Playback problems - 4-5 seconds until Dorico plays back

O, however! Ask your programmers.
Meltdown is based on “Speculative Execution”. Spectre is based on “Bounds Check Bypass” and “branch target injection”. These instructions have been patched in machinecode. That certainly has an impact on the processor. There are still no reliable statement on this subject. And the first BIOS updates are also not the most optimal. In any case, the cache of processor is affected.
How big is the impact on dorico, one can express only suppositions. I would be happy if it’s something else.
Maybe the programmers could say in addition what.

Err, I am one of the programmers. So is Ulf.

As I said I think it’s unlikely. Olfdan is on a mac and so whatever firmware revision he is on is likely to be the same as thousands of other users who haven’t reported problems.

Hi!

Yes, that’s correct. I’m a Mac user, so bios don’t mean so much to me. A little update. I did a spring cleaning of my computer. Re-installed both Dorico and the two sound sets. I also cleaned up preferences, application support and found a couple of midi drivers that I don’t use. Updated my RME driver to the latest among other things. All in all, the playback delay is down to maybe 1 second. Still a delay, but much better. Old computer, that could possibly be one reason!? Anyhow, it’s better now. I can work with this.

Thanks for checking this so thorough!

Best wishes!

That’s great to hear. A delay of about a second is roughly what we’d expect. Unlike a DAW, Dorico has to generate the MIDI events from the score, and there’s a lot of processing that has to happen for that. We know that there’s some things we can improve in terms of caching and optimisations in the future.

Paul,

I don’t get that delay (glad you fixed it, Olfdan!)

But I do sometimes get a very distorted first note/first few notes right at the very start of a piece in Write mode.

As if Dorico’s processing wasn’t quite complete when I asked it to play from the start.

I usually use SHIFT+Option+Space to play from the start of a Flow.

And can certainly live with it. Repeating the same key commands always fixes it.

Just wondering if it was known behaviour? Thanks!

Hi Mark

Glad I’m not alone with this distortion phenomenon.
I also often get drop outs when a lot of instruments are playing.

I haven’t experienced that before or heard other reports of it.

Hi Paul

I experience this quite often with the very big score (over 40 players) I’m working at the moment.
Never had this problem so far with simple choir arrangements.

ReRei, Paul

For me it can happen - although not always - with single-instrument Flows.

I don’t wish to hi-jack this thread… just assumed it was also Dorico ‘catching up’ with the generation of the MIDI events you refer to, Paul; and taking longer than I was allowing it :slight_smile:

I get a distorted loud first note when I press play sometimes, usually after pausing in the middle of a flow. Not a desperate problem.

Very often on first launch.

Agreed.