I’ve already checked all the usual suspects, such as: most recent software installs (I uninstalled TotalAV as one effort, but no change after restart), make sure all location have same sample rate (in sound panel and SSL- is set to 48000 Hz, 2 channel, 24 bit), make sure “enhancements” in sound panel are not checked, make sure “allow applications to take exclusive control of this device” is NOT checked in sound panel (I’ve disabled all output devices not being used), checked “Device Manager” for ‘?’ marks or exclamation marks (see attached screenshot), set buffer to highest setting for playback (2048) and checked ‘Safe Mode’- tried without safe mode too, ‘Device Setup’ for Dorico is set to use SSQL ASIO Driver, and I’m “at my wits end”. The last time I played back it was fine, which was about a week ago (roughly 17 DEC 2024). I’m attaching the diagnostic file as well.
All the specs for my pc are in one of the screenshots below.
I have this work copyrighted through the USPTO.gov, so I’ve uploaded the whole project for your convenience. It uses EastWest strings and everything else is BBC SO Pro.
I saved the project with the ‘Playback Template’ set to ‘Silence’ but it did not change the size of the file… Still trying to figure out how to shrink it. In lieu of the actual project, I tried uploading a copy that’s been deactivated etc., but it’s slightly over 4 MB, so it wouldn’t let me upload it. Is there an email or something where I could upload the actual project? It’s 52 MB.
first of all, you have playback problems only with this one project file or any?
52 MB for a Dorico project is unusual heavy. From the diagnostics I can see that it uses 2 Opus, 1 Pianoteq and 28(!) BBCSO instances. Is that what you expect?
Could you please use a file sharing service like DropBox or WeTransfer and then post a corresponding download link here?
Happy festive season
The BBCSO uses one instance per track unless it’s hosted in something like VEPro so I don’t see 28 as being anything out of the ordinary. As you say, the key is whether all projects using the BBCSO behave similarly— if so, many of us have found that performance is greatly improved by using VEPro with this library. I myself certainly had dropouts with this library in the past. Now I usually use NotePerformer playback engine but this increases the memory requirements. Mind you, your system specs are well above the average.
Is VEPro “Vienna Ensemble Pro 7”? I was hoping not to make any more additonal expenditures. It appears the current price is around $205 (195 euros). How much more complicated will it make things? How much does it help in your setup?
I should mention I was adjusting the mixer settings in the woodwind BBC SO players, so that probably impacted things. Furthermore, I somehow lost the file in question but found an earlier copy that does not exhibit the problem (I’ll have to re-enter a few pages, but no big deal since I’m already up to page 62).
Another thing I noticed in the logs. It seems that you have a UR22-C audio interface but not the Yamaha Steinberg USB Audio driver for it installed, and you are using the UR together with the generic drivers, which of course you can but it does not yield the best performance that you can get out of the UR if you’d use the dedicated driver. Do you understand what I mean?
Hi @rothvin , I need to apologize. I have so many diagnostics reports lying around that when I unzipped yours it got mixed up with the report of someone else. Sorry for that.
But looking again now, from the logs I don’t see any signs of overload or the audio engine not being able to keep up with the processing.
So I’m asking again, is it only 1 specific project with which you have problems or any project?
It would be also definitely worth checking with the free utility LatencyMon
Did you maybe recently install a new device driver? E.g. WiFi drivers are well known for causing audio problems.
Note performer is a single VST that uses modeled audio to replicate instruments (many, many instruments). It’s fairly lightweight and does a superb job of rendering the score with correct articulation, phrasing and dynamic playback. With the advent of Note performer playback engines (version 4), you can now use your own samples instead of the stock modeled instruments. You just load up you BBC SO instruments into the playback engine and Note performer will use those samples, balanced wonderfully (I dare say, better than any homemade expression map).
VEP (server) is a VST container with advanced mixing capability (like a DAW without midi/audio editing capability). It’s something entirely different than Note performer. I suggest you read up a bit on it and see if it fits your needs.
Since Note performer playback engines were released, I honestly don’t’ use VEP much anymore. I load up all of East West Hollywood and Note performer “just works” ™
Yes, it was only the one project, but I’m starting to think it was because I had some weird mixer settings in the BBC Symphony Orchestra plugins, cuz I really don’t know what I’m doing there with all the different settings for tree outer ambient Etc and I was also using one of the presets mixer one, so it was probably fighting with the additional settings I made.
like @derAbgang , since NotePerformer started to support the BBC SO (both the Core version which I use and the Pro), I must admit I also don’t use Vienna Ensemble Pro that much for this library. The NP plugin is very good at sorting out some of the lumpiness and timing issues which can plague it and I couldn’t find a way to equal the performance with my own maps. The NP engine does require more RAM but you seem to have plenty. VE Pro certainly improves the performance but unless you want it for other libraries, it might be worth going down the NotePerformer route. Good news is that both the basic software and add-on for the BBC can be trialled indefinitely (the software just cuts out after an hour and needs to be reloaded) so you can see if it meets your needs.
Okay so I downloaded Note Performer and tried it out, but it seems to thin out the thickness of the sounds especially the strings. And the copy I found that I had saved before I messed around with the mixer settings sounds perfect with no drops without NP. There’s no comparison between just Dorico 5/VST audio engine and Note Performer when I use BBC Symphony Orchestra and East West Opus. When I use just Dorico with the VST audio engine it sounds perfect like a professional Symphony Orchestra. Maybe because I’ve got 128 GB Ram? And again like I said, the copy I had backed up has no drops at all with the VST audio engine and Dorico 5 alone.
well if the mixer settings seem to be the source of the problem then you may be fine just continuing as you are. My finding, which quite a lot of people seem to agree with, is that NotePerformer increases the musicality and fluidity of the performance of the BBC SO. I can’t say I noticed the string texture being thinned with NP Performance Engine but others are welcome to chip in on that one and of course you could perhaps attach a short audio clip to demonstrate. The BBC SO – at least the Core version, doesn’t have particularly large RAM requirements – so that your 128Gb is plenty for the library run natively.
I’m going to try to use Note Performer again, simply because it’s much more efficient with memory and a LOT faster at loading/unloading. I might try different libraries and see what the difference is in quality and performance.
I figured out what was going on with the ‘thin’ strings. I guess because some of the notation marks I made were specific to EW Opus (e.g.: Stac on Bow, which equates to what some call ‘sticky bow’) and/or NotePerformer didnt somehow translate from section strings because I was using EW previously, instead of BBC SO Pro, it opted for solo strings. Once I manually selected section strings in the NP mixer, the sun came out and the birds sang!
How can I simulate sticky bow in BBC SO? I know this is outside the parameters of this post, but was hoping someone could suggest something, that is, if I stick with BBC SO. Of course, I know I can pop for another $89 to get the EW Opus engine, which will probably solve my issue with “stac on bow”.
I’m kind of sad about the hours spent creating or customizing expression maps and nudging the sounding note boundaries in Dorico, now that Im aware of NotePerformer, but better late than never!
Thank you all for your help and pointing me to NotePerformer!
