File size doubts

Hi list,

I wanted to try to understand how the file size works in dorico. I have a big piece here which is being imported from sibelius, and comparing both file sizes, the sizes of the dorico files seem strange to me:

  • 3 sib files have sizes of 1,8Mb, 0,9Mb and 9,8Mb
  • the same dorico files have sizes of 12Mb, 12,3Mb and 13Mb

After the first dorico file was prepared, the other files were imported into it, and unecessary flows were removed. Same ensemble, no playback is being used and no sound library installed, W10.

I guess my questions are:

  • if the files 2+3 are almost double as small in sibelius, why do they get bigger in dorico?
  • does it mean that there is some unecessary information being stored in the files? If yes, is it relevant for the editing performance, and can it be deleted?

Best,

Joao

Regardless of whether there’s any sound library installed, what happens to the file size if you go to Play mode, then Play > Playback Template > Silence, apply, close then save?

Quite the difference, one file went from 13 to 3Mb. I guess that’s the answer.

Just to know, does the playback configuration affect the overall performance? It seems to me that some memory was freed.

I’m not sure. The playback VSTs reload each time you switch between projects (including switching from one project that is already open to another project that is already open). I’m not sure how this differs if you don’t have the playback VSTs installed, though.

The reason that Dorico files are larger is that they contain all the data required to play back. In Sibelius (as I recall - it may have changed since I wrote the original playback code), all the plugin data is stored in the playback configuration rather than the project file. So this means that (1) you can’t modify the plugins in one project without affecting the others and (2) the project won’t play back on another machine unless you have the same playback configuration installed.
Dorico is designed so that each project can have its own set of plugins (as you would expect in a DAW), and the plugins store their internal data so that if you move the project to another machine then it should play back the same way if you have the same plugins installed. This does mean that the file size increases.
If you look at the memory used by your browser, you will find that it’s using hundreds of MBs, so a file size of around 10MB is pretty insignificant. Photos from my phone are larger than that.