I’m installing (from a download) the four Dorico installers (Dorico 1.2 Application Installer, Update to Dorico 1.2 [probably redundant, in this case], Dorico Playback 1 - HALion Sonic SE 2, and Dorico Playback 2 - Orchestra Library) on a Windows 7 Pro, 64-bit machine.
The Dorico 1.2 Application Installer and the Update to Dorico 1.2 went smoothly (actually, the Update was unnecessary), but I inadvertantly allowed the HALion Sonic SE 2 installer to begin its installation in a subdirectory of my data drive where I normally download and store installers. As soon as I saw this, I cancelled the installation.
Dumb questions, I know , but:
Should these two HALion installations install alongside the Dorico installation (ie, in C:/Program Files/Steinberg/Dorico), or does it matter where they are installed? (I have all my 3rd-party sample libraries – for Cubase, etc – installed in a dedicated directory of my data drive. My C: is a solid state drive, but my data drive (D:) is not.)
Do I need to reverse HALion Sonic SE 2’s partial installation? If so, how?
If you have canceled the installation, the installer should have reverted everything, so no need to worry.
The installation of the HSSE and HSO contents/plug-ins follows different rules, than the usual C:/Program Files/Steinberg/…
True, after a standard installation you will find also a C:/Program Files/Steinberg/HALion Sonic SE folder, but in there is just the HSSE standalone player. This one is actually not needed from Dorico. It just gets installed because we use the normal installer; HALion Sonic can also be bought as an own product.
Then there is the HSSE plug-in which goes into C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/Steinberg, this is the standard location for VST3 plugs.
The contents, i.e. the actual sound libraries go by default into C:/ProgramData/Steinberg\Content. This is for both HSSE and HSO.
I don’t know exactly where and how, but somewhere the installers let you customize the installation paths for the contents files, so yes, it is possible to have them installed in your wanted location.
On the other hand, just as a remark, what do you have a solid state drive for? Usually you want it for faster loading times. Especially sound libraries do benefit from this…
And what just sprang into my mind…you have already Cubase installed, right? In that case you don’t need to install HALion Sonic SE anymore, because you have it already, it also gets installed together with Cubase - unless you have customized it and decided not to install it. You could check in Cubase and see in the plug-in manager if HSSE is there. If so, then you just need to run the installer for HALion Symphonic Orchestra.
Yes, it seems that the HALion Sonic SE 2 installer at some point asked me if I wanted to install it at the location where I had downloaded the installer! However, as you correctly suggest, it will perform faster if installed on my solid state C: drive.
So, will the HSSE and HSO installers AUTOMATICALLY install at C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/Steinberg and C:/ProgramData/Steinberg\Content, if I just say ‘no’ when it asks if I want it installed where I had downloaded it?
First of all, yes, you have already the “correct” version of HALion Sonic installed. Even though it is already a bit old, that is the one that also Dorico comes with.
And you don’t need to tell Dorico anything, it will find that HALion Sonic automatically, because it is installed in a defined location where both, Cubase and Dorico do look at.
So, will the HSSE and HSO installers AUTOMATICALLY install at C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/Steinberg and C:/ProgramData/Steinberg\Content, if I just say ‘no’ when it asks if I want it installed where I had downloaded it?
To be honest, I can’t recall how the installation process of HSSE or HSO looks like, i.e. what options the installer has and what questions it asks, but assuming that the installer is on your C-drive and you’d just click ‘next’ all the time, I’d expect everything to end up on the C-drive.
I just went to install the HSO, and learned something that might be important for you at Steinberg, as well as for others who may be having challenges installing Dorico’s components. As soon as I clicked on the HSO exe file, this popped up:
As you can see, the default destination folder is the one to which I had downloaded the installer – which, in my case, happens to not be on my C: drive, but on a non-solid-state drive that I use for both documents and installers.
From this, it would appear that the exe’s for HSSE and HSO do not, by default, offer the proper path for installation, but instead merely duplicate the location to which they were downloaded. (If this is indeed what’s happening, perhaps some online guidelines as to the details of the Dorico installation might be helpful for your customers.)
Just to be sure I’m aiming the HSO exe to the right path, you had written:
Then there is the HSSE plug-in which goes into C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/Steinberg, this is the standard location for VST3 plugs.The contents, i.e. the actual sound libraries go by default into C:/ProgramData/Steinberg\Content. This is for both HSSE and HSO.
Does this mean that the HSO should ONLY go to C:/ProgramData/Steinberg\Content?
I also see that my HSO installer has four files – Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 (with Part 1 being the exe – the others are all .rar files). Will clicking the .exe (and choosing the proper installation pathway!) automatically take care of Parts 2,3 and 4?
That message that you are refering to just tells you that the installer will extract the rar-files to a temporary directory. This is just an intermediate step. Once the rar-files are extracted the installer will begin and do the real installation. So then again the sound library files will get copied around to their final destination. That final destination can also be specified in the later install phase (the default is C:/ProgramData/Steinberg/Content)
I spoke too soon: it certainly looked as though HSO installed to C:/ProgramData/Steinberg/Content after extracting all those .rars, but I just checked, and things do not look that way.
Here is what I see at C:/ProgramData/Steinberg/Content:
That is, 6.8GB of sound files that look very much like they came from the HSO install.
I know such things aren’t my forte (excuse the pun), but I’ve never encountered such a difficult installation before!
What’s going on??
How should I fix this? By uninstalling HSO (is that possible?)? Deleting it? Create a subfolder for the C:/ProgramData/Steinberg/Content/VST Sound directory (what name?) and then cut and paste the D: drive directory’s contents there?
Ulf, you don’t know the head of Canada’s Steinberg tech support, but I think Daniel does – his name is Lindsay Warner. I finally broke down and contacted Lindsay about my installation difficulties, and he immediately showed me what’s happened.
Here’s what he showed me:
all the files showing up in the D: drive are simply the extracted .rar files (as you explained, Ulf)
There are no HSO files in the Program Data/Steinberg/Content directory because I had not selected “All Users”
Instead, the default is to install the files in my own specific C:/Users>[Username]/AppData/Roaming/Steinberb/Content/Halion/VST Sound/ directory.
. . . and that’s where they are!
I have to conclude that: a) I am still a Neanderthal when it comes to some basic aspects of computer work, and b) it’s time – when you can find the time to do it! – for Dorico to create and post a webpage that clearly shows all the steps and parameters involved in installing Dorico on Windows and Mac (and other?) platforms. c) It’s time for Steinberg to make Lindsay Warner President for Life, for all the Americas.
I’m glad that it is settled now. Many thanks to Lindsay. It’s difficult giving support via forum or e-mail, it’s much easier doing it via phone.
And when you think it over, the installation wasn’t that complicated after all. As I said, when you just click next next next, it turns out to be everything is in default locations.
Okay, that with the “All Users” was different, but it doesn’t matter, the sounds are found by HSSE anyway.
, but:
