# Constant Kontakt crashes after vst3 update (Cubase)



## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 7, 2022)

Hi!

Anyone had a crazy amount of crashes ONLY after updating Kontakt? In my case I was on 6.4.2 vst2 version and updated to 6.7 vst3. 

I never had crashes with the vst2 version but now I have 3-6 crashes every day with a tendency upwards in specific projects for whatever reason.
Sometimes I get a crash just 2-3 minutes after opening a project with barely having done anything. Those are all old projects that ran fine before.

Happening both in Cubase 11.5 and 12.

I'd love to downgrade to vst2 but since I already saved many projects with the new vst3 because it seemed fine at first I can't move back to vst2 (when deleting vst3 and making it read vst2 instead projects load with EMPTY instances!) I'm stuck with vst3.
Although I'll try to move back after finishing those vst3 - saved - projects.

Didn't do anything or change anything except updating Kontakt so I can't say more.


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## d.healey (Mar 7, 2022)

Not sure why this is a scripting question but someone asked a very similar thing yesterday 






Kontakt: Projects load Empty when using vst2 instead of vst3


Hi! After updating from 6.4.2 (dll vst2) to 6.7 (vst3) I get many crashes, about 3-4 a day, which Cubase reports are all caused by the vst3 Kontakt version. The dll before never crashed as far as I remember. So I'd like to use the 6.7 dll instead. I tried simply deleting the vst3 (although I...




vi-control.net


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 7, 2022)

d.healey said:


> Not sure why this is a scripting question but someone asked a very similar thing yesterday
> 
> 
> 
> ...


well, it's the only Kontakt based forum section I know, feel free to point me to another or ask Mike to make one if it bothers you.
It's not a Cubase issue it seems so it's not necessarily for the DAW section. Although if you think it belongs there you can ask the mods to move it there, it's probably worth the effort, I'm sure.

And the thread wasn't about the crashes but me wanting to move back to vst2 as a potential fix. Since it's not possible I have to look into the crashes now.

I'm not sure why you feel like being a dick in the light of me facing serious problems and looking for a solution but please figure out your personal problems without disrupting threads of help seeking people.


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## d.healey (Mar 7, 2022)

DarkestShadow said:


> well, it's the only Kontakt based forum section I know, feel free to point me to another or ask Mike to make one if it bothers you.
> It's not a Cubase issue it seems so it's not necessarily for the DAW section. Although if you think it belongs there you can ask the mods to move it there, it's probably worth the effort, I'm sure.
> 
> And the thread wasn't about the crashes but me wanting to move back to vst2 as a potential fix. Since it's not possible I have to look into the crashes now.
> ...


Well it seems like the other thread would carry on the discussion nicely.

Are these crashes happening only in existing projects that were referencing the VST2 version or are they also happening in new projects? If it's only in old projects then I think it might be very difficult to find a solution.

Do you get the same results in another DAW or only in Cubase?


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## Zanshin (Mar 7, 2022)

There is a tech support forum, but nobody posts in the right forum around here anyway.

Is this legit Kontakt or pirated Kontakt?


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 7, 2022)

d.healey said:


> Well it seems like the other thread would carry on the discussion nicely.
> 
> Are these crashes happening only in existing projects that were referencing the VST2 version or are they also happening in new projects? If it's only in old projects then I think it might be very difficult to find a solution.
> 
> Do you get the same results in another DAW or only in Cubase?


I haven't started any new projects with it but I have a lot of old projects to be finished.

Although I did also load projects that I already saved with the vst3 version so I guess those should reference the vst3. And it's happening. 

The main problem was that I couldn't update to the latest version of Kontakt (legally purchased) for a long while since my projects froze when using the new versions. (actually several people had that problem when I asked on facebook a while ago including some big names)

So to run libraries that required the latest version of Kontakt I used some dodgy "kontakt portable" thing. However it crashed quite a lot so eventually I tried updating again and with 6.7 it seemed to be fine. I THOUGHT. Till it wasn't anymore.
Now I regret not just using the pirate stuff for new libraries and the old 6.4.2 for everything else.
What an absurd situation.
Maybe there is a way left-over instances of the thing are somehow interacting with the main version of Cubase... would be weird though, especially since it didn't happen before and Cubase always rightly blamed the portable version when it crashed rather than the main/normal one.

Doing a system reset now. If it keeps happening I'll try building some big projects in other DAW's and see what happens. Since it's a bit random and happens more in some projects than others (+ I'm stuck with Cubase for at least 40-50 tracks I have to export/finish) I'm not sure how useful that is though.


Zanshin said:


> There is a tech support forum, but nobody posts in the right forum around here anyway.
> 
> Is this legit Kontakt or pirated Kontakt?


Right, it recently came, forgot about it.
Legit version but as I wrote above, I did have to use a pirate version for libraries that required the latest version of Kontakt since I couldn't legally update my main/normal version for a while (project would freeze upon loading).
Now I regret going it. I had less trouble with the pirate version!


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## d.healey (Mar 7, 2022)

DarkestShadow said:


> I had less trouble with the pirate version!


Could it be something in Kontakt's DRM system that is causing the crashes? Is the file format of Cubase projects human readable (like XML or similar)? If it is we could take a look and see if it's referencing any older versions there.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 7, 2022)

d.healey said:


> Could it be something in Kontakt's DRM system that is causing the crashes? Is the file format of Cubase projects human readable (like XML or similar)? If it is we could take a look and see if it's referencing any older versions there.


I'm not sure if I understand but I opened to cpr's in the windows editor. It's partially readable.
It says that it's referencing Kontakt for the appropriate tracks but doesn't say whether it's the dll or vst3. Also searched the document for "Kontakt.dll" and "Kontakt.vst3" without results. It just says "Kontakt".

Not sure if it's the DRM. I did have crashes with the pirate version (and never or extremely rarely) with the legal 6.4.2 vst2. Just not as many as with the legal vst3 now. Although that might just be that it#s across many many more tracks than the pirate version. Maybe they share the same problem

Strangely the Kontakt Portable isn't vst3 but Cubase sometimes reported the vst3 version of that thing to be at fault, even though only the vst2 portable is in my projects. Too strange...


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 9, 2022)

Is there any chance for another vst3 to interact with the Kontakt one? Zebra (or rather ZebraHZ/The Dark Zebra) ?

There is a particularly crashy project - it crashes a lot more than some others I tried.

I did system reset and installed just about everything manually, including 3 versions of Cubase.

I left the project running (with Zebra enabled) for a couple of minutes (playing back by itself) and got a crash very soon with Kontakt vst3 blamed by Cubase upon start up.

Then I disabled Zebra and left it running while I was sleeping. It was still playing after 4-5 hours (I always wake up during sleep lately).

I heard there were some issues with the vst3 of Zebra and it's recommended to use vst2.

But I used the Zebra vst3 before the Kontakt update (mostly or always if I recall) and don't remember any notable amount of crashes in projects where I used it before that, not with Kontakt or anything else blamed on start up.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 9, 2022)

u-he updated their VST3 plugins so they should be much more solid these days.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 9, 2022)

Will look for an update in case I don't have the latest version..


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## Lionel Schmitt (Mar 28, 2022)

Is there any chance that Kontakt crashes because of a sample library? 
There is a bit of a suspicion I have but I wonder if it's possible at all that a specific library can take down the plugin as a whole.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 28, 2022)

It's not that it didn't happen before, but it's extremely rare.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Apr 4, 2022)

Ok, just tested vst2 in a new project and... it crashes too! So it's about the latest version of kontakt it seems. Or a library, so far it seems random.

I also had a first-time vcruntime140 crash lately in 2 projects after dismissing the "missing samples" message. (Cubase flagged vcruntime140 after it re-opened - VC redist is up to date)

If resetting the machine doesn't help and noone else seems to experience it based on the lack of responses in this thread and another one at Steinberg I wonder what could be up... 
Dust?


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## EvilDragon (Apr 4, 2022)

Does it also happen in standalone or in another DAW?


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## Lionel Schmitt (Apr 4, 2022)

EvilDragon said:


> Does it also happen in standalone or in another DAW?


it's a bit tricky to test because it seems to be project depended somehow... and yet random.
Some projects are very crashy. Not related to size. A 50 tracks project crashed like every 10 minutes, I looked at every track and it was nothing special I used. Also not much or anything I didn't use before the update. One suspicious library was ruled out... I guess I only have one more unlikely suspicion left.

Another much larger and complex project I worked on for days never crashed once!

It seems pretty random so it would take a long time of working in another DAW, which is tricky since I can't afford to loose even more work-time... can't open the projects after trials... I might be able to do that for some lighter tracks I have coming up though and export everything ASAP.

Maybe I'll leave standalone open overnight or so... but since it's so random it might not be illuminating unless I do it a lot, with nice electricity bills hah.
I left a crashy project playing back by itself once and it crashed after about 30 minutes. Then I disabled Zebra stuff an it still played after 5-6 hours. But I ruled out Zebra as cause, so... no idea what could be going on.


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## Lionel Schmitt (Apr 15, 2022)

I'm ready to celebrate! No more crashes while working since many days after the second, this time full (all files deleted, disk cleaning selected in the reset menu) reset and Kontakt 6.7.1.

Either it was the new version or the FULL reset. Only the crashes after dismissing the missing files thing when loading 2 projects remained. Usually that doesn't lead to crashes, I have lots of missing samples. In these 2 cases vcruntime140 is blamed

I resolved it by opening the project in Cubase 9.5 (where you can edit disabled/non activated projects) and disabled the tracks that had missing files before loading the project. Once everything was loaded I activated them again and this time the missing files thing didn't lead to a crash.


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