Logic Pro 8, Kontakt 2.23 & Memory usage

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Level 1

26 points

Logic Pro 8, Kontakt 2.23 & Memory usage

Hello -

*What type of known memory problems might exist between Logic (Logic 8 in particular) and either Kontakt 2.23 or Kontakt Player 2.23??*

*If there are known memory usage issues, what can be done to help/fix the situation??*

My computer set up is listed below. I have not upgraded to Leopard (but did upgrade to Logic Pro 8). By-in-large, Logic Pro 8 works fine. However, I usually "network" the Logic sequencing projects with Muse Research's Receptor (version B) and/or an aging Dell Precision Workstation 650 using Musiclab's MIDIoverLan CP3. This has proven stable for me. For my most recent project, I decided to see how many instrument plug-ins I can utilize within the Logic Pro 8 program (without benefit of this "network" set-up). For this project, I'm using one instance of MusicLab's RealGuitar and 16 instances of +*Kontakt Player version 2.23*+ for a total of 17 instrumental tracks. The instrument libraries used are Garritan's GPO and JABB. With this many individual (not multi) track instances used, the activity monitor is showing high RAM usage. For some of the instruments, I could not use the KS choices (trumpet, trombone) because the extra RAM caused Logic to crash as I mounted more instruments.

I tried adjusting the DFD. Still, there remained high RAM usage and the occasional crash. For some of the crashes, I either got the endless colored spinning wheel or a message basically stating that there was no memory available for the DFD. I am no expert with the advanced workings of Logic and the DFD associated with the Kontakt plug-ins. But I am surprised that using just 17 instrument tracks with this newer Mac Pro computer (with 5 GBs RAM) is causing problems. Sadly, I am not an expert Apple user to be able to tell whether it's the computer or Logic or Kontakt. I suspect, though, its some kind of issue between Kontakt and Logic.

For my audio, I use MOTU's 2408 MK3. For my midi in-put I use M-Audio's Keystation Pro 88. I do not think either one of these devices are causing the apparent memory problems.

By the way. . . before I purchased my newer MacPro computer, I had a similar instrumental set-up using my aging Dell Precision 650 workstation with 2 GB of RAM using Steinberg's SX 3 program. I used the same GPO and JABB sound libraries. It did "challange" the Dell computer (I had to adjust buffer/latency settings to MOTU's 828 MK2 used with the Dell computer), but the computer didn't crash like what I'm experiencing at present.

I don't mind "networking" my computers together in order to use larger instrumental plug-in tracks. But I would think that given the "power" of my newer MacPro I should be able to handle more than 17 GPO & JABB tracks. Yes? No?

*Given my current computer set-up, how many instrumental tracks (using libraries associated with Kontakt or the Kontakt Player) should I get??*

Thank you in advance.

Ted

Intel Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.10), Two 2.66 Xeon Dual - 5 GB RAM - HDD: 250 GB X1, 500 GB X2

Posted on Nov 12, 2007 6:28 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 12, 2007 12:19 PM in response to efiebke

Hi

I have the same problem.Using massive amounts of ram for just a few instances of Kontakt 2.23
Something is just plain wrong & I think it is with Garritan & especially the Kontakt player they utilize.When I load multiple instances of EXS instruments there is no problem at all so I do not think Logic is the culprit.Maybe when a new version of Kontakt comes out the problem will be solved.For now the Garritan libraries are a no go for me.

Cheers

PS I am using a MacPro 2.66 with 3 Gigs Ram & fast ATA Serial drives.

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Answer 2

efiebke Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 12, 2007 3:09 PM in response to John Allison

Thank you, John, for the reply.

My problem is that my main libraries are the Garritan Libraries GPO, JABB, Stradivari. Sadly, neither one of these are huge sound libraries compared to others. But I also utilize other ones, too: +Chris Hein Guitars+, +Lyrical Distortion 1 & 2+ by **** D Media. I also like the Kontakt program. I just wish the Kontakt program(s) and Logic played better with each other.

Interestingly. . . I have both the JABB and GPO libraries loaded on the Receptor. My Receptor (the older version B) only has 1.25 GB of RAM and handles these libraries just fine. Like I said in my original post, I can (and probably will) "network" this composition project (and future composition projects) from the MacPro computer with Logic 8 to both the Receptor and Dell Precision workstation. I'm just flabergasted that these relatively "light" libraries use up so much RAM so easily with my Apple computer with Logic. Don't get me wrong. I really like Logic. I was a Logic user (LAWP) on an even older Dell computer before EMagic sold this software to Apple. I purchased this MacPro computer JUST so that I can use Logic again. Unfortunately, I'm relatively new to the Apple world. I can make this computer work just fine. But I don't know how to problem solve more complicated issues like this because I'm not entirely sure just where the problem exists. Is it Apple with its operating system and Logic? Is it Native-Instruments with their programs? Do these software companies normally have problems working with each other? I don't know. . .

Sigh. . . .

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Answer 3

Nov 12, 2007 7:32 PM in response to John Allison

Sadly, I can chime in with the same basic problem. Namely, that
Kontakt2 seems to leak ram. I've watched the activity monitor show
an increase in ram allocation to logic if i simply LOOK at a kontakt
instance. Just clicking on the instance causes ram to be allocated, and no matter how much I purge samples, I just can't retrieve that ram. Once 2 gigs are sent to logic, crash.

The only solution I've found is to save & restart before it climbs too high. I can then work for an hour or so until the ram overflows again. This is obviously a major bug, and I agree that Logic doesn't appear to be the culprit.

Have either of you tried K3? I wonder if the problem is more under control there? There's no way Kontakt will bother to fix this bug
in v2.23 with v3 on the shelves. The question is, how do we know that v3 fixes it without buying it? I've heard reports that v3 is even
more bloated than v2.

I've recently done a clean install of leopard on a blank drive, and
i'm patiently waiting until NI updates the installers for K2.
Then, i'll have a clean OS, clean newly installed logic 8, and
a cleanly installed K2. Maybe that will help mitigate, if not solve the problem.

I'm almost sure that Kontakt is the source of the problem, but
I've also been told that Intels have serious flaws in their ram
allocation WITH TIGER.

Some people with G5's have reported having access to 3.5 gigs ram.
Intells can only use 2 gigs with any one app. This was thought to be a problem with Tiger and and Intels. So maybe Leopard will expand the RAM wallet, and then we just have to wait for Kontakt to stop spending so much.

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Answer 4

efiebke Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 13, 2007 2:50 AM in response to manOtunes

Thank you for the reply, manOtunes.

I've posted similar requests for assistance on the Native-Instruments bulletin board and the Garritan bulletin board. After reading the few reponses on all of the bulletin boards, a problem does exist between Kontakt and Logic. Most responses seem to point the finger towards Native-Instrument's Kontakt 2 (full version) and Kontakt 2 Player. This is probably true. But, again, I point out that I am not experiencing memory allocation issues with the Kontakt player (older version) on the Receptor or the Kontakt 2 Player (version 2.11) on my aging Dell workstation.

I haven't upgraded to Kontakt 3 nor do I plan to until I know that the sound libraries (JABB, GPO, Chris Heins Guitars, etc.) works well with this newer version. Nor do I plan on upgrading to Leopard until all other softwares work well with it. Heck, it seems that even Logic doesn't work dependably with Leopard in reading some of the post on THIS bulletin board and others.

This is quite discouraging. . .

*Any reliable work-arounds in getting Kontakt 2 to work well with Logic on an Apple computer with sufficiant RAM???*

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Answer 5

Fred B

Level 3

575 points

Nov 13, 2007 3:43 AM in response to efiebke

*Any reliable work-arounds in getting Kontakt 2 to work well with Logic on an Apple computer with sufficiant RAM???*

In my experience there are basically two factors for efficient RAM usage of Kontakt with Logic.

1. In Kontakt choose the minimum DFD settings, ie. no more voices than actually needed.

2. In Logic use multi instruments of Kontakt instead of multiple instances.

Unfortunately, the setup of multi instruments in Logic is rather complicated.
For a general solution you need some cabling in the environment as shown here:

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=3017&start=0

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Answer 6

efiebke Author

Level 1

26 points

Nov 13, 2007 6:28 AM in response to Fred B

Fred -

I just did a real quick "test" set-up using the same GPO/JABB instruments (and using Kontakt 2 Player) BUT using the suggestions that you and a couple of other people (on other bulletin boards) have suggested. It seems to help keep down the RAM usage. I have more experimenting to do to see how I can best configure the Kontakt 2 Player (and full-version Kontakt software) with regards to audio out, etc. But I think that this is one choice of direction to configure the Kontakt plug-ins with Logic and keep down RAM usage.

Thank you for your reply. . . 🙂

Ted

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