Kontakt makes project file size big

Hey there,

I recognized that my orchestral template (containing multiple instances of Kontakt, since I get better performance, when using SampleModeling libs) are getting quite big these days. One project file is at ~8mb already. For a single project this might not be the probelm, but I save many new evolution-versions of a single project (for backup reasons and also if a client wants changes, but I want to keep the old version as well). So with only 10 project files (normally there a lots more!), I already can have 80 mb ONLY for the project files.

Am I missing something and this can be prevented somehow? What else of information should I get? I uploaded some sample project files, which have e.g. nothing loaded, or just Kontakt or Kontakt with the Garage Kit of Studio Drummer.

I tested it in FL Studio v20 and also Reaper v5.9 (working with the FLS, though).

Thanks for your help! (=


Edit: by the way: the sample project files are not 8 mb in size, I know. However with just the drums, it gets to 1 mb already. I find this somehow suspicious.

 

This is by design, you cannot really change that. If you load big patches, all the NKI data is stored in your project file, so that if the actual NKI file on the hard drive changes, it doesn't mess up the sound of your project. It's a feature.

 

Hey there, thanks for the reply. Wouldn't it be a better feature to let the user decide, if he wants this or not?

 

Not necessarily, no. Some things are design decisions and you just gotta live with them.

You should see how large some heavy orchestral templates get. 8 MB is peanuts. (OTOH, a lot of orchestral composers would make good use of VE Pro to just hook into an already loaded template of instruments, which reduces the project size considerably - VE Pro holds all the instruments and DAW just taps into that via client plugin.)

 

I do not like "giving the user less options is a good thing", though.

Sure, 8 mb might not be much, but it sums up quite fast. For one piece there might even be up to 30 or 40 project files (evos and backups) of just a single piece. To me it is too much, though ... it's just about one single information, which could be stored easily by just linking to the NKI or so.

 

And then the library updates at some point, keeping the NKI filenames, and then all your project variants are completely screwed up because they also changed the script or samples or whatever...

No, the way it is now is a way better implementation. Plus, we have terabytes of hard drive space these days. Storage is not a problem here at all.

 

I think this should be the users choice. There could even be a warning for this case.

To me this is totally the wrong mindset. If it really sums up, it gets to a waste of storage space in sum (e.g. speaking of many composers). Why this waste while there could be a simple optional setting? I really see no point in letting the user decide, if they want to risk compability issues with older projects or not, while being able to save a lot of disk space.

With "waste" I also refer to money waste and production waste (even regarding climate issues maybe!?). Sure, storage might not be that expensive these days in money anymore. To me this is absolutely no point to get the mindset that everything becomes unimportant suddenly. To me it's the little things that make a difference.


Edit: by the way: I only have 2 TB in total on my machine here. And furthermore: no hard feelings! <3 (=

 

Either way, I don't think you should expect this behavior to change. Possibly ever.

 

As someone who has worked on service ('support') desks for a while I have to disagree because this definitely sounds like the kind of feature users would shoot themselves in the foot with after which it's usually support which gets to clean up the mess.

IMO you know what you get yourselves into when working with sample based material, that's going to eat up space one way or the other.

 

There could be a super special and obvious warning.

 

And people will still click away without even reading or fully understanding it.

 

No support then