I created my first project with the default audio settings (with HALion). During playback, a constant low pitch is played on every instrument, in addition to the notes in the score. This makes playback unusable. I’m using a Mac. What could be wrong with my (default) settings?
Could you please post your project here? First rename the file ending from .dorico to .zip, otherwise it will get refused by the bulletin board.
If you don’t want to post it publicly, you could instead send it to u dot stoermer at steinberg dot de
That with the low tone could come from a very low MIDI note that is supposed to be a key switch but now suddenly appears as a regular note.
We would want to have a look at the project file to check this.
It sounds like you must have changed all of the patches in HALion Sonic SE away from the defaults that Dorico is using, but you haven’t told Dorico that you’re using different sounds by changing or unassigning the VST Expression Maps in the Endpoint Setup dialog: click the little cog icon next to the HALion Sonic SE 2 entry in the VST Instruments panel in Play mode and make sure that you choose a benign expression map like “CC7 Dynamics” or whatever instead of the specific HALion Symphonic Orchestra maps it will be using.
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Strangly, I was running into the same issue! I hope it doesn’t come back again.
The issue will assuredly come back if you start changing the sounds in your VST instrument (whether it’s HSSE or something else) and that channel is set to use an expression map that expects to use keyswitches that are incompatible with the new sound you’ve chosen. To be clear, if you change the sounds without changing the expression map, you are creating the issue for yourself 
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Or as someone once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” 
(I do like the larger selection of emojis now available. 
)
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I have the same problem, low drone noise interfering with playback. If I play the piece in cubase I can see it in the midi file and delete it.
I’m using the Halion sonic provided with Dorico 3.5 Pro, I haven’t changed any patches etc. The note seems to be a low d 2 . It is annoying as I’m trying to organise rehearsal files for my choir.
I think you must have changed a sound, Marguerite. Go to the Endpoint Setup dialog and make sure that the channel producing the unexpected low D is using an appropriate expression map: try setting it to Default.
Hey! I have the same problem… I set “Default” in Endpoint Setup, and drone-like sound occurs 
Please, help!
Can you attach the project itself here, @Addiko, so we can see what’s going on?
I have the same problem, and rebooting didn’t help. I started this file by importing from Finale thru musicXML
Well, then Daniels question will be the same for you: Can you attach the project (or a stripped-down version of it), so we can see what’s going on?
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Constant low notes in playback are nearly always caused by keyswitches in the Expression Map.
Some sample instruments use notes outside their range to trigger different patches. If you’re using the wrong map with the wrong sample, then the keyswitch might be a note within the range of the instrument.
Either re-apply the Playback template for the setup that you want; or check that the sample and the expression map match.
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Thanks. I never used the Expression Maps before. I reset it to Library Defaults and the buzz persisted. However, in trying to create a stripped-down version of my project, I deleted everything except the first 3 measures of the piano part, and the buzz went away. So it seems like the buzz is coming from somewhere within the score, which should make it easier to track down.
And in fact it was one of my vocal staves. So I added a new staff, cut everything from the old version of it, pasted it into the new, deleted the old staff, and the buzz stopped. I’ll take it.
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Re-apply the Playback Template, under the Play menu. Choose one of the templates, e.g. probably Iconica.