[Closed] Does Dorico 3 require higher TurboBoost frequency?

As Daniel may know, I am reproducing the concert score of Gustav Holst’s “Mercury” symphony (34 staves without condensing yet) and finished over 100 measures.

Now, every operation towards an element (or multiple elements) on score (including repitch and entering notes) takes at least 4-5 seconds. It is a problematic experience to repitch a note (or a phrase) for a 3rd or a 4th by using ALT(+CMD)+ArrowKeys under such circumstances. I even wonder whether an option of “using popover to repitch or transpose” is better.

My computer is Late-2013 Mac Pro with 3.5 GHz 6-Core Xeon CPU (can TurboBoost to maximum 3.9GHz), 32GB RAM installed. It is 16 degree celsius in night Tokyo in this mid-October, but the heat generated by my computer (running Dorico doing this project) makes my room like in summer night.

It will be helpful if Daniel can tell me whether Dorico 3 requires higher TurboBoost frequency. If it does require, I will order a Mac mini ASAP (with maximum CPU option, TurboBoost @ 4.6 GHz). It is not the problem of my budget now.

I’ve completed two full Piano Concertos with the stats below and I didn’t see any appreciable slowdown as the files got larger.

Prokofiev Piano Concerto in C: 25 staves, 913 measures, 3 flows
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody: 36 staves, 941 measures, 25 flows

The Rachmaninoff piece is fully setup for condensing.
The Prokofiev is not setup for condensing.

With condensing turned on the UI performance is quite a bit slower, but with it off, the UI performance is quite good.

All done on a single laptop 2.7GHz MacBook Pro. All instruments are inside a single VE Pro instance. All instruments except Piano is VI Pro 2. Piano is either Pianoteq or Synchron Steinway.

I don’t have any layout modifications (Others have claimed this can cause quite some slowdowns).
I also suspect but have no data to back this up that if you are relying on Dorico’s mixer then that will slow things down also. All of my mixing is done in VE Pro. The Dorico mixer is just passing a single stereo signal to the output device.

Shiki, it would be helpful to see your specific project file. Often when there is a slow-down there is something specific to the project that reveals a particular performance characteristic about the software.

Project file has been emailed to you. Ref: #20191023A.

Other issues regarding this project:

  1. Arne Wallander, in his recent email reply to me, stated:

I believe the standard (open) pizzicato should be triggered, if it occurs inside a “con sord.” technique.

However, I found that this is not functional in at least the cello section in this project. I didn’t check violin / viola / contrabass ensembles yet.
As a temporary workaround, I introduced hidden “senza sordino” towards those measures (of cello section) I want for pizzicato (mm.70-75).
Now, could you please help me see what’s the prime cause of this issue?

  1. Dorico Pro 3.0.10 currently does not support “one desk” (which was used in Gustav Holst’s original sheet music).
    As you can see, I adopted standalone solo strings (4x solo violin, 2x solo viola) as a workaround.
    Does this have the same effect in ensemble performance? (i.e. will this cause any misleading to the performers and the conductor?)

  2. For your information, I applied several dummy techniques in the score to bypass the following issue we have talked before:
    https://twitter.com/ShikiSuen/status/1184789254519418881

$ EOF (at this moment).

No layout configurations done in Engrave mode (except some parenthesis settings of dynamic signs) here.
I only use NotePerformer in this project.
All Dorico mixer plugins have been removed, except a non-functional compressor on the master bus (It limits some audio peak).

Does NotePerformer spread cpu cycles across cores efficiently?

What does the memory footprint look like?

I can only see how Dorico spreads the CPU cycles across cores. Main cores vs other cores are averagely 2:1 or 1.5:1 on my side. All cores are used (except hyperthreading-emulated virtural cores).

The playback itself has no issue at this moment.

For what it’s worth…

I created a version of the Rhapsody for both HSSE and NotePerformer. Both had similar performance characteristics to my original VE Pro version. Moving around the file was fast, editing and selection was fast. Playback worked on both without issue.

The more cores are ued, the less Boost you get per core. You only get the full Turbo Boost if using 1 core. The clock speed grades down as more cores are involved.

FWIW, other threads here have shown similar times for things like adding an instrument on CPUs that are widely different. So you many not see any improvement.

Your MacPro is not hot because of Dorico, but because it’s a 200W computer. :smiley:

You can do that in NP. Read the NP documentation for how to change the size of an ensemble with a midi CC message, and make a playing technique.

And because Apple designed it to run quiet, and throttle back the CPU speed to stop it overheating rather than speeding up the fans.

Thanks for this trick.


I am afraid that mine is maximum 450 W.

Some news regarding the project file I emailed you:

Even if I perform my edits on an uncondensed concert score 1, Robert Hsiao told me that it may be caused by the inactive condensed concert score 2.
I removed one of those concert scores and made sure the condensing on the rest concert score is turned off. Now Dorico has a normal performance in its responsiveness.

FYI.

Since Daniel appears to be inconvenient to do further responds to this thread, I am doing the following:

  1. Regarding the issue with muted pizzicato, I made a minimal example project and sent it to Arne Wallander, letting him troubleshoot what is going on.

  2. I found my temporary workaround of using Cues to fake the “one desk” sign. Prior to that, someone told me to use MIDI CC#104. I tried to make some technique marks which can control this volume, but none of them are effective on my side. Hence my choice of using Cues.

  3. I completely give out using Condensing at this moment to ensure the operation performance.


Update: Daniel informed me that he cannot find anything special in my project, but their work on improving the performance of Dorico Pro 3 is still going on.

Case closed at this moment.