I have recently downloaded Halion Sonic content; however, when setting it as the playback template in Dorico 4, I hear nothing. Then when I try to hit the “E” to go into edit mode, nothing happens.
I had been working with the free set of instruments with Halion Sonic SE, but wanted to upgrade. I have managed to get Halion Sonic to appear now in the dropdown list for under VST instruments, but again, no sound and no way to edit.
I am now working in Dorico 4 Pro.
Any suggestions?
What platform are you running on, @Benninda? If you’re using a new Apple silicon M1 Mac, then you’ll need to run Dorico under Rosetta to make use of HALion Sonic. HALion Sonic SE 3.5, which was released alongside Dorico 4, is Universal and runs natively on the new Macs, but the existing versions of HALion Sonic and “big” HALion are not yet Universal compatible.
Ah, that seems to be the issue, as I am running on the M1 MacBook Pro.
Can you refer me to a place where I can read about running Dorico “under Rosetta”? Or do you have easy instructions for this?
From the Dorico 4 Version History PDF:
Universal app on macOS
Dorico 4 is now a Universal app, which means that it runs natively on both Intel- powered Macs, and on the latest Apple silicon Macs, such as the M1 MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini. If you have an Apple silicon Mac, Dorico will run as a native application by default.
VST plug-ins. When running natively on Apple silicon, Dorico can only load VST plug-ins that can run natively as well: it is not possible for Dorico running natively to load VST plug-ins running under Rosetta 2, the technology that allows software built for Intel-powered Macs to run on Apple silicon Macs.
In addition, there is no support for VST 2 plug-ins on Apple silicon, so when running natively on Apple silicon, only native VST 3 plug-ins will appear.
If you still rely on one or more VST 2 plug-ins, or if a VST 3 plug-in you rely on is not yet available in Universal format, you can force Dorico to run under Rosetta, which will allow VST 2 and Intel-native plug-ins to be loaded, though at the expense of slower overall performance.
To force Dorico to run under Rosetta:
- Quit the application if it is running.
- Locate Dorico 4 in your Applications folder.
- Select the icon and type Command-I to open the info panel.
- Activate the Open using Rosetta checkbox.
When you next start Dorico, it will run under Rosetta.
Thank you for this, Daniel.
Given that running under Rosetta might result in slower overall performance It seems it might be beneficial to wait until Halion Sonic is Universal compatible.
And any guesstimate as to when this might be the case?
I’m afraid not, no.
It’s easy enough to switch back and forth between running Dorico 4 either under Rosetta or natively, so it doesn’t need to be too definitive in the meantime, hopefully.
As I understand it, you can load sounds from Halion and Halion Sonic into the Sonic SE Player. As long as you don’t need editing features of the other plugins, this should work.
Got it. I’ll give both of these a try. Thanks much to you both for the suggestions!