Kontakt crashing when loading instruments

[noiseboyuk]

This has been going on for me for years now, on different Windows rigs and on many different Pro Tools (12, 2018.x, 2019.x) and Kontakt versions (5.x and 6.x), and I'd love to finally get to the bottom of it.

Kontakt always launches correctly, but typically I can never get to the point of loading an nki from almost any library because it crashes PT. It crashes on Player and non-Player libraries. About the only thing I can load is very very simple instruments I've made myself. I've sort of given up hosting it in PT and host in VE Pro instead.

Clearly this can't be widespread or else everyone would have screamed about it years ago, but like I say it's been 2 or maybe 3 windows rigs now and all these different versions. It has happend on new builds. Anyone else had it and found a solution?

[noiseboyuk]

An update on this, very grateful for any insights.

Just now Kontakt back and working fine without me apparently doing anything to fix it. What has changed? Well....

Every 6 months or so PT permanently fails to launch for me, hanging every time on "initialize audio engine". I've developed a solution to this where I have is to first delete all PT preferences, then remove all third party plugins and then put them back again in a few big chunks. Having done this, normality is restored for a few months until the cycle goes round again. This happened to me once more just a few days ago.

I think after doing this in the past, I may have had some temporary respite from crashing in the past, until the problem returns. This would suggest there is some corruption going on within Pro Tools preferences here - C:Users//AppData/Roaming/Avid , which is causing these system stability issues. To be clear, the system is otherwise rock solid until it stops loading completely, but the exception is in this handling of Kontakt (and possibly some other third party instruments).

I don't use Kontakt all that often in PT, I mostly use it in Cubase so I've been able to limp on. But can anyone offer a theory as to what might going on and how to solve it once and for all? Deleting all preferences every week or two (next time Kontakt starts crashing again) isn't ideal of course. Thanks!

EDIT - one addendum - old projects still crash, while new ones (made either from blank or a template) seem to not crash.
EDIT 2 - anther addendum - other instruments from other vendors seem ok (Repro1, Omnisphere, Nexus 3) but Battery 4, also from NI, crashes on loading any kit. I have an open ticket with NI btw.

[Flyingrockstudios]

Just a few thoughts my fellow Pro Tools friend:

After over a month now and you have no responses to your post. This is because there’s not a person in the world that’s going to be able to resolve a random bug/crash that happens once every few months. Also, what is happening with your system is not normal, as I think you know. In order to solve issues like this you must first eliminate all variables. To me this means you need to run a clean install of the latest version 2020.3 of Pro Tools with NO 3rd party plug ins or VI’s.

Software companies are not typically working on fixing bugs of past versions of software, and if you eventually want Avid to log whatever is happening as a bug you will likely need to be running the latest version at least.

If you can run this latest version of Pro Tools for the six month period as I described and then you keep experiencing this start up bug then you might be able to get some attention from the powers that be. You are in a tough spot because what I am describing is probably not a practical way of working, and it makes it seem that you are somehow tasked with debugging Pro Tools for Avid!

So here’s the thing: Avid created an environment that can run compatible 3rd party plug ins, and 3rd parties have created plug ins that can run in Pro Tools. But technically neither is responsible for each other. NI could claim that Kontakt in running fine in hundreds of thousands of PT users computers without issue(including mine), so they are not at fault. It’s even running fine in your Cubase program on the same computer. Avid could point to any of the 3rd party plug ins and make a claim that any of those have created some corruption that you have not been able to eliminate.

If you feel like you’re on your own, I’m sorry that it’s because you mostly are at this point based on your description. You do have a work around, but it’s less than ideal. If you can’t eliminate all 3rd party plug ins, maybe you can just not install Kontakt in PT for now, keep using that in Cubase, and see if the PT start up issue goes away in a few months. I’m just trying to help you get to a stable system, but there are too many variables in your setup right now to even begin to troubleshoot.

I wish you all the best and hopefully you can still work and be productive. Stay safe and healthy my friend!

[noiseboyuk]

I THINK I FOUND IT!

I can always produce a crash in the following conditions:

1. iZotope RX6 or RX7 Connect AudioSuite window is open
2. Kontakt 5 or 6 window is open
3. Load any library nki in Kontakt - CRASH.

Loading a kit in Battery 4 also crashes, but I haven't found any other instruments from NI or anyone else that misbehave. There might be other plugins besides RX Connect that causes the crash, but haven't found any yet, including other plugins from the RX suite.

Have reported it back to NI tech support, the case has been going on for many months. A huge breakthrough I think and hope. It explains why its routine for me and almost no-one else, RX Connect window is nearly always open for me on any rig, but that's a me thing!

EDIT - just to add, I tested on Mac and its fine, this is a Windows-only bug.

[Flyingrockstudios]

Excellent work! I’m glad you stuck with it, and it sounds like you have the right folks involved now. Since it’s a Windows only bug unfortunately I am not able to help test your findings, even though I do have Kontakt and Izotope RX7. Just keep moving forward!

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by Flyingrockstudios

Excellent work! I’m glad you stuck with it, and it sounds like you have the right folks involved now. Since it’s a Windows only bug unfortunately I am not able to help test your findings, even though I do have Kontakt and Izotope RX7. Just keep moving forward!

Thanks - after years its a real punch-the-air moment :)

I guess there's three parties involved in this one - Avid, NI and iZotope, but I think the ball has to be in NI's court as it is Kontakt that actually crashes. Hopefully it's not a difficult fix. Wonder what it could actually be that's causing it? Is there something unique about Connect and the way that it interacts with a third party program? Out of curiosity I just tried it with Revoice Pro link which is similar conceptually, but no issues with that one.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

I THINK I FOUND IT!

I can always produce a crash in the following conditions:

1. iZotope RX6 or RX7 Connect AudioSuite window is open
2. Kontakt 5 or 6 window is open
3. Load any library nki in Kontakt - CRASH.

Loading a kit in Battery 4 also crashes, but I haven't found any other instruments from NI or anyone else that misbehave. There might be other plugins besides RX Connect that causes the crash, but haven't found any yet, including other plugins from the RX suite.

Have reported it back to NI tech support, the case has been going on for many months. A huge breakthrough I think and hope. It explains why its routine for me and almost no-one else, RX Connect window is nearly always open for me on any rig, but that's a me thing!

EDIT - just to add, I tested on Mac and its fine, this is a Windows-only bug.

Why are you running RX6/RX7 in conjunction with Kontakt? Unless you really need to edit the audio then drop RX and run without it. RX6/7 plugins are cpu & latency hogs.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Why are you running RX6/RX7 in conjunction with Kontakt? Unless you really need to edit the audio then drop RX and run without it. RX6/7 plugins are cpu & latency hogs.

Connect is an AudioSuite offline process, so it should only have very minimal overhead. Typically its always there open in my sessions - in a typical day I might back and forth between RX and PT I guess >100 times.

Hope that helps.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Connect is an AudioSuite offline process, so it should only have very minimal overhead. Typically its always there open in my sessions - in a typical day I might back and forth between RX and PT I guess >100 times.

Hope that helps.

It might be an offline process but just having the program running will eat up cpu cycles. Are you really needing what's going on in RX that much? In well recorded audio you shouldn't need it.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by musicman691

It might be an offline process but just having the program running will eat up cpu cycles. Are you really needing what's going on in RX that much? In well recorded audio you shouldn't need it.

I'm hazarding a guess here - you don't work in broadcast television, do you?