Dorico Elements 4 - HALion Missing Sounds

I just upgraded to Dorico Elements 4 from 3.5. When I open the example file “Akinola - Dorico Prelude” I sometimes get an error message that says “Halion Sonic SE - Some audio files are missing.”

I’ve installed all of the dorico content from the installer. What else could I be missing?

Thanks!
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.8 MB)

The Akinola project was created with Dorico Pro using the HALion Symphonic Orchestra library, which is not included in Dorico Elements.
So when you load that project, you need to first apply the HSSE (Elements) Playback Template.

Dorico is supposed to be clever enough to apply the default playback template by itself for the example projects, though, so I have made a note to re-check this and make sure that’s still working as intended.

Thanks, @Ulf and @dspreadbury.

Was this the proper place to talk about this, or should I have filed a ticket?

No, perfectly fine here.

I just looked through the Preferences, and it seems the HSSE (Elements) Playback Template is already applied.

Well, yes, but that what is in the preferences just specifies which playback template will be used when you create a new project, but Dorico will not apply that template automatically on an already existing project (except for the demo projects).

I checked this and it after loading the score, the playback template in preferences is set to Elements(HSSE) - is there another place I can set it. It’s kind of difficult, because Dorico sometimes crashes before I can poke around at all.

Ok, I managed to get to the Score menu and see that the Playback Template there is set correctly. But I’m not getting any sound on this score, even though I’ve set the ouput fader to 0 db.

Can you please make another diagnostics report?

And is it only that one project that is making trouble?

One more thing that sprang into my mind and that is maybe not obvious to you. To apply a playback template explicitly to a project, you have to go to Play Mode and there choose from the menu Play > Playback Template. Is that what you are looking for?

Right, I did go to the play menu, but mistakenly called it the Score menu.
It is just this one project that is causing trouble. I could work around this by going Pro :slight_smile: but that’s not feasible or necessary at this point.
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.7 MB)

Even though it may say HSSE (Elements) is applied when you go to Play > Playback Template, it does no harm to click Apply and Close, which will still reapply the playback template and should make sure that everything is in good shape.

From the logs everything looks normal.
Where do you expect sound to come out from, from your Scarlet?

And what if you open the Dorico Mixer window (F3), does it show any metering flickering during playback, especially on the master output channel?

Yes, I would expect the sound to come out of my Scarlett - I do have the audio output set to that, and I have the bit rate set to the same rate as the Scarlett, at least in the global preferences.

Often Dorico will just crash before I have a chance to look at the Play parameters – but just with this score. I’ve attached a stack dump to this message.
doricodmp.txt.zip (29.1 KB)

Ok, this is annoying – I’m now hearing the score playing. I do see the meters flicker during playback.

Dorico crashes the first time I try to load this score, but will play afterwards. Some instruments could sound better, but it will play.

At least you have sound now.
And of course it sounds much better in the Pro version with HALion Symphonic Orchestra, but you pay the price for it…
Btw, I’m responsible for the audio engine side and Daniel the Dorico side, so he will have a look at the Dorico crash file sooner or later.

I of course would love to have the Pro version, but I only write for solo instruments, trios, or quartets, so I can’t really justify the expense. If Steinberg ever decides to do an Elements to Pro upgrade for $99, I’ll be happy to pay. :smile:

Thanks for your attention to this.