Pops and clicks with Dorico 4.3 and BBC SO Pro

Dorico
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Anyone have an idea of why I’m getting pops and clicks using Dorico 4.3 and BBC SO Pro? I recently ‘upgraded’ to Windows 11 from Windows 10 and wasn’t having as much of a problem in Windows 10. I do try to push things so I expect a few pops and clicks since I have only 64GB of RAM.

I performed a clean install of Windows 11 on a brand new m.2 NVME drive, so there may be a setting somewhere I’m forgetting, that was in place when I had Windows 10 installed. I’ve tried adjusting the buffer for the driver… I’m using a Focusrite 2i2 and their site says it should work with Windows 11.

I tried the generic low latency ASIO drive, and no luck. I also tried the FlexASIO driver and no luck with it either, and I didn’t want to get into the complexities of using their config file. I work in I.T. at a university and have no desire to make my music hobby an I.T. job too. The Focusrite USB ASIO driver has worked the best out of the three drivers.

The only other thing I can figure is that I ordered BBC SO Pro on Spitfire Audio’s drive. It’s a lot slower than my m.2 NVME drive, which is where I had BBC SO Core installed. So, maybe that’s it?

To clarify the timeline, I just barely started using BBC SO Pro before I upgraded to Windows 11, so I might not have noticed the pops and clicks with what little I did before switching.

I do plan on buying 64GB more of RAM to beef up my tower, to bring it up to 128GB of RAM (HP Z4 G4, i9 processor with 10 cores, 3.7GHz). So it shouldn’t be my PC, especially after I get the additional RAM.

UPDATE: So, I downgraded each track to BBC SO Core and now it’s playing back fine. So, I think that because BBC SO Pro takes up more RAM and the fact I was using custom mic settings (which aren’t available in Core), pushed my PC over the limit of what it can handle. So, again, more RAM, after I get my tax refund.

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You should be able to check how much RAM the VST Audio Engine is consuming while playing back. That (on top of the Dorico app itself, plus the OS and everything else) will give you an idea of how much is being used and how much is needed.

But there are many possible bottlenecks in audio production, not just RAM size.
There’s also the CPU usage. If one thread is maxing out one core, then that can cause dropouts, pops and clicks, too.

There’s also memory bandwidth and data throughput limits.

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Also, is there an option to adjust buffer size? Perhaps you just need larger buffer settings to allow that much data processing.

2 Likes
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Yeah, @Thurisaz posted some settings a while back that he got from Spitfire in this thread. Perhaps that will help.

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I use a bunch of different interfaces across different machines, for me it’s either been computer specs (not much of an issue these days) or buffer size. Futzing with the buffer is always a thing anyhow, ATMOS wants 512, but when recording you need lower latency so smaller buffer, etc etc

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Agreed. Equipment can have a play here too. My MOTU interface is a lot faster than my Presonus one. A few milliseconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can sure feel a world of a difference when doing live/recording work.

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I have BBCSO Core. Its VERY resource intensive because if the multiple layers in each sample. I’m using a Focusrute USB audio interface and its dedicated ASIO. If I set the buffer to 1024, I can use small chamber- sized instances of Core instruments in Dorico- but that’s all. It is not a Dorico issue; my processor simply isn’t fast enough to use many Core instruments in any application on my PC as a result. Quartets/Quintets are OK, though. I mostly use my Synchron Prime VST hosted in Vienna Ensemble. I can score full orchestras with it. VSL even makes a nice Dorico template for Prime. I used it ti scoreca couple of large orchestral works. But, alas, i can no longer use the template. It loads individual instances of the Synchron Player. Synchron Player crashes Dorico now if I try to use it- which is why I have to use Vienna Ensemble as host. Dorico is the only notation program or DAW on my machine that doesn’t like the Synchron Player. It works fine everywhere else😏

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I know what you mean by resource intensive. I’m so glad I bought a pro workstation 3 years ago.

I just spent a lot of money on not one, not two but three m.2 NVME cards. One for my C drive that’s 1 TB, one that’s two terabytes that I’m going to put East West Opus on because I love their strings, and one for all my music projects, also 1 TB.

Currently, I have 64GB of RAM, but I’m planning on putting another 64GB in my tower. Hopefully that will hold me for a while. If worse comes to worse I can start swapping out 16GB RAM cards and replacing them with 32GB, in pairs of course, until I get up to 256 GB of RAM, the max limit for my i9 PC. I’ve got a HP Z4 G4.

I’m using BBC SO Pro for woodwinds and brass, and East West Opus for percussion and strings. I was using Orchestral Tools Berlin Inspire 1 for strings, but the collection is mainly a sampling of their full collections and very underpowered and maybe three articulations and NO mic positions. Plus, their interface is somewhat confusing to me; it’s not at all easy use like BBC or EW.

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Some day, i hope to be able to afford upgrading to a system that will allow me full access to the capabilities of all my VST instruments. Hope your wishes cime true as well😉

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Fred,

Thanks a million! That worked for me and cleaned everything up! Of course, I did my due diligence and went and made sure every conceivable location on my PC is set to the same sample rate and bit depth. Also, went to all the usual places on Windows to set the performance settings for power and other settings to ‘high performance’.

Besides your excellent help, for anyone else that might benefit, here’s all the other resources I reference that really helped:

APP: LatencyMon.exe, https://www.resplendence.com: Scans your system and gives advice on what to do to fix any problems found.
VIDEO: Troubleshooting Playback Issues in Dorico], by Anthony Hughes
MICROSOFT RECOMMENDED STEPS (for pops/clicks): Redirecting

1 Like