hey guys, im working on a fairly large project and my samples (for kontakt) seem to be glitching in and out while im playing the audio back...its not a cpu or ram issue, it seems that that samples arent pulling fast enough from my ex hd, or at least thats what i think is happening....any fix for this or tips? besides freezing? thanks

 

You need a lot of resources for reading locally so reading from external HDD if it's on USB is real pain...
How Kontakt work? That's the first question! Kontakt work based on DFD technology, read only a small portion of each sample from patch and the rest is read from HDD directly.
You can set DFD memory amount, so you can raise that memory chunk, but that way your RAM will be more occupied. Best solution is to set complete patch goes into RAM, but if patch size is 500 Mb we would stay for a short time without RAM amount
If you load some patch and it says 50 Mb (and DFD is set to 64 kb) are used, that's only size of patch portion loaded into RAM. Complete patch is maybe 500 Mb.
Sometimes I'm wondering how is my HDD still alive after loading and playing patches in project

 

Your HD needs to be at 7200 tr and not at 5400 (too slow here).
Also, you can use easily an external drive with 7200 tr ( minimum agan for audio files) in USB3 or thunderbolt.



cheers

 

I'm using a external Thunderbolt drive for all my Kontakt libraries it is superb, I use it in conjunction with a program called keep drive spinning , I've never had any lag at all

 

Have you thought about using an SSD in an external enclosure for your samples?
Some external drives go into standby mode quickly (that's why flowmika uses "keep drive spinning"), some have quite a lag before the sample is actually loaded.
Kontakt DFD works with relatively short sample fragments in memory so your drive better be fast enough to deliver or you will get dropouts.

Before changing anything, try to enable+increase the Instrument preload buffer size under:
Options=>Memory=>Override Instrument's preload size.

How much RAM does your machine have?
In case you have 4GB or more and you're still on a 32bit OS, you could also use Kontakt's "Memory Server" which is a workaround to use more than 2GB RAM for Kontakt under 32bit Windows. You don't need this under 64bit OS however, since Kontakt will be able to use all available memory.

 

If your external drive is at least 7200RPM by a Firewire 800 connection, the problem probably lies with another factor or two:
How much RAM do you have installed?
What's your computer's processor's speed?
What's the size of the buffer used by your DAW?
Do you use Kontakt's Memory Server to free-up RAM used by the samples?
Do you have Kontakt set to kill superfluous voices in order to save memory?
How do you have CPU usage set in the DAW and in Kontakt (# of cores used, for example)?
Are you writing to the same drive as from which you are running the software?

 

TB or USB3 with a large capacity, 7200 spin, top of the line "enterprise" rates drive is what I recommend for an external sample drive. SSD is impractical for super large libraries and some free space. The above should be fine.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1083161-REG/lacie_9000492u_3tb_d2_thunderbolt_2.html would this work for me? thanks for all the help guys really appreciating it


Pc spec:
intel i7 4770k CPU @ 3.5ghz
16gb ram

Daw: live 9
buffer size 512

 

so dude,
if you are in mixing session, put your buffer up to 1024.
your i7 is far ok for audio purpose , + the 16gb of ram it's also far enough.
Again check the speed of your HDDs , minimum for audio task is 7200 rpm. SSD is excellent for OS task, but not for write and write, read and read, all these actions gives (for now) a quiet short live for SSD hardwares.
Check again in your LIVE settings: your have checked "enable multicore" ON , change your 16bits in audio pref to 32 bits.
Uncheck automatic warp long sample.

Then you should be good to go.

Cheers

ps: what is your sound card ?

 

im using the line 6 pod hd pro for my soundcard

do i only change my buffer size to 1024 during mixdown or can i keep it here at all times?

 

Yeah, as all the other kind repliers here said, the faster the drive the better. If you can put them on a large SATA drive 7200 IN YOUR machine, will be best ... How much ram do you have? The more the better with some of these increasingly bloated libraries, ... If you are running a 32bit version of your daw, what os and daw are you using? definitely use the memory server, and if you are getting choking, as mentioned above override preload buffer... It sounds like you are using ableton....

I have a question for those of you out there using ableton and kontakt on OSX, if you turn the memory server on (sometimes there is a reason for keeping it on in 64bit because you don't have to reload samples every time you change sessions), do you turn OFF multicore threading in Kontakt? Seems to be some discrepancy on that from NI and /or Ableton.. some say leave it on, some say leave it off...

And you CAN keep your buffer at 1024 at other times when not mixing, but not if you do a lot of "live" playing, like triggering midi or singing or recording acoustic instruments, because the latency you are going to get will be interminable, unless you are comfortable using the near-zero latency monitoring on most interfaces, but take in mind you will not hear any fx or anything on input....

 

specs listed above

 

gotcha Robbie, sorry missed your specs, I'm not on windows, but the specs on your machine seem pretty damn good, so I would up the buffer (keep in mind that some of your automation etc will change due to Ableton's poor PDC etc, but if you don't hear it, screw it), if you are using a lot of large contact libraries often, more ram is your friend obviously.... but 16gb should be enough for most like "non orchestral" type sessions...

 

..and as mentioned above "unwarp" channels you don't warping on in terms of audio... it is making the cpu perform SRC on every channel you have it on, or render said warps to audio by consolidating them..... Also if you have stuff spread over different drives, "collecting and saving" is a good idea....

 

During the mixing session process keep all the time the buffer up to 1024, even for mixdown process.
If you need to play some virtual instrument you can gat back to 512 or even 126. It depends of your "creative session" process 'cause if you have loads of
virtual instruments and/or FXs it may cause some glitch in the sound. But with your kind of computer spec, that seems ok to me.
Experiment and you'll find the right spot to work.

cheers

 

Uselly it's ok to keep it ON but obviously if you have some problems just put it off. It depends a lots of the individual configuration:
OS verion?
Hardware ? how many HDD ( big medium capacity) . Rmp ?
ram ? Cpu ?
Os config ? etc …

https://www.google.be/search?q=multicore+option+Live+9+Kontakt&gws_rd=cr&ei=_WroVOHVIYHsUPC8g5AM

 

yeah, It's weird, I get conflicting info from the Native guys on it, and I am a legit owner etc… running 10.8.5 OSX, 36GB ram, dual 8 core, 1TB SSD system, my sessions and samples are on 2 5TB HD's, as well as a couple other 3 TB spinners I have on my sata chain… (5 in all in addition to the DVD drive (useless))… and a couple external firewire 800 drives and a raid array… so probably around hmm… around actually 25+ TB online (lots of backup and legacy sessions, some in raid arrays that are not always powered up, in addition to my SSD/system backup drive…. I haven't had any problems really, just would like to know what the optimal situation would be, appreciate your help….