@Ulf Here it is…
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (484.6 KB)
Thanks for the data @Jonathan_Doklovic .
You are right, your’s is a different issue. In the diagnostics are no crash files, so it must be something different.
I see that NotePerformer gets scanned and accepted during startup, but it also seems that you never instantiate it.
What is the exact issue that you are having with NotePerformer?
What if you create a new project from scratch and apply the NotePerformer playback template, what does happen then?
After that, could you please post a new diagnostics report?
Thanks
@Ulf If I install NotePerformer for Dorico, the next time I start Dorico, it hangs, and then I get a dialog saying the NotePerformer64.dll timed out and I have to click cancel to add it to the blacklist, and then Dorico starts up.
At this point, I can see NotePErformer as an option, but if I switch the template to use it, there’s no sound and clicking the “e” button to bring up the NotePerformer interface does nothing.
@Jonathan_Doklovic , ah, I see, NotePerformer (NP) got blacklisted with you. We have to find out why that is the case. Could you please install NP again and then run the attached script. Simply unzip it, double click and after a few seconds the file scanVSTsOutput.txt shall appear on your desktop. Please share that file with me. Thanks
scanVSTs.bat.zip (1.1 KB)
Hi @Jonathan_Doklovic , thanks. So if it was hanging during the scanning, I need a minidump of the vst2xscanner process. For that please download the free utility Process Explorer. Then when the scanning is hanging, have a look in the Process Explorer for a process called vst2xscanner (pretty much at the end of the list), select it and do a right-click on it. From the pop-up menu choose Create > Create mini dump and then provide me with the corresponding output file. Thank you very much.
Hi @Jonathan_Doklovic , sorry, bad news for you, in fact it does turn out to be that same issue, namely that with the atio6axx.dll from AMD. Here’s a screenshot from my debugger:
@Ulf Thanks for all of the debugging help. I actually got it working by updating my AMD driver to the latest version. I think the difference is that the previous “latest” version was an “option” labelled driver and the current latest driver is not labelled as “option”.
Once I installed the new latest driver and rebooted, everything works fine.
I’ll make a note to not install any AMD drivers labelled “option”
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Dear @Ulf
I trust you are well.
I could really use your help.
I am experiencing the same problem with loading NotePerformer 3.2.2 in Dorico 4.3.11 on Windows 10 PC. I also get the timeout error with the option to click on “Cancel” to blacklist the NotePerformer64.dll file.
Attached the Dorico diagnostics (it will probably also say that Noteperformer is blacklisted):
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (3.3 MB)
Already ran the cmd prompt you provided as administrator, but it also just runs forever.
I then tried the scanVSTs.bat.zip file you provided, but it is not writing anything to my desktop.
Also running AMD Radeon RX550 driver, so concerned that it may also be causing the vst2xscanner to hang.
Please find attached the mini dump of the vst2xscanner process using the suggested process viewer:
vst2xscanner.dmp (2.9 MB)
I am unable to identify whether the graphics driver currently installed is “option” labelled. The AMD Windows driver version is 31.0.12029.10015
Please let me know if you need any more info.
PS Noteperformer also works in Sibelius here (or did a week ago).
I had a quick look at the vst2scanner.dmp file and it fails in the AMD driver atio6axx.dll
I guess you have the AMD Adrenalin software installed, if that is the case can you please deinstall Adrenalin, use a previous driver, or at least reinstall it with minimal settings.
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Hi @lancephillip212 , welcome to the forum.
JuergenP is right, please do as instructed by him.
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I have uninstalled the Adrenaline software and manually installed the driver version 30.0.13023.4001 and now the command prompt runs with output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vst2xplugin><path>C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2\NotePerformer64.dll</path><subCategory>Instrument</subCategory><cid>56535457494F416E6F7465706572666F</cid><editorCid>56534557494F416E6F7465706572666F</editorCid><name>NotePerformer64</name><vendor>Wallander Instruments</vendor><sdkVersion>VST 2.4</sdkVersion><vendorVersion>3.3.0.2</vendorVersion><latencySamples>44100</latencySamples><canDoublePrecision>0</canDoublePrecision><audioInputBusCount>1</audioInputBusCount><audioOutputBusCount>1</audioOutputBusCount><mainAudioInputArr>3</mainAudioInputArr><mainAudioOutputArr>3</mainAudioOutputArr><codesignature>0</codesignature><restoreVersion>1</restoreVersion></vst2xplugin>
Dorico still didn’t load NotePerformer though, but after deleting a few files from: “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Dorico 4 AudioEngine_64”
NotePerformer now works.
The files deleted from this folder were:
- Vst2xPlugin Infos Dorico 4 AudioEngine
- Vst2xPlugin SearchPaths Dorico 4 AudioEngine
- Vst2xPlugin Blacklist Dorico 4 AudioEngine
Thank you very much for the great support on this forum.
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Hi everyone,
I had the same problem and thanks to this forum I could fix it!
Some points to add:
-
If the “scanVSTsOutput.txt” doesn´t appears in the desktop, check the route where the file is created (my route was %UserProfile%\OneDrive\Desktop\scanVSTsOutput.txt, instead of %UserProfile%\Desktop\scanVSTsOutput.txt)
-
I had to fully remove the AMD drivers using the Display Driver Uninstaller (here´s a video of how to use it )
-
Reinstalled NP, restart the computer and then it worked.
Again, thanks for the support Dorico Team!
OK, I have a quick workaround for the problem.
There’s no need to delete files, go through multiple reboots, or install obsolete video drivers. The problem, by the way, is not limited to the Optional drivers.
- In the Dorico , select Edit > Preferences > VST Plug-ins > Clear Audio Engine Cache, then exit Dorico.
- In Device Manager, find the Display Adapter driver and select “Update Driver”.
- Select “Browse my computer for drivers”.
- Select “Let me pick from a list of available drivers…”.
- Select the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.
- After the driver is installed, re-start Dorico—Note Performer will be properly scanned (no timeout, no black listing).
- Exit Dorico.
- In Device Manager, find the Display Adapter driver and select “Update Driver”.
- Select “Search automatically for drivers”. The Radeon driver will be re-installed.
- Re-start Dorico. No hang will occur and NotePerformer will work with the latest Radeon driver.
The conflict between the newer Radeon driver and NotePerformer only occurs during VST scanning. Only users trying to use NotePerformer for the first time, or anyone trying to re-scan their VSTs will have a problem.
You will have to repeat this sequence any time a re-scan is needed, of course.
This suggestion is a bit disappointing.
Dorico’s users aren’t necessarily software engineers and aren’t in the best position to fully describe the problem to AMD. We can’t debug Dorico to spot a hang in atio6xx.dll nor tell AMD exactly why and how atio6xx.dll is being called, information that AMD might need to fix the bug. The connection between a video driver and a VST scan would be opaque to most of us.
Most of us would only be able to tell AMD that a program called Dorico hangs when scanning for VSTs , that a Dorico engineer claims that the problem is in a file called atio6xx.dll, and that the problem goes away when an earlier driver is used. They might reply that Dorico is probably just calling atio6xx.dll incorrectly and it’s not their problem, and how could we argue with that?
The two big video card companies are AMD and Nvidia. One would hope Dorico would have systems with video cards from both companies. I would suggest someone on Dorico’s team file a bug with AMD. If the Dorico team can’t reproduce the problem, it would still be more productive for them to contact AMD, as they could provide more context about the problem. Those of us able to reproduce the problem could test any fix.
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Hi @Antonio_Freixas , thanks for sharing your workaround.
We can’t afford to do that. We already struggle delivering the support for our own products. The problem is not our software here, it’s 3rd party, namely Wallander Instruments (NotePerformer) and AMD. It is the responsibility of the plug-in manufacturers to make their products work with us, so it would be fair to ask Wallander Instruments to file a bug report with AMD.
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Hi Antonio,
Can I ask if you have the “AMD Adrenalin Software” installed?
No one likes to waste their time documenting and reporting problems in other people’s software. Ironically, this is what your users do when they encounter a bug in Dorico.
Hangs are interesting problems. I worked on a project long ago where I was responsible for the subsystem that allowed others to interactively enter commands. Whenever there was a hang anywhere, the obvious symptom was that the user interface froze, so guess who got all the problem reports? I spent a lot of time tracing down problems in other people’s code.
The problem might be AMD’s. It might be Wallander’s. And it’s not impossible that it could be yours. Again, without knowledge of the code, the end user is the least useful person to report the problem.
In any case, it looks like Wallander is aware of the issue:
Yes.
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According to the thread below from the AMD forum, “AMD Adrenalin Software” causes an atio6axx.dll driver crash for just about any software using OpenGL. I don’t know if it’s the same crash, but the poster says the problem is resolved by uninstalling “AMD Adrenalin Software” and installing the driver manually.
If you can’t do that, please try creating the empty text file “C:\np_use_software_rendering.txt” and let me know the results. I created that NotePerformer backdoor to test Windows fallback rendering for non-compliant graphics cards. I think I left it in for the final build. If it works, the only drawback is that NotePerformer’s mixer graphics may update less smoothly and use a little more CPU.
EDIT: I see now that a previous poster already mentioned this solution. Unfortunately, we have little influence on AMD. The bug affects several high-profile programs, including Blender, Matlab, and Minecraft, so I am confident that AMD is aware of the issue. With OpenGL, programs only make basic calls, and the graphics driver implements the actual code for drawing graphics. Consequently, the code is different for every driver. We comply with the OpenGL standard (and use only the most basic and failsafe features of OpenGL 1.1 from the 1997 standard). Still, a manufacturer occasionally releases a faulty driver, which is the case here.
EDIT2: I don’t have an AMD card to try this on, but AMD drivers come in two different editions. The “Adrenalin Edition” is optimized for games, and the “Pro Edition” is optimized for stability. It may be worth trying the “Pro” version of your driver. It can be downloaded from AMD’s website.
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