Scan 3XS Scan Performance Audio 17" Laptop, about a year and a half old.
Windows 10 Pro
Cubase Pro 11 and Pro 12 (both legit)
Various Soft Synths and plugins.
Steinberg UR22c Audio Interface
SSL UF8 Daw Controller.
32 Gig matched Corsair RAM
Samsung 1TB 970 EVO PLUS - System Drive
Samsung 1TB 860 EVO - Project Drive
Samsung 1TB 970 EVO PLUS - Library / Sample Drive

As some of you know, I have been having an issue with audio or note drop out with Kontakt 6 in Cubase Pro 12, and Pro 11.

Rather than continually retyping the issue over and over, I have created a HD video which clearly shows the issue as it happens, and the read outs from Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

This is a carry on issue from when my system disk was spiking, this resulted in a fresh install of windows and all audio apps which worked for a short time but the issue came back. So I did a the same on a brand new SSD and again after a few days the issue returned so it is not a SSD issue.

The OS was tweaked for audio by Scan Computers and I have also tweaked a few other bits that they missed but the machine is fully optimised for audio.

The issue is simple to describe and you can see it in the video which has audio, best viewed full screen.

Would very much appreciate any help with this.

 

1. You didn't display your kontakt engine settings - have you enabled CPU overload protection by mistake?

2. You don't mention exactly which version of Kontakt 6 you're using - perhaps this is a bug specific to a particular release?

3. Your laptop's built-in cheapo audio device was still enabled - any particular reason?

4. Steinberg's optimum Audio set-up specifically recommends disabling hyper-threading in BIOS - i'm clutching at straws at this point but maybe that might make a difference?

In a worst-case scenario you'll have to go back to your old arrangements and switch to multiple instances of konkact (each with only one instrument loaded), intead of a single instance with multiple outputs, although that is indeed a sketchy workaround...

Imho the culprit here is kontakt.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2022

Hi Paul pi

Hah, I knew if I fogot to show any settings some one would say...
Kontaks CPU overload protection is disabled and Multiprocessor support is off.

V6.7.1 (R0) R2R
When the issue started I did a clean uninstall, and then installed bobdule's release but that made no difference.

Is it?
Where did you see that?
In windows Device Manager > The Microphone (Realtek) and Speakers (Realtek) are disabled and the only audio devices enabled are Line x2 (Steinberg UR22C).
In the windows sound settings the Steinberg UR22C is the only option and if I click on the speaker icon in the system Tray it shows Line (Steinberg UR22C).

Yeah - I always check for hyper-threading on any new machine and when I got this one I checked in the BIOS but it seems the BIOS does not support it (Insyde H2 BIOS)

I agree as all of my tests point to it.

 

@ 4' 27'' i saw a startup entry (enabled) for "Realtek HD Audio universal..." - frankly i don't think this is the cause of your kontakt problem anyway.

Perhaps enable multi-processor support in the kontakt engine? - for sure, i'm clutching at straws but it couldn't hurt to try...

What version of kontakt where you using before all these problems started? Perhaps revert to that version & see if that makes a difference?

 

did you try to run kontakt inside a plugin host like
vienna ensamble (best bet)
sometimes jbridge cleans over spikes (least bet)
things like ddmf Meta & newSOnicArts Freestyle (good chance worth a test)
bluecataudio forgot the name

 

Well spotted, also disabled now but as you say was not the cause,

I have tried with multi-processor support enabled and disabled but makes no difference.

Well before this started I was using Kontakt 6 V6.6.1 (R2R) with this same 10 Library multi patch and had no issues at all.
So as soon as the issue started I clean installed that again but the issues were still there
I then went back to Kontakt 5 v5.6.5 which I have used this multi with countless times and the issue is still there.

I have just installed Kontakt 5 Portable v5.8.0 (R36) and even that has the same issues

I have also moved the two Spitfire Library's to a Directory root folder on my system Drive C:\KontaktTest and the Issue still
remains - if it had cured it that might have pointed to a SSD issue.

I just do not know what else to do now.

 

Hi dondada

I have tried it in Blue Cats Patch Work and Veinna Ensamble and it didnt cure it.

J Bridge is not supported in Cubase pro 12.

 

You have to turn off your unnecessary startup programs, there is too muchrunning in the background, the only thing that should be in the startup menu is the virus software and your sound card (audio interface).

Spoiler: Disable these entries:

Disable these entries:

Multiprocessor Support
Tweak your Multiprocessor support settings. In the Multiprocessor support section you can adjust the number of cores you wish to use with KONTAKT. You can select any number of cores to use, from one to the maximum number of cores available on your computer. Please note this setting is different in the standalone version and plug-in version of KONTAKT. For example, if you have set 2 cores in the standalone version, this will not change the settings in any of the plug-in versions of KONTAKT.

Memory Server
Make sure you don't use all your RAM so that no samples are loaded into virtual memory. If you are using a 32-bit DAW and your computer is equipped with 4 GB or more of RAM, activate the Use Memory Server option under Options > Memory. If you are using a 64-bit DAW or KONTAKT in 64-bit mode, turn Use Memory Server off, as this option has no effect in 64-bit applications and can affect KONTAKT's performance.
Note: For more information about Memory Server, please refer to the KONTAKT Reference Manual. Please note that the Memory Server option is only available on Mac and not on Windows systems.

Save CPU power
Be careful not to use unnecessary effects for your instruments. For example, loading multiple instruments in KONTAKT and assigning each instrument its own reverb effect will quickly consume CPU power. Save CPU power by using only one effect on one of KONTAKT's aux channels and sending parts of the output signal of each instrument to that channel.

How Can I Optimize the Performance of KONTAKT?
https://support.native-instruments....ow-Can-I-Optimize-the-Performance-of-KONTAKT-

Better you use the following links to optimize your computer for music production.
Don't let audio glitches ruin your performances! www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/

LatencyMon 7.00
The LatencyMon software analyzes and identifies which device, which driver or which service is causing audio dropouts or malfunctions. Real-time audio suitability checker for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/2016/2012/2008 (x86 and x64)
Scroll Down to: System Monitoring Tools www.resplendence.com/downloads

Steinberg - Windows: How to set-up and optimize a Digital Audio Workstation
https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/...t-up-and-optimize-a-Digital-Audio-Workstation

Deactivate CPU Power Saving Management in the BIOS
In some cases it is recommended to deactivate the power saving settings of the CPU in the BIOS. In this article we will show you where you can find the options and how you can deactivate them so that the power management options CPU P State Control and CPU C State Control are completely deactivated in the BIOS.

Spoiler: Deactivate CPU power management

Deactivate CPU power management
1. Press the Delete key during the boot process to enter the BIOS
2. Go to -> Advanced CPU Configuration -> Advanced Power Management Configuration
3. Change Power Technology to Custom and Energy Efficient Turbo to Disable
4. Switch to CPU P State Control, deactivate EIST (P-States) and Turbo Mode
5. Then switch to CPU C State Control, change Package C State Limit to C0 / C1 state and deactivate CPU C3 Report, CPU C6 Report and Enhanced Halt State (C1E).

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2022

Hi Beat16

Just to recap from my other treads where I was asking specific questions..

This laptop is a Scan Computers DAW workstation and comes pre-tweaked for DAW use. All of the components are matched to each other for optimal audio performance. As an example Scan do not recommend any 64GB Ram as they are unable to find any that will work optimally with this Mother Board.

Every machine they build they 24 hr stress test before they send it out and they provide the test results with the machine - this one passed evert test with flying colours.
Its a fast machine, its damn fast.

That being said: having been using and building computers specifically as DAW's since the late 80's I know (almost) every tweak that can be done in windows and after taking delivery of this laptop I did some extra tweak's that Scan did not do.

Uninstalled guff like Windows games, MS Store, MS Edge, disabled all telemetry, disabled services like Fax and so on as every little service uses a bit of CPU.

I've had this laptop now for around 14 - 15 months and it has never had a single issue.
Cubase Pro 11, Ableton, Pro Tools and Studio One all run super fast on it.

In Cubase my projects can have anything from a few tracks of audio (samples) and anywhere between 10 - 30+ tracks of MIDI. On each track I can have anywhere from 3 - 5 insert plugs and some like the buses can have more and the computer never, ever, complained once.

This issue with Kontakt just started out of nowhere about a week or so ago.
To be clear, the audio dropouts or note drops only happen in Kontakt, there is not a general issue with audio playback - only fricken Kontakt.

I have already previously applied all of those tweaks on the links you provided and most of them were done by Scan as part of their build. I checked when I first received it and applied any they had missed.

Nothing new had been installed (except Cubase Pro 12 - see below) no system settings changed, no hardware.

The 10 Library multi that I use in Kontakt is the same one that I have used for a couple of years with no issues at all and its configuration inside Kontakt also has not changed.

The only new thing to be installed was Cubase Pro 12 which was downloaded from Steinberg using their own Download Assistant.
As soon as it was download the Assistant installed it, I went through the new online auth process.#
I then ran Malware Bytes (legit) which picked up nothing.

LatencyMon finds no issue
HWMoniter finds no issues
Task Manager & Resource Monitor do not show anything wrong (as shown in my video)
Process Monitor showed an over the top number of calls for Cubase.exe but that was covered in my other thread here
https://audiosex.pro/threads/rows-and-rows-of-2-download-net-in-process-monitor.64624/#post-639792

Samsung Magician finds no issues with 2 x drives still showing 100% life left and one showing 96% life left.

The BIOS with my machine is very limited in the options it offers and there are no options for the CPU at all. No settings for over clocking, CPU frequency, timing or CPU Power Saving Management.

It has a few sections:
MAIN Tab:
SATA Port 1 Not Present
SATA Port 4 Samsung SSD 86 (1000.2 GB)
Offboard SATA Controller Configuration -
PCIe SATA Controllers/SSDs Not Present

Offboard NVMe Controller Configuration -
Bus: 6 Dev: 0 Fun: 0 Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus 2TB
Bus: 7 Dev: 0 Fun: 0 Samsung SSD 970 Evo Plus 500GB

System Time
System Date

ADVANCED Tab:
Advanced Chipset Control -
GPU Performance scaling = Enabled
FlexiCharger = Disabled
Software Guard Extensions (SGX) = Enabled
VT-d = Enabled
UEFI OS Fast Boot = Disabled

SATA Mode -
ACHI Mode = ACHI Mode
Battery Low Alarm Beep = Disabled

SECURITY Tab:
Set Supervisor Password = Not set
TPM Configuration = Disabled

BOOT Tab:
EFI -
Windows Boot Manager = Enabled
UEFI Setting -
Network Stack = Disabled

I've done a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro - from the backup media provided by Scan.
Reinstalled only my system drivers and so on.
Cubase Pro 11 & the Upgrade to Pro 12
then Kontakt and the only thing with issues is Kontakt.

It makes no sense what so ever because when the issue happened I was on Kontakt 6, I reverted back to Kontakt 5 which has been used with my string multi no end of times, but this time the issue is also present on Kontakt 5

 

Hello @dl65875, thanks for the text I read through everything, here is something else to read.

TUTORIALS » SPITFIRE AUDIO » TROUBLESHOOTING
In this blog I'll be looking at simple things to try when experiencing problems in Kontakt and Spitfire products.

PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS
Here are some of the more common problems you may run into when using Kontakt instruments, a description of what causes them for those interested and tips and workarounds to get things working as smoothly as possibe. These are tailored specifically towards Spitfire Audio instruments but some tips may apply to other libraries.

A FEW OF THE MORE OBVIOUS THINGS TO TRY FIRST
There are several things you can try that may solve the issue without ever having to mess about with settings, change things on your machine or contact support. I know these seem rather obvious, but you wouldn't believe how many times these simple things can solve the biggest of problems.

PRESS THE KONTAKT ! RESTART BUTTON

Kontakt has a handy button that resets its scripting, logic and audio systems. You'll find it up in the toolbar, just to the left of the Cpu/Disk indicators. If you're experiencing problems, try to give this button a click and wait a few seconds. Sometimes it's just enough to jog that stuck note, reset those round robins or find that lost release sample.

RESTART KONTAKT (AND PERHAPS YOUR VST HOST, DAW OR COMPUTER)
There are times when something more serious goes wrong with Kontakt. It's doing a lot of heavy lifting and pushing a lot of data through your system. Sometimes a complete restart just seems to fix things in general, either from freeing up a bit or RAM, restarting an external process that's proving CPU/Disk hungry, etc.

MAKE SURE YOU'VE INSTALLED ALL YOUR SOFTWARE UPDATES
If you're experiencing issues with multiple products it's worth checking you're running the latest version of Kontakt. You can find out if there are any updates in Native Instrument's Service Center (installed alongside Kontakt). Also check that you've got the very latest updates to your sample libraries. There are quite a few times when Spitfire have released important hotfixes that fix critical problems, so it's always worth checking the websites or downloader software to see if one's available.

KONTAKT 5.3 CAUSES HEAP CRASHES ON OS X MAVERICKS
If you're a Mac user you may have experiencing a crash with the error message “Heap corruption detected, free list canary is damaged" using Kontakt 5.3. Native Instruments have fixed this problem in later updates. You can update your Kontakt to this latest version using the Native Instruments Native Access software.

A SPITFIRE ARTICULATION (OR INSTRUMENT) DOESN'T SEEM TO MAKE A SOUND
Articulations can be 'purged' from memory to save resources ( ). When purged, an articulation or instrument won't make a sound. Double check the articulation you're trying to play isn't purged. If it is, give the little purge icon a click so that it lights up. Also check you're not trying to play a 'rest' articulation (). The rest icon means that this articulation is not available in the loaded patch. Check that the instrument can support this articulation and have a peek through other patches included in the library.

MY INSTRUMENTS TAKE LONG, LONG TIME TO LOAD INTO KONTAKT!
Most of the time this will be down to one (or both) of the following:

INSTRUMENTS NEED TO BE BATCH-RESAVED
For the longest time, Kontakt had an issue whereby if you saved an Instrument on a Mac, the same NKI would open very slowly on a PC (until re-saved on that machine). This has been fixed in Kontakt 5.6 and above but will still affect any instruments made for Kontakt 5.5 and below (as all Spitfire instruments are).

If you're experiencing slow loading times, it's more than likely down to this issue. Giving the instruments a quick Batch Re-save will more than likely fix this issue. You can view a tutorial of mine on Batch re-saving by clicking here!

WINDOWS DEFENDER (OR A SIMILAR ANTI-MALWARE/VIRUS SCANNER) IS SCANNING EACH SAMPLE ON LOAD
In Windows 10 Microsoft changed the behaviour of the built-in virus scanner Windows Defender so that it scans every single file as it's opened on your PC (regardless of whether it's an executable, or just data). Some Spitfire instruments can contain hundreds of thousands of samples and a brief scan of each one can massively increase loading times.

If you've tried batch re-saving and are still experiencing slow loading times, it's worth checking that you've excluded any sample folders or sample drives from the Windows Defender scan list. Microsoft has a tutorial on their site that walks you through the process and can be viewed by clicking here.

Similarly, other virus scanners can cause loading time issues, so it's worth checking if any that you have installed and configuring them to ignore your samples/instruments.

I DON'T HEAR ANY RELEASES AND THE HALL SEEMS TO JUST DISAPPEAR WHEN DEPRESSING NOTES
There are several reasons you might be experiencing issues with release samples. Unfortunately there's no set-in-stone reason and it can differ between users so lets take a look at a few of the more common ones.

KONTAKT MIDI CHANNEL ASSIGNMENT OPTION IS SET TO OMNI
If your patches always default to the Omni MIDI channel when loaded into Kontakt, this may be the reason behind your missing release samples. Take a look in the Kontakt options by hitting Options in the toolbar. Kontakt's options are grouped into pages which you can navigate using the tabs to the left of the dialog. Select Handling and look for the option labelled MIDI channel assignment for loaded patches.


If it is set to omni (as in the picture above) give it a click and select 1st free from the drop-down menu. Close the options dialog and restart Kontakt and see if that has fixed the missing releases problem.

This issue is caused by a combination of several features within Spitfire Instruments; the persistent releases dynamics, flexible CC configuration via Learn MIDI CC# automation and a Kontakt quirk with how CCs are stored/recalled within scripts. A workaround has been introduced as of BML TROMBONES and will be included in all Spitfire product updates going forward.

CHANGING THE MIDI CHANNEL OF A LOADED INSTRUMENT
When loading an instrument Kontakt's default behaviour is to assign it to the first free MIDI channel available. However, there may be many times that you want to move an instrument/articulation to a different channel. You may notice that your Spitfire instrument no longer plays release samples after doing so.

The problem is very simple to fix in one of two ways:

• Press the ! restart button on Kontakt's toolbar (see the first section for details)
• Wiggle the Dynamics (and possibly the Vibrato) slider a little.

Those two methods should revive those release samples. This problem's actually caused by a similar Kontakt quirk to the omni issue mentioned above. When you load an instrument, various CCs (including the persistent releases CC) are initialised with values matching the Spitfire UI sliders. However Kontakt never tells the script that the user has switched the MIDI channel and so there's no way for the instrument to 'reinitialise' them when this happens. Hitting ! or wiggling the sliders achieves this. That said, I spent quite a bit of time and effort figuring out a work around for this which is included in BML TROMBONES and will find its way into other products as they're updated.

CHANGING THE MIDI CHANNEL OF A LOADED INSTRUMENT
All Spitfire instruments are powered by Sandbox , the system that unifies all the features across products and makes the internals of Spitfire instruments work correctly. There are some pretty innovative features within Sandbox which rely on certain CCs to work. When designing the system I picked CCs that were unused in the MIDI standard and relatively out the way. However there's always the chance that you've coincidently decided to use the same ones. Here are a list of CCs to avoid using on the same MIDI channel as a Spitfire instrument:

• CC 103
• CC 104
• CC 106
• CC 110
• CC 111
• CC 116
• CC 117

If you've used any of those on the same channel as a Spitfire instrument (either mapping a control to a specified CC or just using another instrument on the same MIDI channel) you may run into problems with releases disappearing, or acting erratically. Try to utilise different CCs and see if that helps. It's probably best to try to stay under CC 100 just in case.

NOTES SEEM TO RANDOMLY CUT OUT OR DROP WHILE PLAYING
As with the previous issue, there can be several things that cause notes to drop out or stop playing while being held. You may even notice that sometimes only a single note of a chord will drop while the others work fine. Here are some of the causes with workarounds.

KONTAKT'S CPU OVERHEAD PROTECTION IS TURNED ON
When you don't have any round-robins to use the previous technique, there is an old trick to thicken the sound a little using the tuning and transpose options available within Kontakt.


With the power of modern-day CPUs and the trend moving towards offline-rendering, I'd recommend setting these to disabled. Unless you're using an instrument with unoptimised code or an excess of groups and zones you shouldn't experience much in terms of CPU overheads. Simply click the Options button on the Kontakt toolbar, select the Engine page and look for the 'CPU Overhead protection' option.

KONTAKT'S BUFFER IS SET TOO LOW
When an instrument is utilising the Direct-from-disk (DFD) streaming, Kontakt will load a tiny portion of each sample into memory. This pre-load buffer gives Kontakt a little bit of data in RAM that it can play while it's streaming in data from the disk. Kontakt allows you to configure how big this buffer is on an instrument or global level so that users can optimise for SSDs or other fast data storage.


If you have a fast solid-state drive you can get away with setting the buffer as low as 6KB most of the time with no problems or streaming issues. However, there is a quirky bug in Kontakt that affects loop points when using a low DFD value. Sometimes a sample will begin to drop just as it reaches the loop point (usually related to increased data-stress during cross-fades between the start/end of the loop region). When this happens you may see a little red light flicker on the toolbar where it shows the Disk status ( ) and it will continue to drop on this exact same sample at exactly the same point in time.

There are a couple workarounds for this issue:

• Completely restart Kontakt. 99% of the time this will solve the problem until it happens again
• Set your DFD preload buffer to a slightly larger value. This may work better in the long run

Personally I tend to just keep it at 6KB and restart when I experience the problem. It happens very rarely (and randomly) and I would rather have that little bit extra RAM from using a lower preload buffer.

RUNNING OUT OF VOICES
Spitfire libraries are huge projects developed by human beings. Sometimes we simply make a mistake (or Kontakt decides to make one for us) that we either didn't spot, or are preparing for an update. One of the more common ones is to leave the voice limit count on its default setting of 32. While this may have been a considerable amount of voices a few years back, with multi-mic libraries and extensive all-in-ones, it's easy to soar past this limit now.

If you've spotted an instrument that seems to have a low Voices Max value, it's easy to change.

• Double click on the number to the right of Max:
• Type in a new number (256, 512, etc. as you see fit)
• Hit enter to save changes

You can then save this new patch if you don't want to update it every time you load (as always, remember to keep a backup of the original instrument files). Feel free to ping an email to Spitfire if you encounter any issues like this so that they can be addressed and fixed in official updates.

SUSTAIN PEDAL ISSUES
There are currently a few different issues related to use of the sustain pedal within Spitfire instruments. Here's a brief overview of the more common ones.

NO SUSTAIN PEDAL SUPPORT IN BML MURAL
BML Mural does not currently support the use of CC64 to sustain a note within Kontakt. This has been fixed and will be addressed in the upcoming 1.1 release but there is a workaround if you can't wait. Unfortunately release samples will not work correctly with this workaround so I would suggest trying to utilise your DAW's built in sustain functionality if possible first.

To enable the sustain pedal in a mural patch, simply click the Kontakt Edit mode button ( or ) and click Instrument Options button if a dialog does not appear.


From the Controller page, change the topmost option MIDI Controller #64 (Sustain Pedal) acts as from CC only to Sustain Pedal + Controller. Hit close and the sustain pedal should now work (though as mentioned, the release samples will not work correctly).

LEGATO PATCHES DO NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY IF THE PEDAL IS HELD
This affects most instruments, not just Mural. Unfortunately this is a limitation within Kontakt (and the reason Mural was initially completely disabled). I'm investigating ways to fix this, but I can't imagine there will be sustain pedal support in the foreseable future. The only workaround for now is to use a DAW that provides internal sustain-pedal support. One such example is Image-Line's FL Studio.

HIGH CPU USAGE WHEN USING A NON-SWITCH PEDAL CONTROLLER IN PIANO INSTRUMENTS
Recent Spitfire piano instruments (Felt piano, plucked piano, etc.) utilise cool new functionality to play piano pedal sounds as you press and release the sustain pedal on CC64. When I was scripting this I mistakenly expected sustain pedals to only be in a single state of on or off . A somewhat CPU intensive process happens in the script when toggling the sustain pedal but it works fine when toggled once and not very often.

However, if you're utilising a pedal or controller on CC64 (breath controller, slider, ramping pedal, etc.) that can go gradually from values 0-127, you may experience bursts of high CPU if you ride CC64. This has been fixed in the latest Sandbox and will be addressed in upcoming updates, but until then a workaround is to only set the CC64 value to 0 or 127.

SMALLER ISSUES RELATED TO SPITFIRE INSTRUMENTS AND SANDBOX
Here are some Spitfire-specific issues you may encounter. Some of these may be actual bugs (which we strive to address in updates and reduxes as soon as possible) but the workrarounds may get you up and running without having to wait.

CPU BUILDUP WHEN CHANGING CCS, RIDING THE MOD WHEEL, ETC.
On lower-end systems (or setups not optimised for multithreading) Kontakt may act a little CPU-hungry when you wiggle the mod wheel, ride the vibrato slider, etc. This is an unfortunate side-effect of all-in-one patches that contain lots of mic sets and groups. There are a few things you can do:

• Have a read of my Optimising (Part 1 - Mics) blog entry to learn how to completely remove unneeded mic signals.
• Utilise the more CPU-friendly instruments provided in the _Individual brushes/patches_ and _Economic brushes_ folders.
• Roll up (or minimise) the instrument's UI. Sometimes this can help when lots of controllers are being utilised

AN UNPURGED ARTICULATION (OR INSTRUMENT) DOESN'T SEEM TO MAKE A SOUND
When developing Spitfire instruments part of the post-process stage is to collect all the articulations and transfer them into the all-in-ones, overlays and individual-patches As you'll know, the Spitfire UI provides you with a way to purge individual articulations. However if they're are purged in one patch and then moved to another, sometimes the appearance of the icon ( ) may not match the actual purge status. When this is mistakenly done post-process, you'll end up with an articulation that looks like it's loaded when it hasn't.

It's very easy to fix. Simply hit the purge icon to 'unload' the articulation and then hit it again to reload. This will solve a false-purge problem.

Another common problem related to the post-processing stage is when a patch that contains a lot of articulations is split into individual ones. Sometimes it may have gone unnoticed that the first articulation was not selected in the final patches. In this case, you'll have an instrument that loads perfectly fine but does not have the first (only) articulation selected and ready to play. In these instances you can do the following:

• Click the articulation stanza lock icon ( ) and select Unlocked artic.
• Click the notation icon to select the articulation

The articulation should now be working and ready to play. You can save the NKI so that you don't have do this every time you load it.

THE DYNAMICS SLIDER DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY IF TWO SPITFIRE INSTRUMENTS SHARE A MIDI CHANNEL
While this has been addressed in the latest version of Sandbox (and so fixes will roll out as products are updated), I figured it may be useful to include details and workarounds here.

If two older Spitfire instruments are placed on the same MIDI channel within a single instance of Kontakt you may experience problems with them not responding to CC1 correctly. One or more of the instruments may stop responding to CC1 changes audibly. There are several ways to work around this:

• Upgrade to the latest version of the Spitfire instrument. This issue has been fixed in quite a few products since it was discovered.
• Control dynamics with CC103 rather than CC1. This CC provides direct control of the dynamics tables within Spitfire instruments.
• Utilise multiple instances of Kontakt allowing the instruments to share a MIDI channel without conflicting each other.

This issue is a combination of a Kontakt scripting quirk to do with how CCs are accessed/modified, and how Spitfire instruments provide a flexible way for users to reassign CC controllers. It's a very obscure bug and happens only under certain circumstances, DAWs and audio setups. While most products should have updated to address the problem the above workarounds should help with older patches.

TO WRAP THINGS UP
In an ideal world software should work perfectly at all times for every user. Unfortunately, with hundreds of different machine configurations, software setups and user workflows this just isn't always possible. Working with Kontakt is also a bit of a blessing and a curse; On the one hand it gives you the most stable, powerful sampler out there that's relatively mature and feature-rich. On the other hand you have to know how to play to its strengths and how to optimise your code so that it's as lean and mean as possible. Finally, there are just some things that are broken by, or require changes/fixes from Native Instruments themselves that may not be possible or feasible without considerable work.

Hopefully the tips and workthroughs above might have helped fix the problem you were having, but I'd definitely recommend contacting Spitfire Audio (or any other company you have issues with) via their official support system if you're still having problems. You never know; there might be a fix for it that's not covered here!

www.syntheticorchestra.com/blog/9.shtml

 

There may be some sort of nuanced midi routing issue at play here. I suspect that a subtle change has been introduced by cubase or kontakt or one of your midi-related drivers that's making your hitherto-working kontakt template not work as it did, for example something as innocuous as the order that midi devices are scanned/loaded by windows, cubase or kontakt...

Firstly - i'd temporarily disable the Avid MME (waves?) & korg device divers and everything not absolutely essential that's currently connected to your laptop i.e. everythig apart from the computer monitor, URC22c usb audio device. Any difference?

Secondly, i'd try loading this exact kontakt template into a different PC to see if works as expected there.

I see that your first 'midi' channel is set to an intrument path - as evidenced by the stereo activity meter at the right of the channel, whereas all the others are assigned as pure midi... So, just to be certain, i recommend you go back through every one of those kontakt/instrument midi channels and debug/sanity-check every single option on each channel (especially the midi channel control routings) so that each one plays perfectly in solo mode.

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2022

...if that doesn't yield any positive reults, why not throw up a link to this basic cubase/kontakt template here so that its performance integrity can be independantly verified/debugged? Just a thought...

 

That is a great resource for Spitfire users and I didnt know about that.
Makes a good read and I have been through each point and where they apply I have tried them (I'm all windows based so the Apple suggestions do not work for me).

The PC stuff is common sense and I have already applied it as a matter of course, the Kontakt CPU protection and preload buffer I have tried and makes no difference to my issue sadly.

tried the Kontakt reset - no difference

I notice they mention CPU build-up when using CC's which is very interesting especially given the issue I am having. It is suggested to use Individual brushes/articulations rather than say an ensemble where you program the articulation change in the Mdii track, and it is for this reason that I am only using the individual Legato library from any of the Librarys (regardless of brand).

As a matter of course, regardless of the project or the library - I always do the purge / reset markers so only the notes that the midi file will be playing is held in memory - I showed that in my video. Looking at each Library now, the largest memory size loaded is 347.66 MB and the average is 25 - 26 MB which is nothing to my laptop.

I don't use pedals of any type.

Using CC103 rather than CC1 to control Dynamics is not a tip I have heard off but alarmingly, as soon as I changed the Dynamics on the Instrument track to reflect it, and hit play, it froze Cubase 12 and I had to Ctrl+Alt+Delete to close Cubase. After reopening it none of the 10 Librarys would play and the Midi automation data was also not working on any of them.

I right clicked on the Dynamics in Library 1 to remove CC103 and set it back to CC1 and Cubase 12 instantly shut down.

On reboot the Cubase Safe Mode window opened and it shows:
This application was terminated with an error while executing the following file
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Kontakt.vst3

After letting it boot and opening the project file there now an instant wine noise coming from Kontakt. I was able to open Kontakt and hit the Kontakt reset button and again, Cubase instantly crashed.

Reopened Cubase, safe mode opens and says:
This application was terminated with an error while executing the following file
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Kontakt.vst3

Allowed it to continue to boot, opened the project and the Instrument track has been muted by Cubase. I right click on the Dynamics of the 1st Library (the one that goes to the instrument track) and it shows it has reset to CC1. I then unmute the instrument track and the wine is still there and hitting Kontakts reset produces the same thing as before.

So this time I reboot it, safe mode > crash message > continue to boot > open project
unmute instrument track > wine still there > mute instrument track and the wine is still there even though all midi tracks are also muted.

In Kontakt I remove Library 1 and the wine stops and I can hit play although all of the dropped note issue is still happening.

I wont be using CC103 again - thats a bad tip from Spitfire.

At this point I am giving up for the night as its 1:30am and I have to be up at 6:30am.

Cant say I have not been trying but I am still leaning towards this being a Kontakt VST3 issue,

 

Hi Paul

I'd be more than grateful and happy to provide any templates.
Do you mean my saved Kontakt Multi file (its save as Patch Only)
or do you mean a copy of the Cubase Project file or both (I can provide Cubase Pro 11 and/or Pro 12 project files)

As suggested by Beat16 but taking it further, I disabled everything in Task Manager Startup, rebooted but it made no difference.

While testing USB wise, the only things plugged in to the laptop are the UR22 C (on a USB 3 port as stated in the manual), Cubase Pro 11 USB Dongle (Tried running BB 12 with it unplugged but made no difference), and my mouse.

Normally as well as the above I normally have a Arturia MiniLab MK II or my Nektar GX61 keyboard, and or my SSL UF8 plugged in.

Before this issue happened out of the blue, all of these things worked perferctly together.

I do also have a Korg nanoKontrol Studio that I wanted for manually writing the midi data for Dynamics, Expression and Vibrato automation data in Kontakt Librarys as the UF 8 does not do that but that was installed a couple of months ago - long before this issue started.

I could never get it to work, but the Midi driver for it is still installed in case I get bored one day.

Just to be sure and for the sake of completeness, I have now removed the Korg Midi Driver and its associated Korg Kontrol Editor but that has made no difference to the issue at hand.

Yes, the template works perfectly on the two DAW PC's I have access to.

haha yes I have done the sanity check over and over.

In the test blank project, I only load a singe instance of Kontak.
Then I load my multi in kontakt (I have also made the same template from new on this laptop and on one the the PCs with no difference).

In Cubase I then Right Click on the Kontakt Instrument Track > add track > MIDI > Count 9.
This then binds the 9 Midi tracks to kontakt.

Just to make sure I always double check in Track Inspector to make sure, and to check each Midi track has a uniqe Midi number (2 - 10), the Instrument Track is always Ch 1.

I then either play or write the midi for each track, set it playing on a loop, I open Cubases Instrument Rack > click the little Right arrow to open / enable / check the multiple outputs (all enabled correctly) open Kontakt and check each Library is receiving Midi (they all are), you can also see which library is actually outputting audo from the meters on each library and in Kontakts Output mixer (they all are playing correctly), I then open Cubase's Mix console and I can see each library is outputting audio (as well as hearing it).

So at this point everything is playing perfectly.

I then hand draw in the Dynamics, Expression and Vibrato automation data for each Midi File and this is where the issue happens.

Its as if the above Midi automation data is overwhelming either Cubase or kontakt, or both which is crazy as I know a lot of composers who do the exact same thing with 20 or 30 midi tracks (mostly Kontakt based), all playing different or switching articulations, and they have no issues at all.

This issue is not just happening with Spitfire Librays, I have tested it with 8dio Intimate Studio Strings, Cinematic Studio Strings, kirk Hunter Pop Rock Strings and Kirk Hunter Spotlight Strings 4D and the same issue happens with all.

Before I forget, I have also tried completely uninstalling the UR22-C Midi Drivers, reboot the laptop, and install an earlier version of the Midi drivers but that makes no difference.

All Library's are loading a single Legato articulation

Midi Ch 1 (Kontakt Instrument) = Library 1
Midi Ch 2 = Library 2
Midi Ch 3 = Library 3
Midi Ch 4 = Library 4
Midi Ch 5 = Library 5
Midi Ch 6 = Library 6
Midi Ch 7 = Library 7
Midi Ch 8 = Library 8
Midi Ch 9 = Library 9
Midi Ch 10 = Library 10

Each Mid channel has Dynamics, Expression and Vibrato automation data
CC 1 = Dynamics
CC 11 = Expression
CC 21 = Vibrato

Start with all muted
If I unmute Midi Ch 1 - 3 they play perfectly at first.
If then unmute Midi Ch 4 it drops notes, you can see that Library 4 is no longer playing in the Kontakt window.

If I leave Midi Ch 1 - 3 playing for 3 - 5 minutes, Midi Ch 3 starts dropping notes.

The exact same thing happens if I mute all, then unmute Midi Ch 3 - 6.

If I then unmute Mid Ch 6 (while Ch 3 -6 is playing), Ch 3 - 6 play perfectly and Ch 7 drops notes.
If I mute Ch 3, Ch 4 - 7 plays perfectly.

But...
If I mute all, and unmute Ch 5 - 8, they all play perfectly with no drop outs
If I then unmute Ch 9, it plays for a bit, drops a note or two then plays for a bit and so on.

If I mute all, then un mute Ch 7 - 10, they all play perfectly.

If I leave Ch 7 - 10 unmuted, but then strip out / remove the midi data for Dynamics, Expression and Vibrato automation data from the Midi files from Ch 1 - 2 and then unmute them (so Ch 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 are playing, there is no drop outs.

If I then unmute Ch 5, C9 & 10 start to drop notes.

If I strip out / remove the midi data for Dynamics, Expression and Vibrato automation data from the ALL of Midi files, all 10 play perfectly at the same time.

As I said to Beat in my previous post, I am leaning to Kontakt being the cause here but then again before this issue Kontakt 5 and Kontakt 6 all performed as they should so I don't know - I'm frazzled.

 

just an idea . Maybe it has to do with the recent Windows 10 Updates. Maybe it has to do with some cache memory bug, where your Daw and Kontakt have problems recalling the Audio from Cache. My mashine bugs out since i had the cumulative update last week

 

and i whould love to know if this error appears in Kontakt Portable too, guess we'll never know, since you whould have to install the portable version and go through all the Library adding again.

 

I will read the whole thing, but it is quite long so far already. has the Steinberg UR22c Audio Interface been switched out at any point for a different interface for your testing? After a brief skim, it's the first thing I would try if you have another available.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2022

Did you ever try separate kontakt instances per patch instead of 10 in one? And do you load as an instrument track or in the instrument rack. In the course of the years I decided to have max 3 patches per kontakt intance and use only the instrument rack, not tracks. This based on things that did not work as expected or gave better low latency results.
Oh and are the dropouts there when rendered?

 

Hi @dl65875, looks more like Windows, or an unfortunate meshing of Windows and Kontakt.

MIDI issues on Windows

This article mainly applies to Windows systems running any Cubase, Nuendo or Sequel version build end of 2004 or later.

MIDI on Windows systems: What's the issue?

Using MIDI interface port drivers on PCs with Windows in conjunction with current MIDI/Audio sequencer applications like Cubase or Nuendo, which mainly rely on Microsoft's current DirectMusic (as part of DirectX) API for MIDI communication, can sometimes be confusing for the user. This is due to the fact that it is possible for providers of MIDI interface drivers to deliver their drivers in different 'flavors'.

Modern MIDI interfaces are installed with real native DirectMusic drivers whereas it is still quite common for other interfaces to use a predecessor API to provide drivers for the Windows MIDI system. DirectMusic itself has a function to "mirror" these Windows MIDI ports to show up as 'emulated DirectMusic' ports. Unfortunately, this can lead to a quite nice array of problems when using inappropriate port driver architecture:

• Shifted MIDI events while recording (events are recorded too late or too early)
• Sometimes no MIDI events are recorded at all
• Sometimes stuck notes or several events stacked on top of each other are recorded instead of being consecutive
• Generally bad or wacky MIDI timing on playback
• Double or triple recordings of the same MIDI events due to using different driver architectures at the same time

Read more: https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/206366824-MIDI-issues-on-Windows

 

Hi everyone

Thank you for everyone making suggestions and I want to say that I really appreciate it.

I am back home from work now and I will answer your posts in turn.

Steinberg has released a new maintenance for Cubase today, V12.0.20, which has improved some other issues, stability at shutdown and some improvement's to the MIDI Controller Track which I have installed but it has made no difference to my problem.

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2022