for you? I’m around for the next day or so.

10

I’ve sent you a private message, John, please check.

11

When I read the title of this thread I wondered: “What was somebody doing driving a BBCSO Template on the M1?” :grinning:

3 Likes
12

I suppose he was “driving home for Christmas” to compose the ultimate Xmas song :wink:

13

Hi was this ever resolved? I was hoping that if I purchased a MacBook Pro with M1 max, 64 ram for my on the go and maybe home machine, spitfire would work better and not crash Dorico so much plus get rid of some huge load times. What is the reality? Also what is VEP and should I get that for every day use? If I work on one computer I don’t think I need it, if it is a Vienna Strings thing I am thinking of. I have not used Vienna strings with Dorico, does it have all the instruments that BBCSO has? Also, if I have to go to Kontact and some comepletely other library I could stomach that when getting used to a new computer.
What might work best on the new MacBook Pro M1 max system? If nothing works I will wait.
Thanks for any info.
JanDol

14

Hi @janDol,
could you please provide a diagnostics report so that we can find out who or what actually causes the crashes? Thanks

15

Hello Ulf,
I do not own the MacBook Pro with M1 max, 64, I want to be sure things will work better before I get one. Do you mean crashes on my current machine?
I have sent many of those in. The last one was (and includes crashes without BBCSO)
Dorico DiagnosticJunes.zip (993.0 KB)

16

Hi @janDol ,
no, I meant diagnostics from that M1 machine. Is it possible that you get one from there?

Btw, in the one you posted yesterday is only one audio engine crash file contained and that crash was due to FeltPiano. You could report this to Spitfire… Thanks

17

Hi,
I have not purchased an M1, and was investigating whether this might fix all my problems and found this thread, but no one ever said whether gzapper got things working after the screen share. Did it all work out in the end with the M1, Dorico and BBCSO?
Thanks

18

Hi @janDol,
sorry, I did not read your previous posting carefully. Actually, the original case is already half a year ago and I can’t remember anymore the outcome. Gzapper was still on D3. 5 and wanted to make the upgrade to 4.0, but I think I did not hear anything from him anymore.
@gzapper, do you remember what you did and how things turned out to be with you?

19

Hello,
I had the biggest crash ever, and I think it was because I tried to add and change percussion instruments. This is with BBCSO and Dorico on my usual mac. I had to reboot the machine to get Dorico to run again. It must have had something running in the background after quitting or something. I thought you might find this file of interest:
Dorico DiagnosticsJuly12.zip (2.5 MB)

20

The crash was in the Spitfire BBC SO plug-in itself, and it brought down the VST audio engine, which in turn will bring down Dorico when you try to e.g. save or auto-save the project. You may want to unzip the zip file you attached here, find the file called VSTAudioEngine5_2022-07-12-002236_Julies-Mac-mini.crash inside it, and send it to Spitfire’s technical support team.