Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

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Diggory
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:33 am

Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by Diggory » Mon May 04, 2020 6:24 am

Hey there,

So I recently purchased an NI KK61.
I'm running Ableton live 10 intro, when I load the KK VST in to a track I hear a tiny crackle through my speakers when I play single lower notes or multiple notes.
I have updated everything, KK, Ableton, the Presonus studio24c audio interface firmware and software and my OS (Catalina 10.15.4).
My Mac's specs: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), 2.9 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, 8 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3.

Observations:
Using computers core audio as output still produces crackles.
CPU Load meter in Live isnt going past 10% and there will be crackles.
When i load an Ableton piano I can play 5 low notes simultaneously and there will be no crackle, if I mash the keyboard to play about 10 low notes then there is a barely perceptible amount of crackle.
Certain KK instruments like the Una Chorda instruments produce crackle way easier (just two notes) than others like the massive pianos -e.g with 'love letter' i can play 3 low notes simultaneously and there is no crackle, 4 notes and there's a tiny bit.

In/out sample rate is: 44100Hz
Changing buffer size has no effect.
At a buffer size of 1024 input latency = 0 , output =26.3ms
At a buffer size of 256 input latency = 0, output = 8.9ms

Ableton uses 20% CPU according to the Mac's activity monitor when i mash the keys.

Turning wifi off had no effect.
The number of programs I'm running (CPU load) has no effect. Crackles with just live, crackles with: Traktor DJ playing tracks with FX on, itunes playing songs, komplete kontrol open, and youtube playing vids.

The Mac is running cool.

Changing audio cables to a brand new cable made no difference.

Switching USB-C ports made no difference.

Arbitrarily changing DEC made no difference.

The 500GB SSD is only half full.

RAM use is at 6-6.5GB out of 8 with lots of programs running, then at 5.0-5.5 if I quit everything besides a few Abe forum chrome tabs.

Am I right in thinking I can't fiddle with enabling/disabling mutlicore processor support in Live 10? If I can, tell me how please.

Any suggestions on what to do/test now?
What settings to change and where?
Is it something to do with where the VST/KK files are being stored (I'd think not, in that it's all default and I can still make Abelton instruments crackle ever so slightly if I play like 15+ notes at once)?

Many thanks!

aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by aklisiewicz » Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:09 pm

I have the same problem. When I change sample rate LIVE11 crashes. I then go reopen and load a project and all audio tracks are screwed up cracking, noise etc....
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

Mark Williams
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:43 pm
Location: Kent

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by Mark Williams » Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:20 pm

Lack of details yet again.
Live 11, M1 Mac Mini, Push 2, Scarlett 18i20 & ADA8200, Softube Console 1 Mk2, Deepmind12, Hydrasynth, Cobalt 8M, Moog Subsequent 25, IK Uno Synth Pro, Plethora X3, Nord Drum 3P

aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by aklisiewicz » Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:12 am

not sure what details you talking about ?
I use Win10-Pro, Live11. Plenty or RAM and HD space/.

In my case it all works fine when the DAW is set to 44100 rate but when I switch to 46k --- DISASTER
One thing I have not noticed until today is that when I'm in 48k sample rate the processor use jumps up to 260% (while not even playing any sounds). This only happens when I open an existing project. It seems like the program tries to convert audio to a higher sample rate or whatever it is doing...
When I click and start blank new project this problem disappears.

That could be a cause of the cracks and other sound issues, but I have no idea why this is happening.
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by aklisiewicz » Wed Jun 09, 2021 5:39 am

I noticed another case when similar problem occurs. I have a project with some MIC recording on AUDIO track. Because I had to cut off something in the middle, the track have slip into 2 pieces (clips). Those clips play fine , no issues. I wanted to join the two clips into one (CTRL-J) and when the consolidation is complete - the resulted clip is garbage. It sounds like it is played at 10-20% speed with lots of crackling noise and distortion. What I also notice is that immediately the CPU jumps from normal (2-5%) to 260%.


https://ibb.co/9GN6WGv

I exported two clips to the TEMP folder in the file manager panel. I created new project, imported and consolidated those 2 clips into one - no problems, all worked fine. When I do the same inside an existing project LIVE goes crazy! why?

I really do not see what I could be doing wrong here. The sample rate is set to 44.1k. I tried to consolidate 2 clips with and without WARP and the result was the same. I think this had happened to me once a long time ago, but I thought there was a different reason.
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

Mark Williams
Posts: 898
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 2:43 pm
Location: Kent

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by Mark Williams » Wed Jun 09, 2021 6:26 am

aklisiewicz wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 5:39 am
I noticed another case when similar problem occurs. I have a project with some MIC recording on AUDIO track. Because I had to cut off something in the middle, the track have slip into 2 pieces (clips). Those clips play fine , no issues. I wanted to join the two clips into one (CTRL-J) and when the consolidation is complete - the resulted clip is garbage. It sounds like it is played at 10-20% speed with lots of crackling noise and distortion. What I also notice is that immediately the CPU jumps from normal (2-5%) to 260%.


https://ibb.co/9GN6WGv

I exported two clips to the TEMP folder in the file manager panel. I created new project, imported and consolidated those 2 clips into one - no problems, all worked fine. When I do the same inside an existing project LIVE goes crazy! why?

I really do not see what I could be doing wrong here. The sample rate is set to 44.1k. I tried to consolidate 2 clips with and without WARP and the result was the same. I think this had happened to me once a long time ago, but I thought there was a different reason.
DAW & Windows must be using the exact same sample rate, or you will encounter issues like this No issues on my Win 10 setup with Focusrite 18i20, Asio drivers are fine and allow multi client usage and changing of sample rate.
Live 11, M1 Mac Mini, Push 2, Scarlett 18i20 & ADA8200, Softube Console 1 Mk2, Deepmind12, Hydrasynth, Cobalt 8M, Moog Subsequent 25, IK Uno Synth Pro, Plethora X3, Nord Drum 3P

jonljacobi
Posts: 887
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:36 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by jonljacobi » Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:27 pm

I’ve had this issue as well with the latest version of Kontakt. Not 100% sure why, but I have had to remove some CPU hungry fx to get rid of it. But it’s not consistent. The song will play fine when I first open it, then craps out later. I may go back a version or two.

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by jestermgee » Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:25 am

jonljacobi wrote:
Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:27 pm
I’ve had this issue as well with the latest version of Kontakt. Not 100% sure why, but I have had to remove some CPU hungry fx to get rid of it. But it’s not consistent. The song will play fine when I first open it, then craps out later. I may go back a version or two.
The OPs issue is from last year so not the same issue as it was using a year older version of both Kontakt and Live.

Also, the OPs issue is most likely the fact they have only a dual core i5 CPU from 2016 which is not a very capable processor so will struggle if you throw too many voices at it.

The cause of your issue is completely unknown, along with your OS, Live version and plugins/libraries you are using..... Kontakt is a container so it matters greatly what you load inside as some instruments can have huge sample banks and sometimes it can take a few minutes to load into ram (if you even have enough available) which while doing so can cause issues in playback

aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by aklisiewicz » Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:08 am

OK, what I have discovered after some testing is that the cause of my cracking problem was the settings in my AUDIO DRIVER. It is the wired thing however.
I have Hi Spec PC with 64Gig RAM. I could afford to assign high sample volume and went to 2048 (in the settings). That is what resulted hickups.
When I turned it down to 1024 it stopped and everything went back to normal. The question though still remains why I cannot use 2048 samples if I have plenty of memory ? there seem to be some interaction with LIVE and my BEHRINGER ASIO driver.

I will also do some testing with A4ALL ,.. we will see
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

kitekrazy
Posts: 795
Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Crackle when using kontakt VST, not with Ableton instruments

Post by kitekrazy » Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:07 am

aklisiewicz wrote:
Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:08 am
OK, what I have discovered after some testing is that the cause of my cracking problem was the settings in my AUDIO DRIVER. It is the wired thing however.
I have Hi Spec PC with 64Gig RAM. I could afford to assign high sample volume and went to 2048 (in the settings). That is what resulted hickups.
When I turned it down to 1024 it stopped and everything went back to normal. The question though still remains why I cannot use 2048 samples if I have plenty of memory ? there seem to be some interaction with LIVE and my BEHRINGER ASIO driver.

I will also do some testing with A4ALL ,.. we will see
Why would you want to do that? I had similar experience many years ago using Sonar and M-Audio AP2496. I guess hardware/software doesn't want to run that high.

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