# Kontakt Delay Clicking with tempo changes



## cc64 (Nov 4, 2010)

Hi,

in synch mode when i apply delay on a sound in Kontakt, if there happens to be even a slight tempo change i invariably end up with digital clicks on my tracks. It's like the fact that Kontakt has to recalculate the delays in real time causes it to glitch. Anybody have a workaround for this?

Tempo changes aren't too rare in film music... ~o) 

Best,

Claude


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## EvilDragon (Nov 5, 2010)

No workaround. Perhaps if you make sure that you don't have a signal going through the delay when the tempo change occurs. This is a "natural" artifact of digital delays, dunno if stuff like this can be fixed - it is the fact that delay buffer size is changed "live", that makes them click.


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## cc64 (Nov 5, 2010)

Hey Mario,

thanks for the reply. I was afraid of that...I do try to retrig after tempo changes to avoid clicking but not always possible.

Thanks for confirming! It would be cool if someone(NI, Heavyocity or Sample Logic) could eventually find an elegant solution.

Best,

Claude


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## EvilDragon (Nov 5, 2010)

NI is the only one that can take a look at it - 3rd party library vendors have nothing with how Kontakt is coded internally.


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## robh (Nov 5, 2010)

What would be the harm in un-syncing the delay?

Rob


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## cc64 (Nov 5, 2010)

@Mario

i tought that maybe some script could work out how K4 deals with the delay buffers etc... but i'm no tech wiz...


@Rob 

Well in many situations if the delay is upfront and not synched to the host tempo, it will sound as if the drums or the gtrs aren't playing in time with the rest...

Best,

Claude


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## EvilDragon (Nov 5, 2010)

Nope, scripts can't help in that behavior.


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## robh (Nov 5, 2010)

cc64 @ Fri Nov 05 said:


> @Mario
> 
> i tought that maybe some script could work out how K4 deals with the delay buffers etc... but i'm no tech wiz...
> 
> ...


True. But if it's only a slight delay in tempo, I would imagine that's a better compromise than having a digital click throughout your track.  I've had to deal with the same issue in Omnisphere many times, and turning off the sync (for delay type effects) worked well for me.


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## Ian Dorsch (Nov 5, 2010)

It seems to be a pretty common problem. I had a thread a while back regarding the same issue with Omnisphere.


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## Mr. Anxiety (Nov 30, 2013)

I'm reviving this thread to see if any progress was made to avoid clicks when Kontakt sees a tempo change. I'm using Cubase 7 here and if I put a few tempo changes in a sequence and just run it across them with an instance of K 5.3 open and in ext sync, with no sounds being triggered, I hear a click every time it hits a tempo change. With the sync in internal, there aren't any clicks.

Doing film scoring requires the occasional tempo change, this creates a serious problem when trying to record your mix or stems. I don't know how anybody is able to deal with this. And forget about creating a rallentando............

There are all of these arppegiator type things in so many libraries that require tempo sync, composers have to be having an issue with this.

Please share your thoughts.

Mr Anxiety


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## Imzadi (Nov 30, 2013)

Yeah, it's a pretty common problem. 

I just draw some automation to the delay vol and get rid of it for a moment. Depending on what you have the new delay with new tempo usually hides the gap. 
Other times I freeze/bounce that section while temporary getting rid of the tempo change.

I imagine a better way to deal with this would be if you could send ctl message to the delay or to Kontakt and override tempo sync for a couple of bars, but don't know if that's possible.


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## Mr. Anxiety (Nov 30, 2013)

That is what I tried to do, automate the Ext-Int sync button in Kontakt.

But that makes a bit of a click as well, definitely when you re-engage it to track the new tempo......... so it's flawed as well.

I trying to see if it's DAW specific or not. I had a Logic user say it doesn't happen with him, hmmm.

Mr A


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## Mr. Anxiety (Dec 1, 2013)

It's starting to look like this might be a Cubase/VST issue with Kontakt.

Most Logic-DP users are saying they don't have the issue. They're not using VST.

Any other Cubase users want to chime in on this?

Mr A


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## rgames (Dec 1, 2013)

Yes - I have run into the exact same problem in the past. Kontakt tempo synching doesn't play nicely with ramp tempo changes in Cubase. I think what happens is when there's a ramp tempo change, Cubase tries to send as many changes per second as it can to most precisely match the ramp. That overwhelms Kontakt and produces clicks.

I don't think it happens on jump tempo changes, only ramp (because they're discrete). So if you need to use ext synch in Kontakt then you can try adding a bunch of small jumps instead of a ramp.

I just disable the ext synch because I don't use anything that's tempo synched.

rgames


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## Mr. Anxiety (Dec 1, 2013)

It produces clicks with either jump or ramp tempo changes. I wish I had the option to not externally sync with Kontakt, but I do not. I have to solve this one somehow.


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## Mr. Anxiety (Oct 18, 2014)

Reviving this post since this issue is still alive almost three years now.

NI is not dealing with the support tickets I've submitted, as well as Brett's.

Looking for any kind of workaround or solution.

Cubase (6 or 7) - Kontakt (any version) in Ext Sync - Tempo change (ramp or jump) = Clicks

Mr Anxiety


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## marclawsonmusic (Oct 18, 2014)

Obvious question, Mr. A, but does changing the audio buffer to something really high - like 1024 (or higher) have any impact? If there were just some way you could render the track to audio, you might be able to get out of the weeds.

I'm sure this has been tried before, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask. (I have not read all of the old threads)


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## Mr. Anxiety (Oct 18, 2014)

Thanks Marc for the suggestion.

Yes, at 1024 and possibly 512 I can get the clicking issue to stop, I believe. And if my lock with Pro Tools and video stays in sync, I can definitely use this as a workaround to print, at least.

Mr A


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