Dorico and Eastwest Word Builder - problem?

Dorico
4

For me after more testing with Dorico 3.5 on Windows 10,
Ryzen9 3900XT,
X570 motherboard,
AMD R9-270 GFX,
64gig,
NVMe.M2 SSD storage,
M-Audio Delta 1010 interface.

EW Symphonic Choirs with word builder
EW Hollywood Choirs with word builder

Play 5: VST2, works directly in Dorico, and/or when I bridged it via Bidule.

Play 6: VST3 nor VST2: Neither of these work directly in Dorico for me. Word-builder does not advance, and notes stick. Both VST2 and VST3 variants of Play 6 DO work for me if bridged via Bidule.

Play 5 & 6 keep user files such as phrases (*.phr files) in different directories. I had no problem moving phrases I made in Play 5 over to Play 6/Opus using the native Windows File Explorer, and they worked as expected. It should work the other way too, but I haven’t rolled back to 5 yet to double check that possibility. It does appear that Opus uses the same phrase set as Play 6…so whatever I made and saved in 6 shows up in Opus, and vice verse.

Opus: VST3, nor VST2 work directly in Dorico for me. Again, word-builder does not advance and notes get stuck.

Opus VST3 did NOT work for me in Bidule. I tried it with Bidule in stand alone, and hosted inside Dorico. For whatever reason(s), the interpretation of the VST3 implementation between this host and plugin don’t quite jive, or perhaps Opus is using portions of the protocol that Bidule doesn’t support yet?

Opus: VST2 DOES work for me when bridged via Bidule. At first I thought word builder was missing in Opus, but discovered that it lives under the Perform Tab instead of having a button in the Play tab.

DoricoBiduleEWChoirs
DoricoBiduleEWChoirs1920×1078 233 KB

Edit: I have issues with this setup when trying to export to audio through Dorcio’s quick export feature. My workaround is to host an audio recorder in an instance of bidule through an insert on the main Dorico Output and do a real time record. Thus a quick and dirty take to demonstrate that Opus and word builder at least ‘play back’ in Dorico if bridged through Bidule. Note, I spent very little time entering this score and even less poking some votox into the Symphonic Choirs. It uses the ‘Default’ expression map. There are no tweaks to dynamics, note lengths/velocities, or votox timing for the ‘words’ (my first entry ever into Symphonic Choirs). The grainy rendering is my fault…I made it quickly, loud, 16bit (dithered), and lossy compressed the heck out of it so it would fit here.

The main noticeable differences between Play 5 and 6 that I detected from an end user perspective are:

  1. Play 5 works directly in Dorico, where Play 6 and Opus currently require some sort of bridge. So far I have only tried Bidule, but other bridge options might work as well. I.E. jBridge, VEP, VIP, etc.

  2. Play 5.0.1 (the version of 5 I downloaded and tested) doesn’t come in a VST3 variant. It’s VST2 (probably also in aax for Pro Tools and au for Logic) , and needs to be whitelisted in Dorico; meanwhile, Play 6 and Opus comes in both VST3 and VST2 (and some others for Pro Tools and Mac).

  3. Slight cosmetic changes.

  4. Browser in Play 6 has utilities built in for cloud members to download instruments one-by-one, directly from the internet, while with Play 5 you’d need to get the full library in one go through the EastWest Installer Utility…or possibly through Opus (in stand alone mode, or while using in another DAW). Play 6 and Opus also seem to have more tagging and organizational features built into the sound browser.

  5. In play 6 and Opus, word-builder is more forgiving in votox mode entires. I.E. If one mistakenly enters lower case k, t, p, or x, it still accepts them and makes the same sounds as upper case K, T, P, X, etc. In play 5, if these particular consonants are mistakenly entered in lower case, they do nothing.

  6. Possibly some of the newer EW instruments that work in Play 6 and/or Opus might not show for use in Play 5, or might not work properly if they do.

There are MANY differences from Play to Opus. Opus is far more advanced. My favorite part is that Opus is ready to play the big multi-choir instruments in a few seconds. With Play I have to wait a few minutes for them to load. In contrast, Opus seems to take a little longer per instance to ‘save its state’ when closing a Dorico project, where Play saves and closes almost instantly. There are some new instruments specifically for Opus. It also adds optional orchestrator abilities (arp engines, chord builders, etc.). It adds all sorts of abilities for grouping/layering/zoning instruments. It can browse and download individual instruments for Cloud members. I think it has a more advanced mixing matrix supporting effect plugins, and more.

Opus and your choice of Play can be installed on the same system, and integrated into the same project.

Swapping between Play 5 and 6…so far I’ve just been using the installers to remove and change. It’s easy to do. The two versions seem to keep their user files in different locations on the system, and uninstalling doesn’t ‘remove’ that stuff. I have not tried forcing an installation of both on the same system, as the plugin wrappers have the same names, and for me it was more convenient to just use the windows control panel and installers when rolling versions.

I do intend to check some other bridging options, namely jbridge and VIP since I have access to those.

Update:
I tried Dorico > jbridge > Play 6 VST2. Word Builder does not advance and notes get stuck.

I tried Dorico > jbridge > Opus VST2. Plugin loads but got crashes and display issues. Tried various jbridge settings but Never got it stable enough to attempt playing a score.

I tried Dorico > Akai VIP > Opus VST2, and Play 6 VST2. Word Builder does not advance. Notes stick. Cannot enter text in WordBuilder with the keyboard.

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