Stuttering ahead of certain instruments entering

[goldbug]

I've got an orchestral piece I'm working on in Sibelius and playing back via a VEP 6 template with around 75 instruments loaded. Playback is generally fine with one odd exception. When the glockenspiel plays back for the first time - about 25 seconds into the arrangement - there is always a slight stutter in the playback before it enters. This only happens the first time it enters, but it happens consistently.

Any idea what could be causing this or how it could be fixed? I'm confident it's not a Sibelius problem as if I shift the glockenspiel part to another instrument I don't get the stutter.

I'm using mostly full Vienna instruments all stored on a single fast SSD, running off a recently upgraded PC: 3.8GHz i5-7600K with 32GB RAM, running Windows 10. I really shouldn't be having any playback issues with that sort of horsepower, I wouldn't have thought!

All the best,

Tristan

[Paul]

Hi Tristan, 

Please send your Sibelius project to support@vsl.co.at, so we can take a quick look. I assume that you are using the latest versions of all software involved, is that correct?

Include a link to this thread, for better orientation. 

Best, 
Paul

[goldbug]

Hi Paul,

I've sent a copy of the Sibelius file as requested. Yes, everything's completely up-to-date.

I do actually notice I have some other ocassional stutters right near the start, when the 2nd violins play a G string portamento. It sounds to me like these articulations are not being stored in RAM, so maybe the real question is about how to encourage VEP6 to store more articulations in RAM. Currently VEP6 is only using about 8GB of the 32GB available.

All the best,

Tristan

[andi]

Hello Tristan!

Thanks for sending your Sibelius project. In order to be able to reproduce the problem, I would also need the playback configuration files (xml file and files from the data folder). The VEP project might also help.

The Dimension Strings G string articulations are disabled by default. When they get triggered the first time, they get enabled (loaded to RAM). This causes a stutter on first playback. If you save your Sibelius playback configuration after the playback, the cells are enabled when you load it the next time. This should solve the G string portamento problem. I would check, if maybe the Glockenspiel is disabled as well.

Best regards,
Andi

[goldbug]

Hi Andi,

I've forwarded the requested files now - sorry, I addressed my email to Paul!

I have all cells enabled by default over here (it takes a while to load. . . ) so I'm not sure that can be the problem.

Tristan

[andi]

Hello Tristan!

Thanks for sending your playback configuration. My computer doesn't have that much horse power, so it's fighting a bit with your big VEP project. ;-) Does the problem for you also occur in an exported audio file or does it only occur during playback?

If such a big project only takes 8 GB of RAM, you must have set the Preload Size in the Directory Manager pretty low. I would try raising it by one or two steps. Does that help?

Best,
Andi

[goldbug]

Hi Andi,

This problem doesn't occur when I export an audio file - it's only when playing back live. That said, I get a whole host of other issues when attempting to export this file, which may be related. I have to insert a bar before the start and put one note in it (which I then edit out) or I get some noticeable stuttering at the start of the track. Increasing the size of the MIR Pro cache seems to fix this, but that introduces yet another problem - MIR only kicks in after a few seconds on the export, so I'm left with dry instruments at the beginning!

I've had a play around with Directory Manager this morning. Everything was set to Default preload sizes, but I've tried bumping them all up to max. . . and no dice. Same problem.

All the best,

Tristan

[andi]

Hello Tristan!

I have sent you an email.

Best,
Andi