NotePerformer millisecond delay

Dorico
#1

Greetings All, and happy New Year,

I’ve recently downloaded the 30-day trial for NotePerformer 3.2 and have been testing the product. Both HALion Sonic SE and Kontakt 5.8 libraries are playing slightly out of sync with NP on playback in Dorico 2.2. I know that NotePerformer has a one-second delay as part of its design, but this out-of-sync-ness is definitely not a full second - it’s a matter of milliseconds.

There has been a fair amount of discussion in various forums about non-NP libraries functioning just fine alongside NP, and any delay being properly and automatically accounted for by Dorico.

Per the trouble-shooting suggestions I’ve researched on this Dorico forum, I’ve set my playback template to NotePerformer, and then changed particular instruments to Kontakt and Halion. As suggested, I’ve also tried closing and reopening Dorico, as well as restarting my computer. I’ve looked for solutions via the forums on the Dorico, Kontakt, and NP Facebook pages, but haven’t found any solutions yet.

The instruments from Halion and Kontakt libraries I’ve been auditioning are mostly pianos and percussion instruments, instruments that don’t have a wide envelope or naturally sound behind the beat because of their legato scripting. Also, I’m running MacOS 10.14.2.

Thanks in advance for your help, everyone!

Joshua Stamper

#2

This is scant consolation, but I have exactly the same issue. If my metronome math is correct, it’s about 120 ms. That’s with the buffer set as low as possible.

For the record, 20 ms of latency is the typical threshold of mild irritation, I think. Anything less is imperceptible.

#3

There must be something different between your systems and mine here.

I just tried a “piano trio” with NotePerformer, Halion, and Pianoteq, and they were playing absolutely together, so far as my ears could tell.

FWIW I’m using playback at 48000 samples/sec because that’s what my hardware uses internally. Are you using 44100?

UPDATE: Ignore this - see my later post :blush:

#4

I’m 48k.

#5

The reason I suggested that was “About NotePerformer” in the top right hand corner menu says “delay 48000 samples,” and the difference between 48000 and 44100 would be about 0.1 sec, if Dorico was compensating using the wrong value.

FWIW I’m running Windows 10 pro.

#6

Thanks for your replies, Fellas. I’ve tried running at 48 and 44.1 - same issue with both sample rates and with various buffer rates.

I hope I can find a solution: this is the only thing that’s holding me back from purchasing NotePerformer.

#7

Dan,

Do you still get this delay when you export audio? I haven’t been able to try it, as I’m on the trial version of NP and that function is disabled.

Thanks,

Josh

#8

I must have done something wrong when I tried this yesterday. Today the delay is there, the same as you get.

I get the same delay exporting audio and playing “live”. (I tried this again to export the audio just to prove it was working for me - oops, no it wasn’t!)

In the audio file, NotePerformer panned left, Halion panned right.
Untitled Project 2 - Flow 1.zip (98.7 KB)

#9

Thanks, Rob. Yup - I hear the delay. Yours is definitely sounding better than mine though - the delay is a good deal more pronounced with my tests.

#10

Hmmm - so maybe it WAS working with no delay for me yesterday, if today’s result is still different from yours.

I don’t have any particular reason to use NP and another VST together, so I’m not going to try and investigate it further. At least we have some “recorded” evidence that it’s a real issue.

#11

Indeed. Thank you very much for your help, Rob. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of this.