I’m actually in touch with VSL; Andreas there is his usual helpful self and taking infinite pains to get things as expected.
(I’m not sure it’s actually a ‘faulty’ template as such - because it works on at least two other posters’ Dorico setups here. The most recent area we’ve looked at is permissions. FWIW the parent directory in question is set to 755 and playbacktemplatespec.xml’s to 644; those seem right to me.
What’s more, for reasons which I remain at a loss even to begin to explain, the Dorico Wizard suddenly worked for me and produced a Synchron Brass Template today… could it be the presence of the global VSL template, as advised here, which somehow ‘validated’ or ‘nudged’ it into existence and made it visible to Dorico for the first time?!)
I would say, though - respectfully - that a better understanding of both your solution (what I’d call ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ Endpoint files) and of such anomalies as the one I’m referring to here is exactly what we’re asking for: how and why to structure such additional Endpoint files, name them; where to put them; how to add them to the VSL Template(s); what could cause Templates to be available under certain circumstances and not others etc!
BTW, I accept that Dorico VSL users may well be in a small minority and that Daniel and the team - not to mention posters in this forum - probably have much larger concerns; and that (such) VST’s aren’t necessary the priority to everyone that they are to those of us who want to make the most of them .
Actually I think there are many VSL users here. (I’m just not one of them)
I’m glad VSL are working on this for you. They offer the wizard - they should fix it if it doesn’t work. Neither you, nor they, should need to delve into the internals of Dorico to do so.
Just to be clear - in the interests of fairness: first impressions (hopefully they’ll be refined or refuted by adequate documentation) suggest (at least to me) that (perhaps like other 3rd party VSTs) this particular component seems to rely not - as I’m sorry still isn’t clear from our posts - on touching the ‘internals’ of Dorico itself (that is absolutely out of bounds, I agree); but on the inter-relatedness of files in the aforementioned ‘Dorico 6’ directory and other files inside and outside those - again aforementioned - subdirectories.
Could, for example, anything inside the nudge_content directory be scanning for the presence of something that causes the VSL Synchron Brass template to appear when previously it didn’t? Unlikely, I agree.
I think we accept that if you have a good understanding of how this all works… what creates what; where it puts it; what is safe to amend; what’s needed for it to work and so on, then all this must seem moot.
VSL offers a service to create a Dorico Playback Template that uses their instruments. If it doesn’t work blame VSL
Dorico allows you to create custom playback templates for any 3rd party libraries. All I’m suggesting is you take the defective VSL template and modify it. But to do so requires more knowledge of how VSL (VEP etc) works rather than how Dorico handles playback templates.
I really don’t want to pursue this any further than to clarify what’s at stake. So…
You’re making our point for us .
At this juncture - through no fault or shortcoming, implied or otherwise, of any of the parties - we do not know which areas of integration between the three layers:
a third party component
Dorico itself in how it reads and acts on this set of files
the extent and manner of integration between 1 and 2
to address in order to rectify this anomaly.
We just don’t know whether there’s a ‘fault’ at all in:
this particular VSL Playback Template
in the relatively new procedure for creating, saving, configuring and integrating other/all VSL PTs using Dorico Wizard (which you don’t use)
indeed in all (such?) VSL Templates (highly unlikely)
in just the Dorico Wizard
in some undocumented aspect of their integration with Dorico.
The greater the insight (without endangering Dorico’s functioning by making unwise changes off limits; without infringing Steinberg propriety) we have into just what any custom PT does and how it works with other components etc., the likelier we are to be able to troubleshoot this particular case - which remains the thrust of my OP.
Point most definitely taken and received with pleasure. Thank you, Janus.
I would agree with you wholeheartedly were it not for the fact that there are users in this thread who have both been successful in getting the Synchron Brass PT to appear in Play > Playback Template… and those who have not. Standard troubleshooting procedure suggests following the inconsistency and discarding the common factors.
Please - I hope I do not sound combative?
I have one aim: clarity linked to greater understanding. I also speak as a devotee and advocate for all things Dorico. Not ‘knocking’ or in any way criticizing how it does what it does so well in any way! Just want to solve a problem that seems to straddle two courses of action where the boundary between them appears blurred.
I acknowledge I was being defensive. I also acknowledge your sincere statement, and that for you it is simple and only a matter of the proper effort.
For me it is not just age but also the effects of long-term health issues over the last 20-plus years. But this does not deter me from trying doggedly to understand that which is, for me, difficult.
It appears we have our answer from Daniel, and I certainly understand that even if me and others have no intent to monkey with the files, information made public may encourage others to do so. This would inevitably result in potential serious issues for those that do, and an additional burden for Dorico support.
So my intent is to no longer pursue this publicly or officially, but rather privately with the potential of collaboration with any other interested parties, and to do so as much as my limited energies allow.
Meanwhile some helpful information has been gleaned from this thread.
May I report back here the solutions I’ve arrived at, thanks to posts here and sterling help from Andreas at VSL:
as was suggested, I saved (to ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 6/DefaultLibraryAdditions) a single ‘global’ file of all the VSL Libraries which I own using Vienna Assistant’s Dorico Wizard
this did appear to allow me also to save the Synchron Brass Templates, which were the subject of my OP. Although only intermittently: could it be that the presence of the global file/folder - or some other object or process, daemon, cron etc - in this (parent?) folder ‘enables’ the sporadic visibility in Dorico Pro 6 of an XML file for just Synchron Brass in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 6/PlaybackTemplateSpecs?
somehow a series of directories is (consequently?) created in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 6/EndpointConfigs corresponding - again - to those VSL Libraries which I own. Each contains a series of slots.pluginstate files (per @FredGUnn’s post); and one, endpointconfig.xml
a series of (parallel?) folders is also created in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico 6/DefaultLibraryAdditions also corresponding to the same owned Libraries
each of these seems to contain the same number of .doricolib files as there are Expression Maps courtesy VSL in the library. At around the line 100 mark in each of these .doricolib files the XML identifies the Preset which should be chosen in Synchron Player (in my case that’s insideVienna Ensemble Pro 8) to work with Dorico in the usual fashion.
My gratitude to everyone here who’s helped me get this far.
Also seconding the advisories posted here not to treat this directory and its files as a location wherein are kept files to be edited, altered or otherwise ‘messed with’. Dorico relies on their integrity to function (at all)!
I hope it might prove helpful to anyone who’s also trying to get to the same solution .
Paul as well. Andreas is their notation expert. In the course of this latest set of exchanges, every single day: right on the ball with whichever is most helpful of a text explanation, a URL or reference; or an example. Or all three!
It also has to be said that the whole VSL enterprise has grown significantly in the last ten years, doesn’t it?
Have you seen this video ‘history’ in Parts I and II?
.