Apologies for such a lengthy post, but I’m trying to err on the side of not leaving important info out.
I have purchased every version of Dorico on the day each was released. Dorico 1 and 2, I purchased as an investment of faith in the team, even though they didn’t have the features I had been most hoping for ever since it was announced that Steinberg had hired the team. I like the direction Dorico is heading in so far, and I have high hopes for its future (and unlike other notation softwares, these hopes are based not on desperation, but on an actual track record). To date, Dorico is by a very wide margin the notation software that least often makes me want to throw my computer out the window.
Dorico 3, I bought because it finally included many of the features I’d been waiting for since before Dorico had been given a public name. I was looking forward to being able to use it a lot more frequently.
Unfortunately, on my system, since day one Dorico 3 has been a problem child with any project that has ever been connected to Vienna Ensemble Pro — which is literally every project I create. VE Pro is essential to my workflow and though its integration with Dorico has never been 100% trouble free, earlier versions of Dorico have been virtually trouble-free, whereas Dorico 3 runs into issues 100% of the time on my system.
I haven’t reported it earlier because I wanted to make sure I did everything I could on my side before bothering the team so quickly after release day. I had hoped to find a pattern that would allow me to address the issue myself, or at least would be a helpful clue when reporting it. Unfortunately, there’s no pattern I can discern other than:
Each and every project I create in Dorico 3, and each and every Dorico 2 project I convert to Dorico 3, if it has ever been connected to VE Pro (even once for just a few minutes, then disconnected), works for about a day and then freezes Dorico every time I try to open it on subsequent days.
Projects closed and reopened work fine on the day they’re created, but on the following day they cause Dorico to hang, no matter what, even if VE Pro isn’t running when I try to load the Dorico file, even if I have saved the file with the VE plugin disconnected.
Obviously, other users are running VE Pro and Dorico 3 without these issues, so my problems must somehow be intertwined with my specific system. However, with that in mind, the only common denominator I have foundis VE Pro + Dorico 3. I’ve tried various setups (various ways of connecting), including connecting to VE Pro via the Plogue Bidule plugin, connecting to VE Pro via the Vienna Ensemble Pro plugin (as direct a connection as is possible), and even a brief test connecting Dorico to a fully-functional trial version of Reaper using OS X virtual MIDI ports, with Reaper then housing the connection to VE Pro. (This last setup is the one I’ve tested the least, as I’ve never used Reaper before and to date have very little experience with DAWs in general.) Every manner of connection tested runs into the issue(s) I’m describing here.
Sometimes, the first sign of trouble is that on the first day a file is created, I can save the file, but then Dorico will hang when I ask it to quit. (Force quitting Dorico in this context semi-frequently causes VE Pro to crash, unless the timing there is a complete coincidence.) This doesn’t happen every time, but even when it does, I can usually load the file again fine, sometimes after a restart or resetting the SMC and the PRAM, on the first day the file is created. However, whether or not Dorico is able to quit normally on the day a file is created, trying to load a file the next day results in Dorico freezing up.
Force quitting Dorico and VST Audio Engine and Synsopos doesn’t seem to be any different than only force quitting Dorico, from what I can tell. Activity Monitor frequently displays Dorico as “not responding” but seems to think VST Audio Engine is fine. However, in case it’s relevant, when I try to sample or spindump VST Audio Engine, sometimes this only results in a blank white screen instead of returning text.
I’ve been collecting as much diagnostic info as I’ve been able, though I admit it’s been a bit piecemeal and there are gaps. I do hope there’s enough buried in there to shed some light on whatever’s going on. It’s 32.2MB* after compression (!) and along with a couple of representative Dorico files, can be downloaded from here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1E1c10ZtA9ux0FTlkMaQvD4MjUAcBftME
(*Why are spindumps so hefty when they seem to be only text?? If they aren’t particularly valuable to track, let me know and I’ll stop generating them.)
Some technical details in case they’re helpful when troubleshooting:
— 2013 Mac Pro 6,1. 3.5GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, 64GB RAM. Processors have never been overtaxed, nor has RAM usage ever exceeded ~30% of what’s available.
–– I’m running Mac OS X Mojave 10.14.6, including the first Supplemental Update. (I just learned Supplemental Update 2 was released yesterday, but due to slow internet in my studio, I won’t be in a position to download it until next week.) However, please note that I encountered just as many problems with Dorico 3 connected to VE Pro before I updated to Mojave about a week ago. (Prior to that I was running Sierra 10.12.x (can’t remember the last digit)).
–– I’m running the latest version of eLicenser control center, 6.11.8.9256. I perform maintenance tasks every time I have to launch that app.
–– I’m running the latest version of Vienna Ensemble Pro 6, build #6.0.17966.
–– All of my endpoint configurations are renamed to very short names to circumvent the known issue described in other threads.
– Dorico is not being flooded with MIDI data, unless this is somehow happening without being reflected by the green light provided to indicate this.
Unfortunately, for me a notation software’s integration with VE Pro is as essential as engraving itself. Until the culprit is found and whatever’s going wrong has been fixed, I’m back to pen and paper full-time instead of just for first drafts.
“Help me, Ulf Stoermer; you’re my only hope …”
