On my second computer, I now have Dorico, NotePerformer, and BBCSO. I do not have the NotePerformer Playback Engine so I can’t really use BBCSO yet.
Confusion: I have asked Wallander for the download links, and they just keep sending me the basic NotePerfomer install. I have a lot of software, so maybe I’m confused, but I thought NPPE was a separate product that I paid for separately, and that I would need the Wallander link to install it on the other machine.
That’s correct, right?
NPPE comes with NotePerformer itself. It isn’t a separate installer.
You just paid for the license to unlock the various engines (ex. BBCSO), not for NPPE itself.
NotePerformer contains an installer for all the playback engines.
That’s great, thanks. How do I activate it?
NPPE is a separate program (automatically installed once you install Noteperformer), you just need to launch/execute NPPE. You may find it in the start menu as described in the Noteperformer Quickguide.
https://noteperformer.com/?page=playback_engines_overview&anchor=playback_engines
When you have started NPPE, then it comes to activating your BBCSO license. Have not yet tried this on a second PC/Mac though.
NotePerformer on the second computer says it can’t locate the libraries (BBCSO, VSL) and asks me to locate them manually. The Spitfire app says where the libraries are located, but NPPE doesn’t like that–says it can’t find anything. (I tried the VST and VST3 folders in both Program and Program x86, but those folders are empty.)
For some reason, Wallander is not responding to my help requests, so I am shut down for now.
This is highly frustrating.
The important folders are in C:\Program Files\Common Files (without the x86). If the VST2 and VST3 folders in C:\Program Files\Common Files are empty, it is an indication that the plugin for BBCSO and such did not install into the correct location, or is not installed at all.
On Windows there was always the issue of there not being a standard VST2 path system-wide. Steinberg created a standard registry key for establishing the VST2 path but not everybody uses it, some DAWs don’t set it at all, but if you just install plugins without this registry key being set they will install all over the place and make a mess. Even when this is set it is not always perfect as some things will ignore this registry key and still install where they like and then nothing can find them.
But Steinberg fixed this with VST3 by requiring everything to install into c:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. So that folder should not be empty in any circumstances if you’ve installed the plugins, unless the plugin went against the spec and asked you where the VST3 should go instead of knowing it has to go there.
@mducharme , Thanks, Michael. Maybe I need to uninstall BBCSO and try again with the folder you recommend. I think I can do that by selecting RESET from the Spitfire app.
Technology is a great aid for modern composers, but it is also frustrating. Instead of using AI to make dumb pictures, we should apply it to handling all these annoying details for us. 
And just to clarify - the samples can be installed wherever you like, as long as the plugin knows where to find them. But for the plugins you’re going to want to make sure they’re installing into the right folders - C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST2 for 64-bit VST2 and c:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 for 64-bit VST3. Good installers that meet the spec will know to install to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and not provide a way to change the path like you have with VST2.
The 32-bit stuff doesn’t really matter anymore because unless you’re using something like an old version of Audacity, or some very old VST host that was 32-bit, it won’t be used for anything.
Thanks very much. Since my laptop is working, I’m also going to inspect those locations (which I should have thought of sooner).
On my primary computer (original installation), the LOCATE function in the Spitfire App says this:
My second computer does not have a folder called “Konrad.” Is it possible that the app needs to have the same path on both machines? If so, I could create this folder on PC2 and then reinstall BBCSO.
This is all way too hard.
I believe that’s just the path for the samples and not the path for the plugin installation itself. I don’t have BBCSO myself so I don’t know about the installation process, but the sample location largely shouldn’t matter, you can have the samples wherever you like as long as the plugin knows where to find them.
Most libraries and other products will have a standalone player that runs as a separate program that you can use for testing purposes. Does BBCSO have a standalone player that you can load up as its own program and use that to test to see if it is working? Otherwise you don’t really know if the problem is that you haven’t installed BBCSO or if it is something else.
If BBCSO doesn’t have a standalone player you can try loading it up in Dorico in Play mode, and just try loading up the VST plugin in a new file in play mode and use the on screen keyboard in the plugin to see if you hear anything.
I have it set up now, except NPPE is churning a long time. On my laptop, opening NPPE takes a couple of minutes to load the instruments. On the second machine, it is really slow with very high CPU usage (which is odd because I use sample libraries with a DAW there all the time). I only have SSDs in the machine, so it shouldn’t be slow.
I’ll give it some time and see what happens. Thanks again.
Update: Performance is terrible. In passages with a lot of fast notes, the sounds cut out. I am very surprised by this from a SSD. This is an older machine but pretty well-equipped and just upgraded to Win 10. It already had multiple SSDs for sample libraries, and the basic Windows drive was replaced with an SSD. Either the memory or CPU is insufficient to run this stuff. I believe samples stream from disk and have some portion loaded into memory.
I can use it to compose, but passages with a lot of fast notes won’t play back correctly.
I can replace this machine, but all the set up will be painful.
How much memory do you have? When I load a full orchestra worth of BBCSO Core in NPPE, that alone takes 15.9 GB.
If you are trying to do that on a system with less than 32 GB, you’re probably going to have drop outs and other audio issues.
I checked specs and they say I only have 12GB, which is clearly the problem. I thought I had more. (I hope the upgrade guys didn’t mess that up.)
In any case, I will need a more powerful machine. Thanks.
