Kontakt 8.2.1 plugin won't load (error code 13206)

[arcoss]

Hello.
I just installed my latest version of Kontakt (8.2.1).
When I first opened Cantabile 4, it worked perfectly. It scanned the plugin, inserted it, and everything was fine.

However, if I close Cantabile and reopen it, the plugin doesn’t load.

If I delete the plugin and reinsert it, I get this error:

And looking at the logs I see this:

If I open the plugins.cache.json file and remove these two lines, then reopen Cantabile and insert the plugin, it works correctly!!!

Let’s see if @brad or someone can tell me something.
Thanks!

[brad]

Hi @arcoss

Hrm… very weird.

That error code 13206 means Windows failed to load the .vst3 file which usually means the file can’t be found, or one of its dependencies can’t be found, or one of its dependencies failed to load for some other reason.

Unfortunately, Cantabile doesn’t log the error code from Windows indicating the actual problem - I should fix that.

It’s weird that it loads once on insert and then fails.

Could I get you to try something:

1. Clean up the .json file and load Kontakt into a song
2. Turn of Set List Preloading if enabled.
3. Close the song with File → New
4. Re-open the song. (Does it fail here?)
5. Close the song with File → New
6. Try inserting a new instance again. (Does it fail here?)

I’m just trying to establish if this is a reload issue after restarting Cantabile, or if it’s related to loading from song vs inserting new.

Brad

[arcoss]

Hi @brad , I’ve tried what you’re talking about and it works perfectly.
I’ve attached a 2-minute video where you can see the behavior.

Thanks
screen-capture.zip (3.3 MB)

[brad]

Hi @arcoss

Thanks for that. I’m a bit stumped what might causing this so I’m downloading Kontakt 8 Player to see if it does the same. I might also need to reach out to NI to help get this resolved.

In the meantime, one more question… when it’s in the “failed state” and won’t load. What happens if you do a Tools → Scan Plugin Folders (Full)? Does the scan work and can you then load the plugins. (do all this without restarting Cantabile).

Brad

[arcoss]

Hi @brad

I tried running a full plugin scan, but it doesn’t seem to detect it.
screen-capture (1).zip (1.5 MB)

I’m sending you a new video.
I tried running a full plugin scan, but it doesn’t seem to detect it.

I’m sending you a new video.
I’ve also tried uninstalling Kontakt and reinstalling it in case that’s the problem, but the same thing keeps happening.

Best regards.

[brad]

Thanks for the additional information. Looks like the same problem is happening on the plugin scan which is why it’s not showing up as a plugin.

I’ve since tried doing the same thing with Kontakt Player 8.2.1 and it seems to be working fine - scan, insert, save, reload, restart and reload all works fine. This suggests Kontakt Player is different to the full Kontakt, or there’s something weird going on with your machine.

I’ve added some additional logging for the next build (I’ll try to put that up today).

In the meantime, I’ll reach out to NI see if they can help.

Brad

[brad]

Hi @arcoss

I’ve just put up build 4222 which will log the Windows error code for why the plugin is failing to load.

When you have a minute could you please:

1. Install build 4222
2. Reproduce the problem where the plugin fails to load
3. From the Tools menu, choose Open Settings Folder
4. Close Cantabile (this is important)

From the folder opened in step 3, send me the files log.txt, log-previous.txt, settings.json and the plugin json files.

Brad

[arcoss]

Logs And Settings.zip (23.4 KB)

Hi @brad
I’m sending you the files here as you requested.

I’ve been testing and uninstalled Kontakt version 8.2.1 and tried installing an older version (8.0.0), and it works perfectly with that version.

I then uninstalled version 8.0.0 and reinstalled 8.2.1. The error continues.

Regards.

[brad]

Hi arcoss,

Thanks for that. I checked the log and it’s showing Windows error code 1114.

00003445        1   [03440:2]:   Load operation starting
00003454        9   [03440:2]:     VST3- Kontakt 8 (#1) - Loading plugin C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Kontakt 8.vst3 - 5653544e-694b-386b-6f6e-74616b742038
00005601     2147 ! [03440:0]:     loadSharedLibrary failed (native error code: 1114)
00005601        0 ! [03440:0]:     VST3- Kontakt 8 (#1) - Failed to load module

Which is listed by Microsoft as:

Basically, this means, Windows loaded the dll and tried calling its initialization routine and that returned an error code.

Not much use to you, but definitely points to an issue in the plugin and definitely a good clue for NI to look into.

Brad

[brad]

Hi @arcoss,

Could you try something for me…

1. Go into Tools → Options → Plugins Options and turn off “Scan Plugin Folders on Startup”.
2. Load the song that has kontakt 8.2.1 instance in it.
3. Close Cantabile and re-open and let me know if the plugin loads.

I think what might be happening here is the plugin only loads once per run and once its been unloaded and can’t be reloaded. I’m wondering if the plugin scan on startup is causing the load to work once and then failing when loading the song.

Another thing that might be worth trying is putting a dummy instance of Kontakt in the background rack - that stays loaded, should keep Kontakt loaded and might at least work around this issue.

In any case I’m in discussion with NI about it and will let you know when I know more.

Brad

[arcoss]

Hi @brad

I’ve tried the first thing you mentioned, turning off “Scan Plugin Folders on Startup,” and it still fails.

I’m not sure how to do the second thing you mentioned about putting a dummy instance of Kontakt in a “rack.”

It’s a very peculiar case, and as I said, it must be a problem with version 8.2.1, which for some reason isn’t working properly on my computer.
As an alternative, if I open the Kontakt .exe from Windows Explorer, it always opens fine and works perfectly.

Other older versions of Kontakt run without problems in Cantabile.

Best regards.

[brad]

@arcoss

I’m not sure how to do the second thing you mentioned about putting a dummy instance of Kontakt in a “rack.”

From the View menu, choose Background Rack. In the background rack, load an instance of Kontakt, but don’t load any samples/presets/sounds into it. Just let it sit there doing nothing. Save the rack and then see if that makes any difference to the behaviour.

---

I heard back from NI:

It seems rather an issue related to the system of the user under test (maybe also timing). As it was not reproducible by the developer using K8.2.1 player (is basically the same code, just different activation) in the same cantablie version.
So first I would check if the windows version used is up to date. Maybe any older shared dll libraries are flaky and fail to load (quick enough) under certain circumstances. Also would check the graphic drivers and settings for the grafic card used. Also worth: try to check on the same system with other VST3 hosts, to see if it is (at least additionally) cantabile related.
Tried with Cantabile 4.0 build 4220
Windows 10
Loads every time with reopening the Cantabile Project.

---

I’m not sure if Windows logs any additional information for this error, but might be worth checking the system event viewer (see here) - in particular in the Application category and see if any errors are shown.

---

Also, it seems some users have this related to other software. The solution often seems to be related to the graphics card. eg: see here, here and here.

[arcoss]

Hi @brad

-Good news! When I open Cantabile again, the plugin doesn’t crash!
I’m sending you a video so you can see how I did it.
screen-capture.zip (5.7 MB)

-As for the event viewer, I’m pasting the image and the text that in spanish says:
"Nombre de la aplicación con errores: Cantabile.exe, versión: 4.0.4222.0, marca de tiempo: 0x670d0000
Nombre del módulo con errores: MSVCP140.dll, versión: 14.28.29334.0, marca de tiempo: 0x5fa9a827
Código de excepción: 0xc0000005
Desplazamiento de errores: 0x0000000000012eb0
Identificador del proceso con errores: 0x3a28
Hora de inicio de la aplicación con errores: 0x01db9aa628cb681d
Ruta de acceso de la aplicación con errores: C:\Program Files\Topten Software\Cantabile 4.0\Cantabile.exe
Ruta de acceso del módulo con errores: C:\Program Files\FlexASIO\x64\MSVCP140.dll
Identificador del informe: 41d6dc4e-6e28-44ce-955e-593520138a5e
Nombre completo del paquete con errores:
Identificador de aplicación relativa del paquete con errores: "

I just tried reinstalling/updating various graphics card drivers and modifying the power behavior as described in the links you sent me, but neither of those things solved the problem.

Regards

Best regards and thanks!

[brad]

Hi @arcoss

Thanks for the additional information. Seems like adding the plugin to the background rack might have helped. This suggests the plugin - or something it depends on - doesn’t like being unloaded and reloading in a single run. By putting it in the background rack, Cantabile keeps the plugin loaded the whole time which patches over the issue.

As for the event log messages you posted, are you sure this is related to the same issue? It’s showing issues loading FlexAsio because of isses loading MSVCP140.dll. Cantabile doesn’t use MSVCP140.dll so this seems to be separate to Cantabile and related to either the audio driver and/or Kontakt.

I wonder if this is an incompatibility between Cantabile and FlexAsio. It’d be interesting to see what happens if you switch Cantabile’s audio driver to the Null Audio driver and remove Kontakt from the background rack and see if Kontakt reloads correctly when not using FlexAsio.

Brad

[arcoss]

Hi @brad
screen-capture (1).zip (4.2 MB)

It was right there on the computer, so I tried it right away, and voila!
If I remove FlexAsio and set it to null, the plugin doesn’t give any problems.
I’ve attached a video!

It seems we’re narrowing down the problem!
Thanks

[brad]

Hi @arcoss ,

Thanks for testing this and for the updated info. Seems like some sort of incompatibility between Kontakt and FlexAsio.

I just did some testing here and still couldn’t reproduce any issues. Are you running the latest version of FlexAsio?

Brad

[arcoss]

Hi @brad
Great news!

I had version 1.7a of FlexAsio, now I’ve installed the latest 1.10b, and voila!
Kontakt 8.2.1 is working perfectly. I can now open and close Cantabile and it always loads perfectly!

It was clearly some incompatibility between FlexAsio and that version of Kontakt.

Problem solved!!
Thanks so much for your help

[brad]

For the record, I’ve reported this to Native Instruments and to FlexASIO (here).