Troubleshooting silent playback

Dorico
1

I came to work in Dorico today (same as every other day) and playback is silent. Dorico isn’t making a peep. (Other apps work fine.)

I went to reapply my playback template (no change). I opened HALion and confirmed that it thinks it’s making sound:

Screenshot 2023-03-17 at 4.29.02 PM
Screenshot 2023-03-17 at 4.29.02 PM1012×872 167 KB

I checked my audio devices (this screenshot shows it set to UA but I also tested built-in and still heard nothing):

Screenshot 2023-03-17 at 4.29.33 PM

And I quit and relaunched Dorico a couple of times. I also checked Activity Monitor in case I needed to quit the VST Audio Engine, but it didn’t appear in Activity Monitor when Dorico was launched.

Nothing fixes it. I don’t know how else to troubleshoot it. Dorico thinks it’s making sound, but it’s not. What do I do?

2

Can we assume other programs produce sound? I once discovered a cable had brushed against my speaker volume control and turned it all the way down.

3

Yes. Other apps sound fine. I did check the system audio level. It’s not muted.

4

Are those other apps perhaps hijacking your sample rate?

5

I don’t know what you mean by that. If, in Dorico, I switch the SR of the interface from 44 to 48, the UA interface “clicks” at me (the same way it always does when I switch sample rate). But regardless of whether I choose 44 or 48 (and I switched back and forth a few times) I get no sound.

There are no other dedicated audio apps open. I mean, Safari’s open and that makes sound. But no other audio apps. I hear system audio just fine. So my levels aren’t down.

6

I will restart the computer except that I’m waiting for an hours-long uninterruptible process to finish in another app. By tomorrow hopefully I can restart and hopefully this will go away. But it’s not the first time this has happened, and it’s definitely unnerving to have an audio app like Dorico not be able to make sound!

7

Have a look at the Dorico mixer window (F3). Are all faders, especially the master fader up? And how about the mute /solo state of the channels.?

8

This problem has now been solved after a computer restart.

I will say it’s disconcerting, because it’s happened a few times over the past few months, that it feels like random things like this happen from time to time. One time I launch it and MIDI doesn’t work, but after a restart it does. Now this time audio doesn’t work, but after a restart, it does. For an audio program not to output audio is…well, fundamental…

9

When you the problem reoccurs, please do from the menu Help > Create Diagnostics Report and post the corresponding zip file here. Hopefully the contained data will tell me what is wrong then.