Problem with Ports in Dorico

Dorico
1

I’m using VEPro and encountering the following problem.

Example: String quartet:
I connect all instruments to a single VEPro instance.
I assign: violin 1 Port 1, channel 1
Violin 2 Port 2, channel 1
Viola Port 3 channel 1
Violoncello Port 4 channel 1

In Dorico’s mixer, I only see one instrument, violin 1.
demonstration port and mixer problem.zip (3.1 MB)

All instruments are connected to “violin 1” in the mixer.

In VEPro, all instruments play correctly.

When I give every instrument another midi channel, all instruments appear in the Dorico mixer.

It looks like the mixer is responding to a different MIDI channel (another MIDI channel means an additional instrument in the mixer), but not responding to the fact that multiple ports are being used.

My question is: Is this by design or a bug?

I’ve attached a file to demonstrate it. (I’m using Synchron Solo Strings, but since not everyone has them, I’ve used Halion Solo Strings in this example.)

2

I think that’s just how you have VEP set up. You have everything routed to a Master Bus so only that one signal is being returned to Dorico:

vep
vep504×980 67.2 KB

Change the routing and Dorico should receive each instrument separately:

routing
routing484×850 54.1 KB

3 Likes
3

In addition to what @FredGUnn states, also make sure the endpoint is configured for more than one port.

3 Likes
4

Thanks for your help. I changed the amount of output numbers in the endpoint setup, and in VEPro I rerouted the output of the instruments and now all signals follow the expected way.
The only “problem” that remains, is, that when I change a port, the name of the instrument doesn’t appear automatically in the instrument mixer (and when I change a midi channel the instrument appears automatically).
But when I activate the so called “unused outputs” in the mixer, I can see the output of the instrument and rename it.
So thanks again for your help. Things are clear to me now!

1 Like
5

Personally I just send Dorico back a single audio return from VE Pro and I simply don’t use the mute and solo options in Dorico. In most cases it is satisfactory to just select a few notes on the tracks I want to hear and hit the P key. If I do need to mute and solo, there are good options in VE Pro.

1 Like
6

Maybe better use port 1 for all instruments in vep and use channel 1,2,3 and 4 with output 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8. This ascertains that you get 4 faders in default mixer view.

With multiple ports I always have issues in the Dorico mixer with the number of faders.

7

This is exactly, what I discovered. My point was: that because of the absence of certain instruments in the mixer, perhaps a kind of corruption should be in the file. But I discovered, that that is not the point. It is just, that the mixer doesn’t react on a change of ports to put the instrument in the mixer. But the output of the instrument is there, only it is marked as a unused output. But when you look at them in the mixer when playing, the so called unused output reacts. Further I use VEPro most of the time just as @mducharme describes.

8

Is there a reason why you use ports instead of channels?

I have 10 instances (. 3 WW, 2 Brass, etc.) in VEP all with up to 16 channels all correctly shown and if needed renamed (like trumpet 1 muted) in the Dorico mixer and routed to MIR

9

Multiple instances has some disadvantages and some advantages.

I run one giant instance with all my libraries loaded (from different vendors).

It’s not necessarily “ports instead of channels” - it is wanting to run one instance instead of 10 and you then don’t have enough channels if you don’t use ports. 16 channels in sum total with a single instance is not sufficient for a full orchestra.

10

Clear with one instance you need to use multiple ports.

11

Dorico has not (to date) supported multiple ports in VePro in the mixer. It still works and plays back instruments but it combines the outputs on to various unlabeled faders. It is frustrating and I hope the Dorico team can fix that at some point. I have heard there are very real technical reasons for this but I hope they can overcome it.

I know in Halion, only a single port is used and when you get to channel 17, you just start a new instance of Halion and start back at channel 1. You can do this with VePro of course. But you would have to basically create a VePro template based on that structure rather than a multi-port template like you would for Cubase. It’s not super great but it works and is fairly common to do.

I’m hoping we get playback sync between Dorico and Cubase in Dorico 7. That way we could house all the VSTs in Cubase with it’s routing/processing advantages and use Dorico as the MIDI playback source via linked stave → tracks. Or something like that… :slight_smile: