I use cantabile on 2 Laptops configured als hot standby system. To get everything nicely synchronised all songs, setlists and racks are bound to a synchronised dropbox folder which resides on both laptops in the exact same path. I already had managed the special needs for kontakt by following the hints Dave Dore and Terry Britton mentioned in this thread:
This means: all of the kontakt libraries are placed in the same folders (incl. identical driver letters).
All this works flawlessly for all libraries but Session Horns Pro. I noticed long load times for this librariy a while ago and tried to get rid of this issue. First task was to use the re-save batch function kontakt offers. Now loadtime decreased to normal values on both laptops when loading the library in kontakt stand alone or when loading kontakt as plugin inside cantabiie and loading the library afterwords.
This did not solve the problem for my Session Horns Pro RACK. So I decided to re-save the rack again after loading it, I saw that load time also decresed for the rack - so far so good.
My problem is that the loadtime on the second laptop remains as before even though rack fildes are synchronised via dropbox.
I did the same on the second laptop with the exact same result: normal loadtime on this laptop but again increased load time on the first one.
Atm I`m running out of ideas. Is anybody here observing similar issues?
I used Session Horns Pro at last nights gig. No problem, as I pre loaded the set list. This was on my Win 7 machine. If I use my 8.1 machine, it would be much slower. From things Iāve been reading, Intel processor is much faster, and more efficient than AMD for live music (again, just what Iāve been reading). My Win 7 is Intel and 8.1 is AMD. Whether that is causing my Win 8.1 to be slower to load, or not, I really donāt knowā¦could be a lot of different things, but I set everything identical to my Win 7. I just know my Win 7 Intel is much superior.
This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but, if I am understanding, you are getting normal load times after initial load? If so, when you restart C3, you are getting slow load time, then after loading it again, without reboot, it loads faster? If this is true, then that would be normal. Once you load a Kontakt file within a set, it is immediately available throughout the set, without a reload. Which is why I pre-load a setā¦everything is available when you need it. Kontakt is a sample player, and many samples takes time to load. I personally attempt to stay away from samples and favor emulations. But, I still use some of the Kontakt libraries in my sets.
I am sure I am telling you nothing you donāt already know, but just trying to get an idea of what you are describing.
thanks for chiming in - always apprechiated. I know my case is a bit more complex and not easy to describe. First off: I see from your description there is some information missing from my side.
Both Laptops are same Basic Model, means same chipset, 24GBytes of RAM each, i7 4702mq intel processors and of course ssds only. They only differ concerning grafics.
OS: here is a difference. Laptop 1 -> Win8.1 / Laptop 2 -> Win10
If I talk about load time I have to say I wrap next to any plugin into a rack and use preload in setlists. So I donāt talk about the switching time from song to song (which is low and without a problem) but about the initial loadtime at the beginning if the show. Here both laptops are preloaded with the complete content inside all racks.
What I noticed was a massive incresse of loadtime at a certain time in the past. After digging deeper I found that loadtimes of all racks was ānormalā (this also includes other contakt libraries like session strings pro 2, symphony series string ensamble or scabees ep88) whereas loading session horns pro took about two third of the load time of the other 56 plugins.
After using batch resave and re-saving the rack loadtime decreased to absolute usual values. If I only had one laptop the story would be ending here and everything would be fine.
In my case there is the speciality that both laptops share the same rackfiles - means for the sake of beeing always automatically synchronized there is only one āsession horns pro rackā for both laptops. If I store on the first laptop it loads fast there but slow on the second and vice versa.
So obviously the rack file is storing some sort of information about the laptop which leads to this different behavior. As kontakt reacts completely normal as long as I only use it as a simple plugin it is useless to contact NI in this case.
All in all: itās a strange effect and agreed: not an everyday problem (and should there not be a solution I can live with it as us).
Soā¦Both laptops, running at the same time, in sync with each other, but sharing the same physical rack, which is only loaded in 1 laptop ( or not )?
And, using Session Horns out of a rack works perfectly well?
No, both laptops have the complete show loaded and running. The rack files reside on the ssds of each of them but are synchronized via dropbox. The laptops donāt use additional synchronisation but are triggert by the same midi signals. In case of a crash if one laotop I can swop audio signals from one to the other. This is what I call hot standby.
Edit: using session Horns Pro out of a rack works well and can be loaded fast if the rack- file was stored by this laptop (keep in mind that all rack files can be stored from both of the laptops)
Ahhhh. Ok, I understand now. Could Dropbox, in anyway, be causing the problem? You did say that other Kontakt files are running fine, correct? If so, are they in a rack?
Yes, next to all plugs are wrapped in racks. rackfiles donāt seem to be corrupted by dropbox as they can be loaded on both machines (only with different load times in case of session horns pro). And yes: other kontakt libraries just run fine.
This is very interesting, but I may not be able to figure it out with my lack of super powers, lol. Are you sure the Session Horns files are located exactly the same on both computers?
Yes, Iām pretty sure. This was the aspect I was working on for today. We had a gig yesterday and so some spartime today to get this fixed. I had to do some extension on the partition to exactly place the content into the same path as in the other laptop. After batch resave everything seemed to look fine until I found this gimmicā¦
One of the resident Gurus may have a good answer for you soon, but let me think on this for a few. Out of curiosity, have you compared your other Kontakt rack settings with the problem one?
I need some clarification - in the second post you have laptop 1 is AMD running OS Win 8.1 and laptop 2 is Intel running OS Win 10?
If itās laptop 2 then Win 10 might be the problem. Iām getting 100% cpu and disk two to three minutes after it wakes which lasts for 3-4 more minutes. These are Lenovo X230ās with i5-3360, 16GB RAM and SSD.
Exactly as you described, Corky.
Btw.: I checked state behaviours meanwhile of course and also created a completely new rack with Session Horns Pro in it without a result.
@dsteinschneider, no: it is not possible to assign the effect to one of the laptops. Maybe itās easier to understand if you think of two separate laptops. Think of a rack with Session Horns Pro in it created on one of them, copy it to a USB-stick, take it to the second one and it will load slow.
After simply storing it to this laptop again (āsave rackā) it loads fast next time I call it.
Taking this resaved file to the first laptop again makes loadtime increase on this again, etc.
The only difference to this scenario is Iām using dropbox instead of the USB-stickā¦
Got it - the fact it behaves the same on both laptops is good - just have to figure out why that first load after a change is slow. Creating new rack was good first step.
- just have to figure out why that first load after a change is slow. Creating new rack was good first step.