I just upgraded to Kontakt v6.1.0 from v6.0.4 on my MBP running Sierra, and like I do every time I upgrade to a new version of Kontakt, I spent some time batch re-saving all my libraries. This time, however, Kontakt did something it's never done before during a batch re-save: crash. The first time it crashed, it was my Big Fish Audio GOTH library. I reopened Kontakt, tried again, and was able to batch re-save GOTH with no further incident. I thought it might just have been a weird anomaly, until I got to Big Fish Audio GRINDHOUSE. Kontakt started to repeatedly crash while batch re-saving the library.

Bear in mind, I've been batch re-saving all my libraries since Kontakt 4, and GOTH and GRINDHOUSE since 5.6.6 or so, never had a problem. In fact, I had batch re-saved both libraries (among my other libraries) recently in 6.0.4 with no problem. I repeatedly tried saving GRINDHOUSE in v6.1 and it crashed without fail. Never on one particular file, though I was able to go into its Instrument folder and more or less successfully batch re-save all the individual instrument folders except for two ... and sometimes, those would batch re-save as well. And even after batch re-saving, you could go back to an instrument folder that had been successfully re-saved and crash Kontakt all over again. At this point, I made the connection between GOTH and GRINDHOUSE (both being recent Big Fish Audio libraries), went back and tried batch re-saving GOTH. It crashed Kontakt one or two times (even though I'd successfully batch re-saved it), but I was eventually able to batch re-save it once again in its entirety.

I tried resetting the permissions on the entire GRINDHOUSE folder ... no effect. Just the Instruments and Samples folders; again, no effect. Individual files, same deal. I tried reinstalling the original Instruments folder from the archived library that I'd never altered in any way, nothing. I tried individually loading and "Save As ..." for each individual instrument in the GRINDHOUSE library, which worked just fine, but it would not batch re-save without crashing.

Now, here's the thing: both GRINDHOUSE and GOTH load up fine in v6.1.0, and their libraries both show up in the Library tab. GOTH has a custom wallpaper, but no custom .nicnt file, while GRINDHOUSE has neither. I also have three other (older) Big Fish Audio libraries: Epic Drums 1 and 2, and Cinematic Percussion 2. They have custom .nicnt files and wallpapers, and all three saved just fine. In fact, all my other libraries have batch re-saved just fine ... except for these two. There's something about these two latter-day Big Fish Audio libraries that messes Kontakt 6.1 up, but I have no idea what.

 

Addendum: Just to double-check, I re-downloaded Kontakt 6.0.4 and replaced the Instruments folder in both GRINDHOUSE and GOTH with their archived originals. I batch re-saved both libraries in Kontakt 6.0.4 with absolutely zero problem. I opened Kontakt 6.1 and tried batch re-saving both libraries again. Same exact problems as before. It's definitely something specific to v6.1 and those two libraries.

 

I wonder if this was the cause of the whole problem? Guess I'll find out once I get my hands on v6.1.1 ...

From the changelog of the just-released Kontakt v6.1.1:

"•FIXED Kontakt would crash when trying to load an instrument that had automation assigned to controls that were removed after the assignment (v6.1.0 regression that affected certain products by Big Fish Audio and 8Dio)"

Edit: v6.1.1 (I installed the update, and didn't run the full installer, though I assume the results would be the same) is still having issues reserving GOTH and GRINDHOUSE. This time, it managed to batch re-save GOTH all the way once -- the first time -- without issue. When I attempted it again, to see if GOTH would crash it, Kontakt v6.1.1 crashed almost immediately. GRINDHOUSE still crashes Kontakt on a batch re-save almost without fail.

 

Last edited: May 29, 2019

As of v6.1.1, I can now add Orchestral Tools Nocturne Violin and Cello to the list of libraries having issues with Kontakt. Both libraries appear to hang in the middle of batch re-saving. However, unlike GOTH and GRINDHOUSE, the process of batch re-saving either library simply causes Kontakt to lock up (spinning beachball), requiring a Force Quit to get out of the program. Despite this, it appears that Kontakt has actually successfully re-saved both libraries, and they both open and work just fine after restarting Kontakt. However, just to be safe, like with the Big Fish Audio stuff, I replaced both Instrument folders from the archived originals, and this time batch re-saved both libraries via Kontakt v6.1.0 standalone, where they both re-saved without incident.

 

Last edited: May 30, 2019