There are dumps above from me, links are from my Googld Drive, but to reiterate, here are two ways to make VEPro hang and after extensive research, I have narrowed down the specific actions that will cause it to hang (see my thoughts at the bottom, below the 2 methods).

Method 1:

1. In Ensemble Pro, create a channel with Synchron player

2. In the newly created Synchron channel, load an instrument. Makes no difference what it is, could be smart orchestra, could be an FX preset.

3. After the instrument is loaded, right click on the channel in the list of channels on the left side and remove the channel.

Note that this method works whether you are using the standalone version of Vienna Ensemble Pro (not connected to your DAW) or using Vienna Ensemble Pro Server (which would naturally be connected to your DAW).

Method 2:

1. Open VEPro 64 bit server (this probably affects 32 bit as well, havent tried it yet)

2. Open Cubase and create a new project

3. Add an Instrument track and connect to VEPro

4. In Ensemble Pro, create a channel with Synchron loaded

5. Load an instrument in Synchron player

6. In Cubase, go to File -> Close and select no to the prompt about saving your project. If using another DAW, close the project from the DAW, using whatever method you would normally use to close a project.

Bonus Method:

Have any project open in Ensemble Pro and your DAW that contains a Syncron channel with a loaded instrument. In Cubase, start a new project or load another project. When prompted whether you want to activate the new project, select yes. Note, this method may be unrelated to the cause for the first two methods.

Thoughts

In both of these methods, Ensemble Pro is unloading Synchron player that has an instrument loaded. This means, it has something to do with how Ensemble Pro is closing Synchron player, or possibly how Synchron player closes when it has an instrument loaded. Im betting it has nothing to do with Cubase because in both methods, we are closing a channel with Synchron player that has a loaded instrument (while Ensemble Pro remains running), the only difference between these two methods is how we are initiating the removal of the channel. I tried starting a standalone instance of Vienna Ensemble Pro, loading a channel with Synchron player and finally loading an instrument inside Synchron player, then immediately closing Synchron player and that worked just fine.

The bonus method may be unrelated to the first two methods, since Ensemble isnt unloading Synchron player in this case, so the cause of this may need to be researched further, but this method is also recreatable, if you need a dump of this, you should be able to manage making one yourself for that.

Its going to be the same for Cubase 9.5, because it isnt Cubase that is the issue, its either Vienna Ensemble Pro, Synchron Player, or how the instruments for Synchron player are formatted. Any DAW will have the same issue (hanging and when closing a project). Now whether Macs have this issue, that I cant answer to since the code base for VEPro, Synchron, and the instruments is likely different than it is for PC.

The bonus method I just added to the above directions for recreating this bug is peculiar because Synchron isnt being unloaded in this case.

I'm also wondering if it's only us, that have experienced these issues ! That would be strange - or maybe we are early adopters for Spheres and VSO !

I have found a couple more interesting...umm...oddities?

1. On the left side of Ensemble Pro is a list of channels, the top most one is Master Bus. Clicking on this channel, specifically the words "Master Bus" (just to be clear where exactly Im clicking, Im not clicking on any controls in the box) will generally open the mixer console. However, with MIR Pro loaded, it does not exhibit this behavior, it in fact does nothing. In order to bring up the mixer, you have to find the little Mixer tab at the bottom of Ensemble Pro. As soon as you unload MIR Pro, Ensemble will allow clicking on the Master Bus words in the channel list on the left side once more.

2. Any track that has any of the orchestral strings (there may be other instruments, but I noticed it specifically with the special edition orchestral strings violin+ and viola+ instruments from the special edition complete) that play at the beginning first 3 measure of a track and are routed through MIR Pro will not be exported when doing a File -> Export -> Audio mixdown in Cubase 10.10, UNLESS you do a real time audio export. I have created several new projects trying to track down exactly what is causing this, might have more info later this week, but this should be easily replicable.

3. Ensemble Pro does not seem to export 5.1 audio when using the File -> Export -> audio mixdown function in Cubase. I end up with a stereo file.

(This has been fixed) Finally, Ensemble Pro does not recognize Vienna Suite or Vienna Suite Pro. in the mixer channel of Ensemble Pro, clicking on the FX dropdown, MIR Pro is listed, not Vienna Suite/Vienna Suite Pro. (Thanks for the assist bogdan)

Litllewierdo,

It actually recognizes both Viena Suite and Pro. What you need, probably, is to add the folder with both fx to VE Pro Preferences / Plugins / Vst settings ( usually, you will find both plugins in Program Files/ Common files / Steinberg/ VST2).

Hope it helps !

Hi Paul, 

Any news in regards with WIN machines that are using Synchron Player w/ VE pro ?

I am asking because I was looking to your Spheres walkthrough and is really impressive, but is unusable for me if I want to start a project exclusively , or use it in combination.

Thank you

HI, 

We are on it. Sorry to keep you waiting!

Best, 
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your fast response. It's just those awsome sounds wich hourly increase the dose of excitement, and never let your brain taking  a break  😛 !

It disappoints me that I am having so many issues with Ensemble Pro and Synchron and I am even more puzzled that no one else has noticed any of these issues (I cant believe that no one has tried to remove a loaded Synchron instrument...) Looking back, I wish I had bought MIR 24, Vienna Suite, or even one of the Synchron pianos in lieu of Ensemble Pro, SO, or Spheres with my limited funds...

This is how I feel at the moment. $500 is alot of money for me (Ensemble Pro + Smart Orchestra + Spheres). It took a year just to complete the Special Edition collection. Im a student studying physics (specifically, astrophysics), I write music as a hobby on the side. I dont make any money doing this, its just something I enjoy doing when Im not busy integrating some complex function or attempting to answer yet another hypothetical physics question. The music I do create, I share with the few friends I have (I dont make many friends because there are only a few people who can handle my very direct way of handling things, and even fewer than can handle my disagreeable nature: my best friend likened my character to that of Socrates, a person disliked by many because in the course of trying to get to the truth, often he would show flaws in peoples line of thinking...to be clear, Im not putting myself on the level of Socrates, Im just relaying what I was told).

I made the mistake of trying the demos of Vienna Suite and MIR Pro. I say I made the mistake because, if I had not tried them, I would have never known what I was missing. I also have my eye on one of the new pianos, although, Im feeling really sketchy about them because of the issues Ive had with Synchron player..

Anyway, Im hoping this is all fixed at some point. Ill eventually pick up Vienna Suite, MIR Pro, and one (if not both) of the Synchron Pianos. Im just feeling a bit sour lately because three of the most recent products Ive purchased from Vienna are products I cant use (Im not counting the MIRx venues I recently purchased).

I know these things take time to fix, and thats fine, school is back in session, Im back to solving endless equations and endless hypothetical physics questions (if a tank in the shape of a xxx and has the dimensions of yyy is leaking water at a rate of zzz, how long will it take for the tank to empty itself...answer...fix the leak and then I dont have to solve this problem).

Lets just make sure to go through the thread carefully and make a note of the myriad of issues and see if the issues can all be addressed. Being the patriotic American that I am, I should have titled this thread, Make Vienna Ensemble Pro Great Again, however, somehow, MVEPGA doesnt quite roll off the tongue haha...

I joined this particular forum subject because I was looking to purchase Smart Orchestra, whilst it is on offer to me, but I have not used Synchron Player before, only Vienna Instruments with VEP Pro 6 & MIR Pro, so like littleweirdo, am concerned about stability within VEP and Cubase Pro 9+?

I have recently used Vienna Instruments successfully and would like to know whether Synchron is as 'good' within VEP?

I guess two things, first, the issues will be sorted out soon, so if Smart Orchestra is of interest to you, I would go ahead and pick it up while its on sale, with the caveat that for the time being, you will not be able to delete the Smart Orchestra channel until this issue is resolved. The second thing you should know is that Smart Orchestra is a much different animal than VI Instruments and it takes a completely different mindset to wrap your head around. You "could" use Smart Orchestra similar to the way VI Instruments is used  (the usual, record channel by channel method using multiple passes for each instrument), but Smart Orchestra is designed to quickly sketch a piece in one channel in one pass, then copy and paste elements from that channel into a new channel where you have dedicated instruments. They recently added some videos of Guy Bacos doing just this which helped me understand how to integrate Smart Orchestra into how I write music.

Its a neat little thing they created, but its definitely different. The biggest thing I find it useful for is to find and create melodies, and since we cant delete channels from VEP right now, I load Smart Orchestra in a stand alone instance of Ensemble Pro (not connected to my DAW) and doodle / sketch out a melody while trying to figure out what kind of instrumentation I want to use, then open my DAW and use a seperate connected instance of Ensemble Pro with VI Instruments loaded and start recording channel by channel. My hope is that this bug is fixed soon.

By the way, this bug is not just with Ensemble Pro, it extends to Ensemble free as well, so there is no getting around not being able to remove a loaded Synchron instrument channel.

Thank you so much for your informative advice and I do very much the same: testing out textures/sounds in standalone, with both my laptop and DAW PC, then following through later. I have watched almost all the videos I can find on Smart Orchestra and I think it's a must, but, alas, not Sphere, as I have so much of that Hybrid stuff already. Cheers again and also awaiting update as patiently as can be :)

Hi littlewierdo and bogdan, 

You got mail! 

Best, 
Paul

Thank you Paul,

I'll definetly check it out tonight !

Best

Paul, check your mail, sent you an audio file of the feedback, even with the beta you sent. Preliminary looks good, but I need to go through all the nuances and make sure, alas, I have classes to go to right now :( but I will get to looking at this tomorrow.

[SEE BOTTOM EDITS]

Dear all,

I didn't want this to be my first post on the forum, but I'm stuck with the same tedious problem as you have here, maybe even more upsetting.

I'm running on Win10 the DAW Studio One 3 (Last version 3.5.6.46910). I just bought and installed Vienna Smart Orchestra and updated it to Update 01.

It loads in the daw and plays flawlessy, but the problem comes when I try to close the current Studio One Song opened.

1. If the preset opened is a default factory preset, then I try to close the current Song: the Song closes without issues.

2. If the preset opened is 01 Smart Orchestra, then I try to close the current Song: Studio One freezes completely and can be closed only via Task Manager.

3. If the preset opened is 01 Smart Orchestra then I switch to default factory preset, then I try to close the current Song: Studio One freezes completely and can be closed only via Task Manager. (The preset is still somewhere in my RAM?)

I tried various options like load both VST2 and VS3 instances, changed the default preload size to both min and max values, but no changes: the instance is keep crashing.

At the end I tweaked in Studio One Audio Setup option the Dropout Protection (can be set to Minimum/Low/Medium/High/Maximum, it acts on virtual instruments' Process block size, which results in latency). I found that the song opens and closes flawlessy only with the "Maximum" settings active. With other libraries I use the "Minimum" settings without any problem, even with a full orchestrated template. This results in an extimated latency of 80ms (or 150ms?) which for me is outside the limit of playable.

Still, with this very high latency, I get some random freezes while closing songs (maybe 1 out of 6 times).

Just wanted to make aware VSL that THIS IS AN ISSUE, and an important one. I wasted something like 12 hours trying to figure out where these freezes come from before start looking here on the forum. I am also composing in my free time after coming home from my 100% time job, so 12 hours are like a few moment I can spare here and there over two weeks!

[EDITS] I just figured out that a few days ago a new update of the Synchrotron player came out. After updating it everything works flawlessy even on low latency. Thank you for the solving this, you don't need to read the whole post.

Yup, there was an issue with closing Synchron that had a loaded instrument. There were all kinds of ways to reproduce this, but in the end, it was about cloising Synchron that had a loaded instrument.

No idea how this was never discovered or noticed in the testing phase, but everything seems to be working fine except my particular issue with instrument feedback that will never get resolved I fear.

Hi littlewierdo, 

We will also find your specific bug, it's just a matter of time!

Best,
Paul

I hope so...would really like to be able to use Synchron player :)