Dorico Pro 6 - latest, Windows 11
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.8 MB)
This seems to have started after I recently checked the Steinberg Download assistant and downloaded and installed a few components that were not up-to-date.
For a while Dorico would start up every other time (after I clicked terminate once).
Now it never starts up. Please help - I am completely unable to use Dorico.
Thanks!
Welcome to the forum @gruve and sorry for the trouble you have.
From the diagnostics I can see that the audio engine is falling over while initializing the MIDI system and ports. Also, you seem to have a MIDISPORT Uno device connected, is that right? If so, does Dorico start up if you disconnect that device?
Hello Ulf,
Thanks for your quick reply.
I disconnected the MIDISPORT and still no startup.
Leaving it disconnected, I restarted my laptop. Dorico then started - yay!
Just for fun, I reconnected the MIDISPORT. Dorico still started and I
was able to input notes from mi MIDI keyboard.
That doesn’t make sense to me - I restarted several times earlier today.
But I’m not sure whether I disconnected the MIDI interface.
Anyway, I seem to be back up and running, although I’m not confident it
will stay that way.
Is there anything you suggest I do now? Or maybe just wait and see if
there’s any problem later?
The MIDISPORT is quite old. I’m wondering if I should get something more
recent. Can you recommend one that other Dorico users have found reliable?
Thanks again!
Hi Steve,
you are more than welcome. And yes, doesn’t make sense, but it works again, so let’s hope it stays like this. And I also still don’t have an idea what exactly was wrong. I did expect that it works again after unplugging and rebooting, but why it is suddenly working again without changing something is really weird.
My recommendation would be, continue using as it is and see how it goes on. If no more problem, fine, just go on. If the error returns, well, in that case buy a new device. But if I were you, I would not just by a MIDI interface, but a combined one, namely having both audio as well as MIDI in/out ports. By that you still have only one device but get at the same studio quality audio i/o.
I don’t know the market well, but Focusrite and RME have good hardware/drivers and a good customer support. If you are looking for something used, then the Steinberg UR series might be interesting for you. Most of them have also MIDI interface built-in. Especially the UR-22C is a good unit, since I also have one here and it works well every day.
Hi again,
Thank you for suggestions for following up if there’s a problem again.
I have really appreciated the quick (and during the weekend!) help
getting back up and running.
I am going to tag along to this thread, with the same problem but without the odd solution.
I have installed Virtual Drumline 2.5 with the Kontakt player, and ever since I installed it I have gotten the “taking longer than expected” error.
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (1.9 MB)
Hi @bksbksbks , thanks for the data. Your case looks different, yet completely new to me.
Usually these “taking longer than expected” problems come from the plug-in scanning, but you have only very few of them and the scanning is instantaneous, i.e. takes only 30ms.
But still, in the logs I quite often see 1 minute gaps where apparently nothing is happening. Here an excerpt from one of the log files:
2026-05-19 09:03:41 : <= Init Preferences
2026-05-19 09:04:42 : => Init Skin
At this stage I have no clue what the audio engine is doing during that 1 minute, therefore please create a spindump and send me. A spindump you can create via the Activity Monitor utility app. At the top of the Activity Monitor window are some icons, one is a circle with 3 dots inside. Click on that and choose Create Spindump when nothing seems to be happening. Save the spindump, zip it up and post here please. Thanks
Thanks for your patience, Ulf. Here is the Spindump that just generated.
Spindump.txt.zip (796.5 KB)
No worries and thanks for the data.
Actually, I do see a lot of activity in the main thread but don’t have any timing information, so unfortunately that data also does not help me much. So we need to get our hands even dirtier, so I want you to take a trace, basically the procedure for that is described in this thread. The difference in your case is, you need to be quick: Start Dorico, find the process id of the VSTAudioEngine and start the trace. As the trace files can become quite big so don’t take too long, i.e. no longer than 2 mins. But trace files can also be nicely zipped. If they still become bigger than 10 MB, please tell me and I can provide you some upload space on my OneDrive. Thanks
