Thanks! But the high CPU usage on Dorico hasn’t anything to do with the MOTU I’d guess…?
No, Condensing is set ‘off’
The only things I’ve modified is a couple of playback issues:
Changed the length of ‘default note’ value from 85 to 99% length, both in Playback options and in the expression map of NotePerformer (Playback overrides). I know NotePerformer recommends 85% but it sounds very short on most notes.
Thanks for the data, but when it comes to performance the log data does not show very much. Maybe we could have a remote screen sharing session at some stage.
That’s very generous, thank You, just tell me when! Maybe I can call you up on Zoom and share screen?
This is how it looks in Activity control panel when Dorico “crashes”. ( It doesn’t really crash, rather “hangs” )
I dont haave time now, I’ll send you a PM later.
Certainly 
It is not an official and supported solution, but if you don’t use video in Dorico, you could completely remove the videoengine.bundle from the Dorico application, since it is known that this engine causes a lot of cpu load, even if your project contains no video at all. See this post from Ulf:
In my case it makes a big difference, the first screenshot is from playing back a project with the unmodified Dorico application and the second screenshot playing back the same project but with removed videoenginge.bundle:
Hi @bobmusic , thanks for the hint, but I believe Adrian’s is a different case. The kernel_task is really blowing up and using lots of cpu power. So it is something to the system or driver
Thanks, that made a big difference!
Computer fans still running high though…, but the CPU usage from Dorico app is much lower, see attached dumps. I think there’s something going on in my system. I got a nice troubleshooting help session with Ulf on Steinberg this morning. Will keep an eye on things.
Hi Ulf, I have read somewhere, that system overheating can cause that high kernel-task cpu load. Is that true?
BTW (side question)
I don’t have use of video track at the moment. But audio track would be interesting. This is something I used during my “Sibelius period” before I escaped to Dorico. I this possible at all? I didn’t manage when I tried recently. In Sibelius you add audio just as a video file.
Hi Bob, that might be, but in Adrian’s case the cpu overall load was just at about 25%. That should not heat up the processor that much.
Yes, you can do the same in Dorico, load a video that only contains your audio.
I tried that in combination with importing a tempo track, so that the notation follows the audio file, which was a live performance. But the audio always stopped at certain point and until now I didn’t get any further. I will have to investigate more into that…
Yes, same is possible in Dorico. But then you need the video engine again. To avoid the higher cpu load then, you simply open the video window and close it again.
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Yes, I’ll just continue without the engine for now, as it seem to ease CPU load, Dorico seem to work on approx. 30% usage and kernel_task keeps low. I’ll keep you updated. Thanks!
kernel_task isn’t a ‘real’ process, it’s a sum of all the things the kernel is handling. The OS can ‘bloat’ kernel_task as a means of cooling, by preventing other processes from getting a look-in. It’s not doing anything except hogging the CPU cycles.
So it’s not that overheating causes high kernel load, but rather that high kernel_task CPU% is a response to high temps.
(This is all because Intel CPUs are ovens, of course.)
Actually, that was what I wanted to say. Thanks for correcting this, Ben.
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