vst engine and energy

Dorico
1

Hi together!

I couldn’t find any information about this theme - so I ask the community: Is it possible to switch the vst audio engine on and off easily? Dorico playback sounds very good, but the audio engine needs much energy. And even while Dorico is sleeping, vst is still awake. So when I’m not at home it would be better to use Dorico without the playback-option - just to save energy. And when I’m back home, I would like to switch vst on again and to listen to the music I wrote outdoors.

Any ideas? Thank you for your help!

Ben

2

This is not currently possible, though we’ve added a new ‘Silence’ playback template in the next update that will ensure no instruments are loaded. This should reduce the amount of CPU used for times that you want to extend battery life

3

Thank you for your answer. This seems to be a very good idea and I’m looking forward to the next update. Nevertheless I found that vst needs much energy even when Dorico is sleeping resp. not active. Will the ‘silent’ template also reduce vst’s energy-hunger in these situations?
Ben

4

Daniel has provided a way for users to download the Silence Template themselves here:

5

The audio engine will still be running, but no VST instruments or effects will be loaded.

6

Hi,
I had the same ‘issue’. Thx for th solution in the link. My idle “VST Audio Engine” CPU usage drops from ca. 15,5% to ca. 8%. It’s not completely idle, but now my macbook (13", late 2013 version) can work longer.
Thanks Daniel,
Steven

7

Daniel & Paul -
If you are switching between projects is there any way to introspect the “from” and “to” project to see if the instruments are the same - and if so avoid the time lag in switching to the new project?

8

That’s not really a workable approach, because the audio engine has its own blob of data that includes lots of things in addition to just which sounds are loaded, including effects set-up, routing, etc.

The good news is that in the forthcoming update the delay will be greatly ameliorated by the fact that Dorico will perform these audio engine operations in the background when you switch projects, so the user interface won’t be locked while the sounds are loaded.

9

If there could be a way to make a checksum of the audio engine settings, and compare them before loading the new file - and if it is compatible leave the audio engine with the previous settings - that could be tremendous. I know this sounds like a fantasy movie :slight_smile:

nikola