C3 and Scarbee Mark I Rhodes - hanging

Anybody else using Scarbee’s Mark I in Kontakt 5? I’m having trouble changing patch either by storing it as a C3 preset within K5 or as a different song. As soon as I switch patch C3 hangs and causes a reboot. Have had to resort to using just one patch for all songs to avoid it.It used to work but recently has started causing this problem. I have the latest version of K5 - V5.5.2.880
Thanks

DBP

I use his MK I and Clav on a regular basis. Give me a bit and I’ll test in C3 (still using C2 live).

To be clear…

  1. You are saving as a K5 state in C3 or a K5 preset??

JD

I use that. I have a Kontakt BANK with e-Piano sounds. Scarbee MkI is one of them. I haven’t had a problem with it. I’ll flog on it later this afternoon and try to make it fail. It sounds to me like Kontakt is trying to load a corrupt file.

Thanks JD. K5 preset. I use Vintage Organs and behaves ok.
Chris

Do you mean a real entire machine reboot, or just that it crashes and you need to restart Cantabile? If it’s crashing I’d be interested in seeing crash reports and log files. See here for how to collect them.

Hi Brad, the whole machine locks and the message that C3 has stopped working pops up. Hit close program and the machine reboots. I’ve tried changing the default multi that Kontakt loads but still the same problem when switching the C3 preset.

OK - a full reboot of the whole machine generally indicates a driver level issue. In theory Cantabile shouldn’t be able to crash badly enough to bring the machine down even if it wanted to.

What happens if you switch to the Null Audio driver - does it still crash/reboot? If so, in Options -> MIDI Ports, deselect all MIDI Devices on all MIDI ports and see if that helps. (I just want to eliminate this being a driver issue before digging deeper).

Brad

– sorry for the slow - fell asleep on the couch.

C3/K5/Scarbee testing

  1. Three states A, B, C.

A - one instance of K5 with Scarbee MK I (stretch tune patch if it matters) Selected “Old School” internal K5 preset and saved as C3 Preset 1a (renamed)
B - one instance of K5 with Scarbee MK I - Selected “Steal a Dame” as internal K5 preset and saved as C3 preset 2b
C - same again with K5 internal preset as “DI” and C3 preset as Preset 3c

I can rotate thru all three states and C3 behaves as expected. Although there is a system pause between each as C3 loads the new K5 patch each time. Now I feel like I need to read up on “states” again as C2 session did this better as I recall.

(additional)
Obviously just loading two or more instances of K5/presets and then muting MIDI with states also works - and is probably the preferred method.

On target?

JH

Yes, I think typically if you want fast state changes, the idea would be to make a “Scarbee” rack, containing pre-loaded instances of the sounds you want. You can either do this with multiple instances of K5 in your rack, or a single K5 instance running a multi, with your different Scarbee sounds in different MIDI channels. Then set up your rack states so that the routes switch to route incoming MIDI to the different instances or channels.

Not only does this mean there’s almost no delay when changing states (the instances can be pre-loaded), but also when you change state, any held notes or envelope tails will continue after the state change, for silky-smooth sound changes.

Neil

I use something like what @Neil_Durant suggests. I have a K5 multi using a number of banks. Bank 1 is always New York piano. It’s actually the instrument not a bank. Bank 2 is E-Pianos, mostly Scarbee and a few Kontakt library patches. Bank 3 is Accordions and pads. B4 is strings, B5 is Orchestra instruments, B6 is organs, B7 is PolyMoog and other classic synth.

I use Rack States to configure the patches for each song. Volume settings only for Song States. Never, ever want K5 to reload.

I flogged on some Scarbee patches yesterday and couldn’t make it fail. Pretty sure it’s not a Scarbee problem. Suggest you update BIOS, drivers, and other software, especially ASIO driver. BIOS gets neglected, but it’s a big deal. These machines of ours do a lot of I/O.

Hi Brad, I’ve carried out the following with the console enabled.
All tests carried out with a set list with one song and a global rack
containing EZDrummer 2. Song contains Kontakt 5 with 1 instrument

Audio & midi drivers loaded
In K5 rack changed Preset 1 to Preset 2 and C3 hangs and then causes a
whole machine reboot.

Null audio driver loaded
In K5 rack changed Preset 1 to Preset 2 and C3 hangs and then causes a
whole machine reboot. Last console message ‘Clearing setchunk buffer…’

Null audio driver loaded & all midi devices un-selected
In K5 rack changed Preset 1 to Preset 2 and C3 hangs with Cantabile 3 not responding message. Click to close which then closes C3 but does not cause the machine to reboot.

I’ve also tried with different instruments loaded in K5 and it now seems to a problem with K5 generally.

Works fine with other VSTs for example Dimension Pro and UVIWorkstation.

Have emailed the logs from the console to you.

Thanks everybody for your help. Sorry haven’t replied sooner but was out rehearsing. Am able to try a few things now. Looks like I’m not using K5 in the most efficient way so will try out your suggestions. I’ve tried out your suggestion @jharris and that works OK.
Chris

@Neil_Durant, @RackedBrain and @JHarris , looks like I’ve found the cause. I’d somehow selected the 32bit version of K5 and it was running under jBridge. Couldn’t see this until I selected ‘Plugin Editor’ in the rack and I’d hit the ‘View -’ button. Switched to 64bit and it looks like it’s solved. Thanks for your efforts and sorry for the head scratching.

Chris

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Hmmmm. That should have worked anyway. JBridge makes 32-bit plug-in run in a 64-bit environment. Ok, I’m not going to think about this.

whisky - tango - foxtrot - geez I didn’t even think of K5 multies, certainly the cleaner way to go.

Thkx @Neil_Durant, @RackedBrain

JH

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Was out going Saturday and noticed my Scarbee Rhodes was slightly detuned. Could get away with it when not against another sound but then my bass player shouted I was half a tone down on a synth patch. Anybody else @jharris or @rackedbrain experienced this? Seems like it might be an ongoing Kontakt problem.

I had a problem with K5 where it would “spray” random controller settings over the K5 multi. I disabled and reset controllers inside K5. I especially made sure to set controller 1 (pitch wheel) to 0 inside K5. The root problem turned out to be Brainspawn Forte (before C3) had a bug in handling the blob that contained the settings for K5.It would randomly de-tune the Rhodes instruments (especially) and mess up several other things. It was like a 2-year old turned a bunch of random knobs. I haven’t seen these problems since the fix with Forte and never have seen them with C3.

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I’ve been probing all day and have come to the conclusion it’s actually a problem with my Novation Impulse61 sending pitch bend info. Used a useful VSTi midimonitor from http://cescato.altervista.org/ . Have sprayed the contacts but still happening so will filter them out for now until I can get it fixed. Thanks.
Chris

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