# Kontakt 6 Opens Slow?



## robgb (Jan 3, 2020)

Everytime I open Kontakt on my Mac I get the beach ball for several seconds (30 plus) before it lets me do anything. This happens both inside and outside my DAW.

This seems to have started happening when I upgraded to 6. Anyone have any idea what the cause might be?

I'm running the latest version.


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## FC Rolls (Jan 3, 2020)

robgb said:


> Everytime I open Kontakt on my Mac I get the beach ball for several seconds (30 plus) before it lets me do anything. This happens both inside and outside my DAW.
> 
> This seems to have started happening when I upgraded to 6. Anyone have any idea what the cause might be?
> 
> I'm running the latest version.


I've Had this problem for months on Kontakt 5.8.1
OS10.1.6 - logic Pro 10.4.8. - 2011 imac.
I think it was of those stupid inbetween updates that did it.
I don't know if its Native Instruments (probably) or Logic.
The songs open and play the konkat sounds perfect.
But try to open konatk you have to wait.
I wish there was a fix.


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## averystemmler (Jan 3, 2020)

I had a strange issue with Kontakt taking minutes to open when my phone (which I was using for TouchOSC) was connected. I suspect it was trying to access the storage on my phone, but I'm not sure. I believe I discovered a fix, but damned if I can remember what I did.

I'd try disconnecting various external devices and see if the trouble persists


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## charlieclouser (Jan 4, 2020)

Man, I get annoying delays trying to open Kontakt for the first time, both v5 and v6, from Yosemite to Mojave, on 12-core Mac Pro. Not 30 seconds, but more than 10 sec - which by that point I'm already distracted and ready to load EXS24. I'm all SSD so it's not drive speed. Once the plugin is instantiated and the plugin window is open, I can switch tracks and the responsiveness is fine, but that first instantiation and opening the plugin window is annoyingly slow.

I kind of think it might have something to do with having 16tb of Kontakt libraries, including more than 100 Kontakt Player (NI Access) libraries. I tried using "Manage Libraries" in Kontakt to temporarily hide them from the Libraries tab in Kontakt, but this did not help.

I wonder if @EvilDragon knows the secret solution to our beach ball woes?


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## EvilDragon (Jan 4, 2020)

Hmmm not sure. Is the option to show network/removable drives in Files browser enabled?







I have over 200 libraries in Libraries tab, but this is not a problem, because this stuff is cached for display.


That said, K6 does have a bit longer loading time than K5, and I would reckon it's due to added features: wavetable engine, and more recently MIR commands for KSP (this needs to load MIR module into RAM I'd assume, which makes things a bit longer - you can also notice that from 6.1.1 to 6.2 the size of Kontakt executable increased by about 25 MB, on Windows at least).


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## Saxer (Jan 4, 2020)

I think it‘s a Mac-version-of-Kontakt thing (or maybe a AU-version-of-Kontakt thing). It‘s about 10 to 15 sec here too. It has always been slow as far as I can remember... Kontakt 2 was even slower. At that time there was no „library“ and no network, just a collection of a few megabytes of samples on a single drive.

That‘s why I welcome different sampler plugins (VSL, Spitfire, OT, Falcon). Most of them are faster. And Logic‘s EXS is the fastest.


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## EvilDragon (Jan 4, 2020)

Not sure. Kontakt 4 loads blazingly fast over here. In like 1.5 seconds. It might be a Win vs Mac thing, but I'm not sure.


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## robgb (Jan 4, 2020)

EvilDragon said:


> Hmmm not sure. Is the option to show network/removable drives in Files browser enabled?


Unfortunately, unchecking it didn't help.



Saxer said:


> I think it‘s a Mac-version-of-Kontakt thing (or maybe a AU-version-of-Kontakt thing). It‘s about 10 to 15 sec here too.



I don't use the AU version, I use VST, but the problem is the same in standalone. And it only started happening after the update to version 6.



charlieclouser said:


> Once the plugin is instantiated and the plugin window is open, I can switch tracks and the responsiveness is fine, but that first instantiation and opening the plugin window is annoyingly slow.



This has been my experience, too, but never 30 seconds like it is now.

I rarely use my Windows machine, but will check it out to see how long it takes. The actual loading time of Kontakt on the Mac takes only a couple seconds, but once I try to load an instrument (or simply click a knob) I get the beach ball.


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## robgb (Jan 4, 2020)

EvilDragon said:


> Hmmm not sure. Is the option to show network/removable drives in Files browser enabled?


Hmm. I tried it again and found "show network drives" was still checked. I unchecked it again, closed Kontakt, and reopened to make sure it was still unchecked. It was. And now the problem seems to be solved. I'll let you know if it changes.

UPDATE: Nope. Back to doing it again.


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## tack (Jan 4, 2020)

What's interesting is that I could instantiate a track template with K6 in about 200ms. I'd press the key and the Kontakt window would be open practically before I released the button. Somewhere between 6.0 and now, possibly due to Kontakt itself or due to changes on my own side (e.g. I began amping up my use of the Quick Load panel), instantiation now takes about 2.5 seconds.

Still nowhere near 30 seconds, at least. That's painful. Although I'd be tempted to trade 30-second instantiations for stability. (Kontakt still crashes on me regularly when closing the UI for reasons that remain mysterious. The impact of a crash is at least mitigated by having Reaper run Kontakt as a dedicated process.)


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## robgb (Jan 27, 2020)

UPDATE: This problem was getting worse and worse. Earlier today I clocked the K6 beachball at 90 seconds before the instrument fully loaded. On doing a Google search, I found someone else having a similar problem in Windows on the NI forum. What he did was try hitting the resize button on an instance of Kontakt and the problem went away.

So I tried this and low and behold it actually worked. Reduced the time to twenty seconds. Hit resize again and then again. It now loads instantly. No delay at all. Hopefully this will last.


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## jcrosby (Jan 27, 2020)

Saxer said:


> I think it‘s a Mac-version-of-Kontakt thing (or maybe a AU-version-of-Kontakt thing). It‘s about 10 to 15 sec here too. It has always been slow as far as I can remember... Kontakt 2 was even slower. At that time there was no „library“ and no network, just a collection of a few megabytes of samples on a single drive.
> 
> That‘s why I welcome different sampler plugins (VSL, Spitfire, OT, Falcon). Most of them are faster. And Logic‘s EXS is the fastest.


Same issue here so this must be an issue only affecting macos. It also seems to affect Kontakt 5 as Kontakt 5 has become laggy for a while now, never had an issue with this before Kontakt 6. I saw about 30 second delay in Logic this weekend, no externals plugged in at all, everything inside the box. The delays I'm seeing are in line with the OP's comments. I'll see what happens when trying resize... Ever since NI discontinued phone support dealing with them has been a real headache. Not a good sign AFAIC.


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## charlieclouser (Jan 27, 2020)

After some testing, I have found that Kontakt v5 and v6 take about 15 seconds to open, but ONLY on the first time I instantiate one of them in a Logic Project that does not have any other instances of Kontakt. Once the Project file has at least one instance, adding another or opening the plugin window is almost instantaneous.

Moving from Yosemite + Logic v10.2.4 + Kontakt v5.73 + Ableton v9 over to Mojave + Logic v10.4.8 + Kontakt v5.8.1 + Kontakt v6.2.1 + Ableton v10 makes everything better. All is super fast now.

I suspect that it was just the clutter from five years of running Yosemite. A clean install of Mojave, 1,100 plugins, and everything took more than a week but now my rig is flying. (Mac Pro cylinder 12-core.)

New massively huge template opens in 3 seconds!


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## soundtrax (Jan 28, 2020)

Not sure, but maybe "send anonymous user data" (in preferences) might increase the loading time - after I disabled it, Kontakt opened normal again (K6 standalone takes about 3secs here on MacOs Sierra).


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## EvilDragon (Jan 28, 2020)

Sending user data is only done on closing Kontakt, not opening, IIRC.


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## robgb (Jan 28, 2020)

UPDATE 2: Well, we're back to slow loading on the first instance. Maybe ten, fifteen seconds. Oddly, I've found that if I open standalone Kontakt, wait the ten or fifteen seconds, then open Reaper and load Kontakt there, it loads instantly. So even opening in standalone seems to count as the "first instance."


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## robgb (Jan 28, 2020)

UPDATE 3: Possible workaround. In Reaper I added a hidden track with an instance of Kontakt to my Default Project template, so when Reaper starts up it automatically starts that instance of Kontakt. Then when I load new instances (or track templates that include Kontakt) the loading seems to be instantaneous. So far so good, but I've said that before.

UPDATE 4: This only works if you save the template with the Kontakt window open so that it's open when the template loads when starting Reaper. Which leads me to believe that the slow loading problem has something to do with the computer graphics. I wonder if there's an adjustment that can be made to the graphics settings that would fix this.


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## MusiquedeReve (Feb 21, 2022)

charlieclouser said:


> After some testing, I have found that Kontakt v5 and v6 take about 15 seconds to open, but ONLY on the first time I instantiate one of them in a Logic Project that does not have any other instances of Kontakt. Once the Project file has at least one instance, adding another or opening the plugin window is almost instantaneous.
> 
> Moving from Yosemite + Logic v10.2.4 + Kontakt v5.73 + Ableton v9 over to Mojave + Logic v10.4.8 + Kontakt v5.8.1 + Kontakt v6.2.1 + Ableton v10 makes everything better. All is super fast now.
> 
> ...


DAMN! 3 seconds sounds like a dream 

I have a 2019 Mac Pro 7,1 and I load Logic Pro without any project and then opening a project, even one that only has 5-10 tracks on it, even if frozen, takes 30-40 seconds and I get the spinning beach ball

Maybe I need to reset my computer to factory and start all over again?


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## pulse (May 31, 2022)

I just wanted to add to this. I was experiencing Kontakt taking a while to open (30 seconds). After investigating I randomly turned off 'Usage Data Tracking' in options. After this it only took 3-4 seconds to open. Hopefully I don't jinx anything lol but if anyone is experiencing the same issue... give this a go


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## titokane (Nov 12, 2022)

Sorry for the necro, but I've been dealing with Kontakt taking too long to start up and finally figured out what the issue was on my machine. 

Symptoms -- Kontakt 6 on Mac would beach ball for about 5-10 seconds every time I focused it, whether that was opening for the first time, switching instruments in Logic, opening it for any reason to do anything. 

Solution -- Files tab / View button / Quick-Jump had been left on one of my external thunderbolt drive folders. *Changing to an empty Quick-Jump has completely solved my issue*, and starting up or swapping around various Kontakt 6 instances is back to being incredibly snappy. 

Just wanted to post here in case anybody else had the same problem.


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## MichalCielecki (Dec 10, 2022)

titokane said:


> Sorry for the necro, but I've been dealing with Kontakt taking too long to start up and finally figured out what the issue was on my machine.
> 
> Symptoms -- Kontakt 6 on Mac would beach ball for about 5-10 seconds every time I focused it, whether that was opening for the first time, switching instruments in Logic, opening it for any reason to do anything.
> 
> ...


Sorry for another necro, but thank you so much for posting this! I had the exact same issue, thought it was Studio One's fault, tried Reaper and no luck. Your solution worked like a charm. Thank you!

Cheers!


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