# What do those incredible disk spikes (and drop outs) in Kontakt mean?



## Lionel Schmitt (Feb 10, 2018)

Thats what happens almost every note I play and when it happens the audio drops out and only the release tail rings when I release the key. I have a very weak machine and pla to get a new one soon.
But what does this reading even mean? It really jumps from about 20 to maximum in a milisecond. Is my disk broken? Or to slow? 
Thanks!


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## EvilDragon (Feb 10, 2018)

This is happening when the disk cannot cope with the streaming demand, yes.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Feb 10, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> This is happening when the disk cannot cope with the streaming demand, yes.


I guess this one is quite simple then, huh?... I have to get a new (and faster) disk. ssd at best. Just wanted to make sure that that's actually the issue.
Currently using a very basic inbuilt disk with about 20-50 mb/s reading spead. I guess its a pretty bad one because it often drops down to literally zero. Very unstable. *_*


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## EvilDragon (Feb 10, 2018)

Yeah, that would be it, it's probably a slow 5400 RPM drive. Laptop?


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## sazema (Feb 10, 2018)

Also it depends on:

* type of library, for example CSS library is sooo intensive on disk (lot of samples is gonna be loaded during playback) even with 7400 RPM
* and mostly some background processes on your machine, for example if you're on Windows 10, check you defragmentation scheduled jobs of your HDDs, maybe some of them scheduled to work while you working with Kontakt, or antivirus software - add your library folder to exclude list so AV should not scan samples and processes.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 10, 2018)

AVs would scan samples only when loading the patch initially, not during streaming (because handles to those files are already open once the instrument is loaded).

Also defragmentation usually runs only when disk is idle (doing nothing), which is not the case for disk streaming...


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## Lionel Schmitt (Feb 13, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Yeah, that would be it, it's probably a slow 5400 RPM drive. Laptop?


Ah, just saw you post now. 
Yes, I'm on a basic laptop, unfortunately. But its a bit random with the performance, sometimes I have a lot of patches loaded and it plays back perfectly and then next time I hit those sudden spikes. As you can see on the screenshot I havent loaded up a lot. Its just one performance legato patch from spitfire symphonic strings.


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## EvilDragon (Feb 13, 2018)

Yes, that patch can stream quite a lot of voices simultaneously especially if you enable more than one mic position - and slow drives don't like these things! Sometimes it will work, sometimes not, since you're on a basic laptop, and I assume you have the Kontakt libraries installed on the same drive where OS is... that's your problem. OS and Kontakt will fight for drive access, and when they do, you can get these spikes. This is why it's recommended to have Kontakt libraries installed on a separate high speed drive/SSD, just them, so that they don't need to fight with OS for access times.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Feb 13, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> Yes, that patch can stream quite a lot of voices simultaneously especially if you enable more than one mic position - and slow drives don't like these things! Sometimes it will work, sometimes not, since you're on a basic laptop, and I assume you have the Kontakt libraries installed on the same drive where OS is... that's your problem. OS and Kontakt will fight for drive access, and when they do, you can get these spikes. This is why it's recommended to have Kontakt libraries installed on a separate high speed drive/SSD, just them, so that they don't need to fight with OS for access times.


My notebook has a second seperate inbuilt drive. Thats where I store my libraries, not OS drive. But good to know that I should avoid that anyway. 
I get a new maschine soon with ssd drives, I hope I will all run better then!


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## EvilDragon (Feb 13, 2018)

SSD should definitely help!


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