Kontakt 3 - Newbie - CPU Overload - Crackles, Dropout- PLEASE READ SOMEONE!

skinicod...not sure which platform you're running on, but I can share my experience for the Windows environment. I'm using the ASIO4ALL driver on my machine (a laptop), and it maintains different settings for each app that uses it (i.e. buffer size, latency, etc.), so in my case I need to tailor the settings separately for KONTAKT in both standalone and under my host (I use Sony ACID Pro 6.0d).

I'm almost willing to bet $$ that the crackling sounds are due to latency being set too low. It depends on what driver you're using, but you may need to increase the buffer size. It could still be related to the host application, but that seems less likely to me.

I hope this gives you something to work with...good luck!

 

Cheers Patrick,

I'm running on OSX 10.4.11. I have already made sure that the buffer, latency etc. settings are exactly the same in stand alone as when used as a plugin, but the problem still exists. I have even increased the latency to it's maximum amount (completly unusable of course), and still have the same problem. I should also state that the tests I have done are using Kontakt 3 as the sole plugin in my host application (i.e. nothing other than Pro Tools or Kontakt 3 should be taking any CPU)

When I look at the CPU usage in Pro Tools it generally seems about rights, but the peaks are dancing all over the place (In Kontakt 2 - the CPU usage was smooth instead of this eratic movement).

Is this similar to what other people have been experiencing, or is my problem unique?

 

Yes, same problem here. Playing just about any instrument gives me clicks, pops, crackles - as a plugin and in standalone mode - regradless if filters and convolution are tunred on or off. The problems seems worse with filters and convolution on.

Then I made another experiment - I re-installed Kontakt 2 alongside Kontakt 3 (3.0.1) on the same computer. Then I loaded just one instrument - Bardstown Bösendorfer Grand Piano into Kontakt 3 - crackling and distortion. Then I loaded the same instrument into Kontakt 2 (2.2.4) - clean sound - no problems at all. So, I am going back to Kontakt 2.

 

I am having no problems with kontakt 3, either as standalone or as a plug-in. Here are some specs running it within DP 5.12. Hopefully this isn't gobbledy-gook to you.

Dual 1.8gig G5 running 10.4.11. 4 gigs ram

DP's Buffer Size 256 (the maximum until it becomes unusable for me).
Host Buffer Multiplier: 2 (a weird setting, but somehow it works to reduce cpu hit).
Work Priority: High

All other DP settings are factory standard. I use CueMix (I have a 2408 mark 3) to monitor DP without effects. This also cuts down considerably on cpu usage.

In Kontakt:

All convolution reverbs removed. Reverb is added via aux sends from DP tracks. This is very, very important for cutting down on cpu usage.

CPU overload protection disabled
Multiprocessor support disabled
DFD:
Channel buffer size: 132.00 kb
#Reserved channel buffers: 80
Total dfd memory required: 10.31 mb

I'm running 5 instruments - the "all" versions of the VSL strings (two instances of the violins) with voices set to 12. I could easily run much more.

I hate to say it, but even if you duped what I have set up on a similar, but not identical setup, it may not work out as well for you. That is because all these settings are hardware and software dependent to a great degree, apparently. There simply is no getting around the fact that you must rtfm, then rtfm again. Then read DFD demystified before reading all your manuals a third time. Then experiment. That's what I did.

Admittedly, this is a lot of technological obsessing in order to get the system to work, but it *does* work - assuming your hardware is good. And more importantly, it works extremely well. I'm very pleased with Kontakt 3.

 

Cheers richardein,

thanks for sharing your settings - they unfortunately did not help in my case. I have gone through the 'DFD Demystified' manual and tweaked the settings a number of times. Right now, they are identlical to Konakt 2 running on the same machine. Konakt 2 runs fine, but Konakt 3 crackles and distorts.

For the time being, I cannot resolve this, so I stay with K2.

Thanks!

 

Hey all,

I did some digging on this site, and found another thread which mentioned a conflict between Kontakt 2 and 3 DFD (Direct From Disc) components.

There are a number of these Kontakt 2 components sitting in the directory "Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments". These components are named things like "kconvert.bundle" and "NI_DFD_1_3_0.bundle". Anyway, it seems that they conflict with the equivalent Kontakt 3 components found in the Kontakt3 subfolder.

Therefore, if you move the Kontakt 2 components to another location Kontakt 3 will work fine. You will loss some of the Kontakt 2 capability, but this can be restored just by putting the components back.

This worked for me, and I now have absolutely no probs running Kontakt 3 as a plugin with all the bells and whistles.

Hope this works for all of you - BTW I would give credit to the guy on the other thread who discovered this, but I lost the thread, and now can't find it again!

 

Alpensturm,

While it's possible that the underlying engine is as identical as the user interface, it's also possible that the way K3 handles DFD is different than K2 and therefore it doesn't matter that the settings are the same.