Sibelius 7 crashing

[dtdrum4485]

First my setup:

Mac OS X 10.7.4
up-to-date VDL & Sib7
S7S-VDL bundle
Playback configuration is 6 instances of Kontakt 5 set to the VDL 7.0 Soundset, and one instance of Sibelius Player on Sibelius 7 Sounds (behaves the same way when I switch to the Lite version as well)


I sent this in earlier: "I believe my most recent updates may be corrupted on my computer, and I was looking to re-download them so that I can start from scratch and see if this fixes the problem I am having. Sibelius crashes every time I use one of the VDL-specific files, but does not crash on a non-template version."

In my email from The Write Score: "Does it still behave that way when he uses a fresh copy of the template? My first thought otherwise, based on his description, is that his Playback Configuration(s) have become corrupted. I know that this has caused Sibelius to crash for others in the past. Send him over the the forum so I can better help him."

Playback Configuration corrupting was my initial thought as well, so I did some research on how to clear the configurations (and I also thought about removing all custom House Styles). I couldn't find any solid information that worked out. I was led to a place where the house styles are "supposed" to be on the computer, and they are not there, there's no folder for House Styles inside Application Support>Avid>Sibelius 7. So I uninstalled Sibelius, and deleted all of the folders I could find on the system, thinking that this would give me a fresh start. Upon my new install, I found all of my House Styles and Playback Configurations still in tact. When I use a new file on a different Configuration, I have not had an issue of note, but opening the template (S7S-VDL or VDL) and the configuration that enables me to use VDL, it crashes within 2 minutes every time. This started last Tuesday, around the same time I made some adjustments to my preferred House Style's fonts and some other Engraving settings. Please help!

Also, while we're at it: how can I delete the House Styles? I can't seem to find them in the Finder anywhere, and Sib7 won't let me delete a House Style from within the program. Thanks!

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Michael. (What you quoted from TWS was actually me. )

The last sentence of your main paragraph I think tells the story: fonts causing problems. You can search this forum as well as the Tapspace forum for references to the font issues that were/are on the Mac side of things - and if I recall correctly, it was Mac related as opposed to Sibelius being weird. I'll see if I can find it also.

I don't have a Mac, but I'll see what directories (there's more than one place these could be found on PC anyways) are involved to have control over what House Styles show up.

Late
Hugh

[dtdrum4485]

My only concern with that is that it continued to behave this way with the original template using Arial again. It happened faster on my changed fonts, but it still happened either way. Wouldn't this matter? Thanks for the info on the fonts, I'll try to do some research on it and I look forward to what you found, too.

[dtdrum4485]

Now I can't seem to open just about anything and when I can, VDL playback is extremely choppy. I'm pretty sufficiently lost for answers at this point. I've tried several files, reinstalls, I cannot figure out what is going on. Please help!

[Hugh Smith]

Did either of the links in this thread help?

[dtdrum4485]

No, but I have another thought I'm going to try now. I'm going to try to upgrade to Mountain Lion, see what that does for me.

[dtdrum4485]

K. That didn't work. Here's a new description that may help...

I opened the VDL Template, set the instrumentation of all percussion (Sn Tn Bs, Xylo, 3 Mar, 3 Vib, Timp, 2 Rack) and wrote with no problems. Figuring then that since this file was "safe", if I started with this file and added the wind instruments from the natural Sibelius 7 Sounds library, I could resume scoring for the full marching band. So I deleted all the music from those percussion staves, as well as deleted the staves I no longer needed, and I added the Wind instrumentation (Picc, Flute, 2 Clar, Alto, Tenor, 2 Tpt, Horn, Trombone, Euph and Tuba). Saved. Changed the key to "Atonal/No Key" for the piece I wanted to work on. Tried to save, and got the attached error message. Quit without saving. Re-opened the same file, and before trying to change keys or anything again, I tried to save (having done nothing) and got the same error message again.

This is an error message I have received several times in the last week since these errors began occurring. Again, all of this happened based on the template file, with no changes to fonts or any other settings besides what is described here.


Also: I have uninstalled and reinstalled, through this process: Sibelius 7, Sibelius 7 Sounds, Sibelius 6 (which I seem to be unable to register again?), Sibelius 6 Essentials, Kontakt 5, VDL 2.5.5, and upgraded to Mountain Lion.

[Hugh Smith]

Can you send me the file(s)? (Sent you a PM.)

Please include your Playback Config settings so I can try to duplicate the environment.

[dtdrum4485]

Sent!

[Hugh Smith]

Hi Michael

Playback Configuration
I noticed that each file needed only a maximum of 2 instances of KP/VDL (the file that had the most VDL instruments in it had 22 of them). How much RAM do you have? If you have plenty, then this shouldn't matter either way, but if you have only 2 or 3 gigs available, I'd remove some of them to reduce the overhead.

My notes/observations of the three files you sent me:

"before" (Contains VDL Template 7.0 only.)
Worked as expected, which I believe it did for you also.

"after": Crashing (Contains VDL Template 7.0 only.)
No crash for me, and everything seemed to load properly (staves were all empty). Not sure what to tell you on this one.

"extra" (Contains VDL Template 7.0a AND S7S Template 7.1.)
I first used the Sibelius 7 Sounds sound set, then the Sibelius 6 Essentials sound set. The patches that were loaded were different for each, but from what I could tell, it all loaded and played back correctly.

"extra": Choppy Playback
Sounded OK for me. See if one of these links helps: What to do if rhythms sound wobbly or inaccurate, Questions about Soundcards

"extra": Mixer
I see that the only wind/brass instruments that are from the S7S Template 7.1 Ensemble are the Piccolo and Flute, the rest are Sib defaults - you'll want to continue to use the sound set you already are. Not sure exactly which sound set you set this with, but the Tuba staff's patch was manually assigned (instead of set to (Auto)) - this is OK, especially since it seems to be playing back correctly (others have been experiencing issues with said instrument/patch due to the auto-loading bug that showed up in Sib 7.1.2).


What I've said may not be of much help since I seem to be unable to reproduce the behavior. If you continue to encounter the problems you've described, then you may need to find a way to record a screen cast that will allow me/us the opportunity to "see" what's going on.

Let me know how you get on.

Hugh