[Vincent Gumkowski]

One of my marching scores won't load sounds and is running an error.

The document loads and I press play (I have it set to not load sounds automatically).
Progress windows open and load all the individual instruments' samples.
Final window is a "Loading Sounds..." window with little green bars inching ever closer to the right.  They're almost there and up pops this window:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime Error!
Program: C\Program Files\Sibelius Software\Sibelius 6\Sibelius.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Sibelius and Microsoft have various help tips for the C++ Runtime Library.  However, Sibelius's never have the right error message or for the same symptom and Microsoft only talks about conflicts with their own software like Money or Word.

Any insights?

P.S. The score will still work and I can edit it, but I have to stop the sounds from loading or it will create an error.  Unfortunately, this means that until the problem is fixed, I can't create any practice sound files for my kiddos

[Hugh Smith]

Welcome to the forum, Vincent

I can't say that I have ever seen that error message before. I do know that Sibelius installs the C++ Runtime Library as part of its normal installation. My first suggestion on this part would be to uninstall Sibelius, then reinstall.

You said that it does that only in one of your scores? This is the only score (.sib file) that this occurs in? The .sib file may have become corrupted somehow. For this one you can try to copy/paste everything into a fresh copy of the template.

I searched the Sibelius chat also, nothing useful there. You may want to post over there though to see if one of the Sibelius guys can help narrow it down.

Anyway, like I said, I haven't seen this before, so we'll be working from a trial and error standpoint for troubleshooting.

Late
Hugh

[Vincent Gumkowski]

It did it last year in our last marching show as well.  This year, I started from scratch and even downloaded the 6.0b template.  I copied and pasted the parts into the new template (from a Sibelius 5 file, I might add) and things were going fine until the message reared its ugly head again.  I did uninstall and reinstall Sibelius again a year ago and it did no good.  I just got through editing some parts and it works fine as long as I don't load sounds.  I'll try contacting the Sibelius people and see if they can help.  I have rearranged some warm-ups and cadences which have done fine.  My last two marching band scores have been less successful.

[Bill]

Vincent, would you be willing to send me a copy of one of the movements to look at it?  It's possible that the file has some how gotten corrupted.

[Hugh Smith]

Yeah, good idea, Bill. Let's see if we can reproduce what's going on. Can you send us a file, Vincent? (I sent you a PM.)


Vincent

I also noticed you said that you copied the score contents of a VDL Template 5.2.5 file into a clean copy of VDL Template 6.0b. Is this correct? I would not recommend users do this since the noteheads list and instrument definitions are not the same, and we don't know what else could have been brought into the file (especially if the 5.2.5 was one that was throwing the error message). It is OK to copy from 6.0 or 6.0a and paste into 6.0b, just not anything older. (Again, though, corruptible bits can still be transferred.)

What are the original template versions of each of the problem files? Does this occur in both Sibelius 5 and 6?

Have you tried to create a new Playback Configuration? (Just a thought.) Actually, now that I mention it, maybe you can try deleting all of the playback configurations (while Sibelius is not open), then launch Sibelius. Sibelius will then repopulate just the defaults. Yes, I know, you'll then have to re-create your custom configurations. Could be worth a shot though since the error seems to be coming from when the sounds are loaded.

What OS are you using? I don't yet know what directory to send you to for deleting the configurations.

That's all I have for now.

Late
Hugh

[Vincent Gumkowski]

Wow, that's a lot of questions.  I downloaded the 6.0b template and began from there.  The file e-mailed to me was an older version of Sibelius and VDL (I'm not sure which ones but you can tell by the noteheads and also the snare being on the second space from the bottom).  I saved the template as the new show title and set up the staves, measures, rehearsal marks, bar numbers, barlines, and Tempo text.  The wind parts were copied and pasted verbatim.  For the battery and front ensemble, I carefully chose the staves including the Rack Combos.  To update the parts, I made sure that the percussion staves were the updated ones from the Template 6.0b.  I adjusted the snare and tenor and some of the bass parts note by note to ensure playback (until the error popped up its ugly head).

The errors have only occurred in Sibelius 6.  I tried saving a "Marching Band" Playback Configuration and it seemed okay.  I haven't tried deleting all the playback configurations.  I'm using Windows XP.

[Hugh Smith]

I have more questions regarding the file you sent me.

What instances of what are you using in your Playback Configuration?
What sound sets are assigned to those instances?
What are you using for wind/brass sounds (can be answered by the first two questions, I suppose)?

Never mind, I took a quick peek at the file before posting this and there are several things going on that don't look right to me. It will take more time to sort it all out. Will get back to you later.

By the way, I did not get any Microsoft Runtime Error. Go ahead and answer the questions though, still may help with the Runtime Error issue.

Late
Hugh

[Vincent Gumkowski]

5 instances of Kontakt Player 2: VDL Soundset 6.0b
1 instance of Sibelius Player: Essentials
Wind/Brass sounds handled by Essentials

The error comes after all the sounds load in and then the final bar comes up that says Loading Sounds.  It gets almost to the end and the error message comes up.  It might be a problem on my computer with some setting.

[Hugh Smith]

I did a quick search on the Sibelius chat for "Runtime Error". Two results, nothing pertinent. Have you posted the problem over there?

Oh, try this. Go to your Playback Configuration and remove Sibelius Player from the Active devices list. Load another instance of KP2 with VDL SoundSet 6.0b. Save and Close. (Sibelius will most likely load the VDL Piano patch for each of the wind/brass instruments, this is OK for this test.) Play the score. Do you get the error message when Sibelius Player is not involved?

[Jim Casella]

Vincent,

You may also want to try downloading Kontakt 4, and trying that rather than Kontakt Player 2. It may be more reliable. You can download it for free from Native Instruments at the link below, and it's fully compatible with VDL 2.5.2.

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-player/?page=781

[Hugh Smith]

Thanks, Jim. I was going to mention that, but forgot.

[Vincent Gumkowski]

Thanks for the advice, guys.  I'll try them tonight.

[Vincent Gumkowski]

Weirder and weirder...
I tried to download Kontakt Player 4 and it said it sent me a download link twice, but didn't.
I took out the instance of Sibelius Player and put one in of Kontaktplayer2 with VDL Soundset 6.0b and saved it.
I played the score and it got stuck halfway through loading the timpani samples.  I ctrl-alt-deleted it and reopened it.
It loaded fine and started playing with the piano sounds for the winds, just like you said.
Now, it's loading sounds without the warning. Hopefully, that's a good sign.

Unfortunately, I'm back to an old problem.  I inputted the old battery parts from the old score via copy/paste and went back and changed all the noteheads, i.e. 0 for RH and 31 for LH and they're not playing back correctly!

[Hugh Smith]

In looking at the file you sent me, it's going to be very, very difficult to fix the problems that are going on. The first image I attached shows that there are three different VDL templates in the sib file. The second image shows how many total noteheads there are - Sibelius tried to account for the discrepancies between the notehead definitions of the three House Styles of the templates when the merging happened. (There should only be 64, 0 thru 63.)

When copying/pasting percussion parts from one file to another, the definitions of the copied noteheads are transferred also. And again, if they're different, Sibelius will add noteheads to the list. If the definitions are exactly the same, not a problem (according to the testing I've done with this). Copying/pasting pitched instruments shouldn't be an issue since you're more than likely only dealing with notehead 0.

If you, or anyone, could figure out what all the errors are, it would still probably take quite a bit of time to make sure every instrument involved was fixed before the file was useful again.

Short of starting with a clean copy of 6.0b and inputting everything from scratch (OK to copy/paste pitched instruments), I'm drawing a blank right now as far as what to recommend to you. If I come up with something that may be feasible, I'll let you know.

[Vincent Gumkowski]

Whew.  It makes sense.  The copied noteheads might be causing the Microsoft Runtime Error.  Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.  Thanks for the advice Hugh and Jim. It will take a while, but I'll get it done.