Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I’ve tried this option (and more settings in the advanced memory/streaming management adjustments). I’ve also tried the always preload option in the Program Tree. I have 8gig total RAM, and stream Halion samples from Samsung 850 SSD media. Have run latency checks and find no obvious problems there. Have run extensive Memory tests, and CPU burn in tests with no issues reported.
Here is my dxdiag system log: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-9pjh4Xl8gsQlF1eFNjYkNYZ2M
While my system is older, it rarely ever breaks a sweat for the size/scale of projects I do when I run DAW software on it. This sort of crash is something I’ve only encountered with H5 thus far, and I can reproduce it when it has all kinds of free memory left to work with.
The crashes usually do not occur the first time an instrument is loaded, but if a channel gets a second (new and different) MIDI program Change event at any point, and it’s not calling a Program from the Halion GM set, it is prone to crashing. This crash can happen even if there is no ‘note on/off’ events coming into H5.
Note, I do NOT expect to be able to quickly swap large Programs with big multi-layered sample sets on the fly while music is playing on that channel. Naturally a larger Program needs some time to load and initialize before it can ‘play’. I’d expect a potential for ‘lost notes, or glitches’ under such a condition. I just hate that it ‘crashes’ and brings down the whole Host with it, even if no ‘note on/off’ events are being generated at all.
When working with Cubase, I really don’t care about MIDI Program changes. I don’t need or use them very often with CuBase.
Where it matters is:
Consider using something like Sibelius. One can build ‘soundworld’ tables that will send a PC to load up an instrument when it is called for from inside Sibelius, and also assign key switches, CC events, and so forth to toggle articulations and more. Naturally, the goal is to simply get the nice fat HSO patch loaded, and use the key-switches to do any ‘rapid transitions’ from inside the fully loaded patch. In this case, every time one starts the Score playing from the beginning, it will send all those PC events again (usually all of them at once). Finale has similar tables and files where a plugin or MIDI instrument can be set-up via Program Change events.
So, I went in and built an H5 “Program Tree” where I could call up all my favorite HSO Programs via Program Change, all ready to respond to the sorts of Key-Switches and CC events that Sibelius was configured to send, and I built Sibelius soundworld tables to go with it all.
At one point I suspected that Sibelius sending so many PC events at once when hitting play could be the problem (Trying to load 20 or so Programs all at the same time). So, I set H5 up in a Plogue Bidule host, and made some filters that would delete all events but the Program Changes, and introduce a full 30 second delay between each one. I.E. Send the PC for channel 1, wait 30 seconds, send it for channel 2, wait 30 seconds, and so forth.
During this test, I discovered that everything was fine when starting with FRESH instance of H5 with either no instruments loaded at start-up, or with a small GM instrument (I.E. I chose the GM Xylophone since it’s a really small patch). If at some point I changed one of the instruments again via PC, and the PC change came over a channel that was already in use by some other larger Program (I.E. Swapping from an HSO Violin to an HSO Viola)…it’d crash and take out the Bidule host with it.
So, to avoid the crashes I typically start a Sibelius or Finale project with a fresh instance of H5, set up my initial score, hit play, stop, then go into H5 and turn off its ability to apply MIDI program changes on an instrument by instrument basis. From there, if I want to ‘change’ any of these instruments I have to do it directly in H5 or risk a crash. Adding new instruments to previous unused channels via PC is rarely a problem…it’s just when attempting to ‘change’ one.
Some time ago I bundled up all the steps to make H5 crash, along with example Project/MIDI files for Cubase, as well as examples/soundworld maps, for Sibelius, and all the crash reports and core dump files I could find on my system and sent them off with a support ticket. I haven’t heard back, but that’s OK since I said in my message that I didn’t really expect a reply unless they knew of a solution, or needed more information from me in trying to ‘duplicate’ the problem at Steinberg.
Despite this little glitch (at least with my aging system), I’m still an H5 fan…particularly in Cubase.