Hot swapping MIDI and Audio devices

Hey,

I’m having some problems in general hot-swapping midi keyboard and audio devices - I have a bit of complicated setup anyway, with a FocusRite Scarlett 2i4, an RD 2000 keyboard which also acts as a Soundcard and an Arturia Keylab MIDI controller. All running into my laptop, which I occasionally unplug from the whole setup and take with me.

Obviously, Dorico can’t yet handle hot swapping Audio cards such as the focusrite (can we have a “refresh” button on the audio setup please?), although weirdly when I plug the laptop back in, if I haven’t in the interim restarted Dorico it will usually find my RD 2000 again.

The main issue for me is in MIDI - once I plug my laptop back in and turn my keyboards in, neither one is picked up by Dorico until I restart - I’m sure these are supposed to be hot swappable, and it might be a Mac OS issue. Either way - it’s annoying to have to restart Dorico after pin pointing a bit and thinking I can just input using my keyboard. Not sure what’s happening here?

Hi @eddjcaine , sorry, hot swapping MIDI devices in Dorico on Mac is the weak point. Though on Win it does work, it is not on Mac. Well, we want to make it happen, it’s in our backlog since long, but haven’t managed so far to really support it. But it’s on the list and eventually we’ll tackle it…
Not the answer you want to hear, but…

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Hi Ulf – On the subject of Mac audio … Yesterday I tried to use a pair of Bluetooth headphones with Dorico. I had to select them manually in Play preferences, and when I did, the only sample rate offered was 16000. This resulted in the music playing at 3× the speed (and a 12th higher).

Is this sort of limitation expected? I would even settle for 16K audio occasionally if Dorico could understand how to use it.

Hi @Mark_Johnson , here’s a section from the Dorico FAQ:

Mac:
On macOS, AirPods and Bluetooth headsets easily bring Dorico’s audio engine into trouble due to the low spec built-in microphone. So here is the recommended way of dealing with them on Mac:

  • Stop Dorico
  • Make sure that the AirPods or Bluetooth headset is working with other apps, e.g. Apple Music.
  • Launch Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup
  • On the Audio Devices page create a new Aggregate Device
  • In that device let only the stereo outputs of the AirPods or Bluetooth headset participate, nothing else
  • Optionally, rename that device to your liking
  • (In case of need, here is a more detailed article on how to create an aggregate device.)
  • Start Dorico and go to Edit > Device Setup
  • In the list of ASIO drivers your newly-created aggregate device shall turn up now. Select it, close the dialog, done.
  • Don’t get tempted to select the other AirPods or Bluetooth headset related entries in the ASIO driver list: you might end up with situations where only the left audio will play out and it’s difficult to recover from that.
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Thanks very much! Sorry I had not found that.

True, it’s a bit difficult to find.

Ah that’s good to know - I had assumed that they were no longer compatible

Hi Ulf, I’ve been having problems with airpods too! Thank you so much for this information.

The things is, I can’t find where: Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup is. Or I’m not sure how to launch them. I also can’t find the ‘audio devices’.

Please would you tell me the instructions for finding these?

Thanks a lot!

Welcome to the forum @Sophia_Dou_Composer .

You need to launch the Audio MIDI Setup application, there you will find the list of all known audio devices on your computer.
To launch Audio MIDI Setup, you can also do a Spotlight Search. Press the Apple key and then the space bar, that will open Spotlight Search and then you type in Audio MIDI Setup and hit the enter button.
Is this explanation enough?

Thank you so much for your quick reply! And sorry I’m still a little confused:/

I added my airpods as aggregated device, but it doesn’t show up when I go to device setup on Dorico. (it only shows up when my AirPods are connected, otherwise it just says no device in aggregate, is that normal?) I’ve ticked both my airpods and both the direction box. My airpods work fine with other apps.

Thanks again!

To be an aggregated device, you need at least two devices ticked. To aggregate means to group together. Airpods do indeed only show up when connected so, if you don’t have another device, such as the built in speakers, as part of the aggregated device, you will get the behavior you’re seeing.

Thanks a lot for your reply! I ticked both AirPods and I tried it once with AirPods+ macbook pro microphone in case it didn’t count as 2 devices, but it’s still not showing up in ASIO drivers:( My current ASIO driver is built in device and zoom audio device

The microphone is an input. You need to select two outputs. If the two devices are both Airpods, then at least one would have to be connected and active before starting Dorico.

Hi @Sophia_Dou_Composer and @Craig_F ,

it is kind of illogical, but it is possible to have only 1 device in an aggregated device.
Even more silly, the aggregated device always shows up in the list of available devices, even if the physical device is not there, yet.
So if you define an aggregated device with just the AirPods output it shall work and in the Dorico list of ASIO driver it also always shall get listed.
@Sophia_Dou_Composer , try to restart Dorico and then go to Edit > Device Setup, does your aggregate still not turn up in the list of ASIO drivers?
If not, we maybe could have a remote screen sharing session, if you wish.

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Hi
Thank you so much for your reply! The aggregate pops up now but when I try it it still has no sound:( Is there any reason why it migh be doing this? If not, I would really appreciate a remote screen session!
Thanks again for your help:)

Hi @Sophia_Dou_Composer , I’ve sent you a private message, please check.