URGENT - Kontakt 4 crashing Play & Logic 8

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Level 1

5 points

URGENT - Kontakt 4 crashing Play & Logic 8

I have just upgraded to Kontakt 4 and it appears to be crashing instances of EW Play which in turn is crashing Logic.

I am using Logic 8.0.2 in Snow Leopard (10.6.8) and I have the latest update of Kontakt 4. Im not sure which version of Play I have, and can't work out how to find out, anybody?

The problem started to get worse the more tracks I added and now I have about 50 tracks, random instances of Play start to 'hiss' and then when I try to open Play to reload the instrument, 9 times out of 10, Logic crashes. I am now at the point where I can't even play the track through once without this happening, so I am completely stuck until someone helps! (I have a deadline tonight so it's urgent)

I think Kontakt 4 is at the bottom of this, even though Play is crashing, because it's only started since I started using Kontakt 4 and also when Logic crashes, I usually get the message saying Kontakt has crashed it, even though it's the Play instruments that are going mad.

ID

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6), 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 8 GB 1066 MHz DDR3

Posted on Aug 10, 2011 5:56 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 10, 2011 7:29 AM in response to idolamore

You can check the version of Play by going to Main Menu in the plugin window and selecting About PLAY. There is also a Check For Updates option.

It sounds like you're just running out of memory though. When you say you have about 50 tracks, how many instances of Play do you actually have running?

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Answer 2

idolamore Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2011 7:57 AM in response to Miles Fender

Thanks for your reply. I was coming to that conclusion myself, but it's not normal behaviour for my system. I can normally have between 60 and 70 tracks hosting PLAY and kontakt (3) without too much trouble and when I do overstack it, i usually get system overload messages instead which are slightly easier to work around. I'm now getting the following message when trying to load a new K4 instrument:

"PANIC: Could not allocate enough memory. Application is likely to become unstable."

When I look in the K4 memory server though there is only 1.27GB loaded and I have 8GB RAM, so surely this shouldn't be a problem at this stage?

I have 14 PLAY instances, 8 K3 instances and 23 K4 instances. So 45 in total. It's usually weighted more heavily with PLAY instruments, but I'm using some new K4 libraries.

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Answer 3

CCTM

Level 6

13,147 points

Aug 10, 2011 8:29 AM in response to idolamore

idolamore wrote:

When I look in the K4 memory server though there is only 1.27GB loaded and I have 8GB RAM, so surely this shouldn't be a problem at this stage?

I have 14 PLAY instances, 8 K3 instances and 23 K4 instances. So 45 in total. It's usually weighted more heavily with PLAY instruments, but I'm using some new K4 libraries.

With that amount of plugins, I'd suspect that you are running out of RAM. Check Activity Monitor (Utilities folder) to see what's being actually used.

HTH

CCT

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Answer 4

idolamore Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 10, 2011 9:29 AM in response to CCTM

I have checked the Activity Monitor and discovered that I had only a little free RAM (about 400mb when I close Firefox). However, I do have 2.5GB of 'inactive' memory - should this not be used by Logic/ Kontakt when there is no free RAM available?

Also, as I said before, I regularly work with 60+ plug-in instances and I never had this problem before using K4. I have purchased 4GB more RAM, but I can't help but feel there must be another explanation. Any ideas why the inactive memory may not be being used?

Also, could it be anything to do with Logic 8 being 32bit? I notice Logic itself is using up 2.26GB - I think the limit is 4GB? I do have Logic 9 ready to install, but have been holding off until I finish the current project.

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Answer 5

idolamore Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 23, 2011 12:44 PM in response to idolamore

Since posting the original question a couple of weeks ago, I have installed 4GB more RAM and can now confirm that it is not a RAM issue. I have a good 2GB free and 4GB inactive while the project runs, and still I am getting crashes and 'hissing' PLAY instruments. I can manage about 5mins currently before the project crashes, but the periods between crashes are getting shorter and shorter until eventually I won't be able to play the track through once. Can anybody throw anymore light on the situation? I have contacted Native Instruments, but they took 2 weeks to reply to my first email and they suggested repairing disk permissions which didn't work.

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Answer 6

Aug 25, 2011 6:24 AM in response to idolamore

Yes, i think it has everything to do with running Logic in 32 bit. your extra RAM is not being utilized, as yoou've probably hit the 32-bit RAM ceiling. You can try Logic in 64 bit mode, updating all the plugins you can to their latest 64 bit versions, and running the 32 bit ones using the 32-bit Logic bridge. You will probably find that your problem has gone away as you can now ustilize all of your RAM, and now you just have to deal with the bridge, which is a bit of a clunker.

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