Dorico 3 and NotePerformer

Could we see a screen shot of just where the folders go in Windows?

I get NP to load when a score is loaded but not when Dorico 3 loads

If you’re finding that NotePerformer works in existing projects but won’t load sounds in new ones, that is precisely the symptom that you have not correctly installed the files in the sticky thread at the top of the forum. Please try those instructions again, carefully. I guarantee that NotePerformer will work with Dorico 3 if you correctly follow those instructions. If you have more than one computer, be sure you follow the procedure carefully and precisely on each of them.

Here is the directory tree of my c:\ProgramData\Steinberg\Dorico 3 folder:
C:\PROGRAMDATA\STEINBERG\DORICO 3
├───PlaybackTemplateGenerators
│ └───NotePerformer
│ playbacktemplatedeps.doricolib
│ playbacktemplategen.xml

└───PluginPresetLibraries
└───NotePerformer
presets.xml
presets_for_instruments.xml

I can select NotePerformer in Playback Templates but it never loads or displays the NotePerformer splash screen or window to actually load the sounds. Pressing Play is totally silent. NotePerformer works everywhere EXCEPT Dorico 3. It works on Dorico 2 and on another Windows system using the identical files.

I spent 10 hours trying to get this to work and have basically given up on trying to use NotePerformer until either a Dorico 3 or NotePerformer update makes it work again. Basically uninstalled every piece of music/sound related software on my computer and reinstalled everything to just end up in the same state.

Surface Pro 5/Windows 10/i7/16GB RAM

Jimbosf, what’s the directory tree of the Steinberg folder (the parent to the Dorico 3 folder)?

That looks 100% correct to me. Are you sure you are getting sound at all in Dorico? Try loading Halion in Dorico 3 to see if you get sound from that. It might be a more general audio issue than something NotePerformer specific.

Hello All - have not posted on Steinberg forums for a long time.
I set up Dorico 3 Pro with the patch zip file that Daniel kindly provided and all seems OK for playback so far. One thing I find a little unusual concerns the VST selection in Play. If I initially select NotePerformer in Playback templates all good and NotePerformer appears in the list for VST instruments and the NP mixer shows up OK and playback occurs. However if I reselect NotePerformer from the VST list it appears in the list as ‘NotePerformer64’ Select this and the NP mixer will not load and no playback.
Actually the same thing happened for me in Dorico Pro 2 except that when loading from the playback template it was always named as NotePerformer64 in the VST list. Reselecting it though did seem to break the connection and stop the mixer reloading
Be very grateful for any thoughts on this. File and png shot attached.
Thanks a lot
Simon
NPglitch.zip (435 KB)

I’m very sorry you’re having these problems, jimbosf. Obviously it would have been better if either we could have maintained the same format for this information as in Dorico 2 (though that would have meant not delivering a number of valuable features for playback for all users, not only those who use NotePerformer, however sizeable a minority that might have been) or if Arne had been able to deliver an update to NotePerformer in the timeframe of our release (though of course he is no more beholden to our release schedule than we are to his), but that’s not the situation we’re in. I am 100% sure that if you are able to get the right files into the right place, NotePerformer will work for you in Dorico 3. It may be that doing a screen-sharing session via something like CoPilot is the best way to get this sorted out.

However, the fact you’re not getting any sound when you hit Play suggests that there is a deeper issue. Can you make sure that you do get playback when using the “HSSE+HSO (Pro)” playback template? If not, please go to Edit > Device Setup and make sure you’ve got the appropriate settings there. Try changing the sample rate from its current value to a different one, and then back again.

Let us know how you get on.

You can’t really use NotePerformer in this way, because you can’t load sounds in there directly via its user interface. If you want to use NotePerformer really you have to use that playback template, or at the least a custom playback template that includes the “auto” NotePerformer playback template as a component.

Ah thanks. I can see now that if I selected HSE as the VST instrument it would similarly open the instrument but would not load the sounds. So it is down to reselecting the playback template to reload instruments.
Thanks again

I posted this previously but I can use Halion sounds. Flip to Halion in Playback Templates and everything works. Flip to NotePerformer in Playback Templates, no sound. Go back to Halion in Playback Templates and sound again. NOtePerformer works flawless with Finale, Sibelius, and Dorico 2, but simply never actually loads the sound set on Dorico 3 on THIS system.

The file installation is correct as a side by side compare of another Windows system where everything works correctly shows an identical file structure and file sizes. It is something specific to this computer although a Surface Pro 5 should be a pretty mainstream system.

Here is a diagnostics file: 1) Opened Dorico 3, 2) Opened Coldplay example file, 3) Selected NotePerformer as the Playback Template for the project, 4) Clicked play (no sound)
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (287 KB)

I performed the ultimate fall on your sword scenario to test out why Dorico 3/Note Performer is not working on my Surface Pro 5.

I did a clean reset of Windows, installed only Dorico 3, Halion Sound Libraries and NotePerformer using the well-defined files I have installed 20? times. There is absolutely nothing else installed on this computer.

Still does not work. There is nothing I can do at my end at this point.

Attaching the system information report and diagnostics file for this 100% clean installation. Good luck! :slight_smile:
SurfacePro5.zip (56.4 KB)
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (272 KB)
ProgramDataFiles.zip (1.38 KB)

I might try installing ASIO4ALL and setting that as the device in “Device Setup.” I’d also check sample rate and try different sample rates with the Surface built in hardware.
HTH

Regarding the suggestion to try ASIO4ALL. I did try that several times while trying to get sounds working on this computer. But the disconnect is that there is no problem getting sounds to work on this system with either NotePerformer or any other sound set on this particular computer. Sounds work correctly on Dorico2 and with every other notation product I have both before and after the clean install.

What nobody seems to be getting is that this computer is NEVER displaying the NotePerformer splash screen or even loading its mixer window, so it is not a sound routing problem, it is that Dorico 3 is simply never connecting to NotePerformer and loading its sounds in the first place. When I do a side by side comparison with another Windows system using my documented scenario, when I load NotePerformer as the Playback Template I see the NotePerformer splash screen show up. I have never seen seen that on this computer with Dorico 3.

I have resigned myself to just using the built in HSSE Dorico 3 sounds, because I don’t think I can solve this without source code and a debugger which only the Dorico team will have access to, but I have provided the complete system configuration information.

I initially thought it was configuration issue, or conflicting software, but a clean install of Windows with nothing else installed tells me it is an issue with this particular piece of hardware. As a software developer for many decades, this is just one of those very specific test cases which is uncovering some issue in the underlying code of either Dorico 3 or NotePerformer. Would love to help figure out the problem but it is not a configuration problem at this point.

I got it to work by uninstalling and reinstalling as well. Did not know about patch until it was already working.

Ed, to be clear, it won’t be fully working unless you install the files in the sticky thread. You may find that you can open existing projects and they will play back, but if you try to add more instruments, they will not have sounds loaded for them.

@jimbosf: I took a look at your file listing for ProgramData->Steinberg->Dorico 3…it looks to me like this is a copy of the Dorico 2 folder in the same directory. This doesn’t look quite right to me. When comparing to my own setup, I see only folders for PlaybackTemplateGenerators and PluginPresetLibraries. For Noteperformer to work in Dorico 3 (until the next update from Wallender) you need to use the files from here: Dorico 3 and NotePerformer - Dorico - Steinberg Forums. On my system, there is no “DefaultLibraryAdditions” folder nor does there appear to be one in the download from the forum thread. Since Dorico 3 has a different template format, this may be tripping up your system vis-a-vis Noteperformer.
HTH

Traubitz is quite right - it looks like you’ve just copied the dorico 2 files to dorico 3. You don’t have the files from the other thread. You should end up with something like this:

C:\PROGRAMDATA\STEINBERG\DORICO 3
+---PlaybackTemplateGenerators
|   \---NotePerformer
|           playbacktemplatedeps.doricolib
|           playbacktemplategen.xml
|
\---PluginPresetLibraries
    \---NotePerformer
            presets.xml
            presets_for_instruments.xml

If you install NotePerformer AFTER installing Dorico 3, the NotePerformer installer creates that directory. I replaced the files in that directory with the ones in the zip file on the pinned support note. I have tried it without the extra files installed by NotePerformer. Even if I completely delete the Dorico 3 directory and recreate it from the zip file, I have the same issue.

The NotePerformer installer will create the Dorico 2 directory, not the Dorico 3 directory. The current NotePerformer installer knows nothing about Dorico 3. After running the NotePerformer installer you have to unzip the files from here: Dorico 3 and NotePerformer - Dorico - Steinberg Forums into the Dorico 3 directory.

The NotePerformer 3.2.0 installer will not create the Dorico 3 folder.

But if the Dorico 3 folder exists, it will indeed create the underlying folders (\PlaybackTemplateGenerators etc.) and place the Dorico 2 template files in there. Because the NotePerformer installer goes by the Dorico wildcard, to allow support for multiple Dorico versions (unless the format changes, like in this case).

The presets.xml, presets_for_instruments.xml and playbacktemplategen.xml files are the same for Dorico 2. But instead of the playbacktemplatedeps.doricolib file used by Dorico 3, there are two other .doricolib files there, in a different folder. One for percussion maps, and one for expression maps. These are ignored by Dorico 3, as Dorico 3 uses the playbacktemplatedeps.doricolib file instead, where the expression maps and percussion maps are merged together, for the same purpose.