Kontakt users: ever seen anything like this? (Resolved)

Hi Dave,
 
Sorry to hear about that problem.  I've never seen it myself.  I'm on Linux at the moment so couldn't tell you what version I've got installed (On edit: 5.7.1).  Something that you're doing differently from my use is hosting multiple instruments under one instance. 
 
If you haven't already, you might want to fire up Process Explorer and follow what happens as you load your DAW, open the project, etc.  I've also attached debuggers to running processes (fire up DAW, attach to process, open project, etc.).  Even without source you can sometimes get hints as to what is going wrong through warnings and error messages.
 
It looks like the project file has gotten corrupted or something like that --- a corrupted link or filename, folder name inside the project file ???  This may show up in the debugger, or it may be possible to repair the project file, although in my own experience, the latter is close to impossible due to lack of documentation on project file formatting.  You may want to look for malformed strings in there, though.
 
Please do let us know what you find, if anything.  You've probably already done most or all of this, but I thought I should post anyway.
 
Best regards,
Dave Clark
 
On edit: I found the following when looking for "vst," "corrupt," and "chunk":
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/kontakt-5-unexpected-data-chunk-file-corrupt.218228/
The resolution to the OP's problem was that he had updated recently, resulting in conflicting dll's.  Removing one of them allowed loading of the correct one. Another user had a similar problem with a "corrupt chunk" type of message and conflicting dll's.

This just keeps getting weirder.
 
Today, I can't even load that particular library in a brand-new empty project.
 
However, I can load it into standalone Kontakt, and I can load it in Samplitude, so the library itself doesn't appear to be broken. 
To be certain, I completely re-downloaded and re-installed Shimmer Shake Strike, thinking that perhaps a resource file might be corrupted. That didn't change anything.
 
 
When loaded in Cakewalk or SONAR, the UI is empty as well as the Script Editor's GUI tab. The Mapping Editor and Wave Editor, however, show that samples are being loaded. Everything's there except the graphical elements. And nothing plays back.
 
Process Monitor yielded no clues. I had intended to capture success and failure snapshots for comparison, but since I can't load the library in Cakewalk anymore that isn't possible. All I could do was read through the the thousands of actions and look for failures. There were some registry keys that it tried to open but don't exist (e.g. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\Shimmer Shake Strike\serialNumber), but that's not unusual. If those keys were essential, it would have also prevented opening in standalone Kontakt. It had no problem opening license and resource files.
 
 
 
 

Thanks for thinking about it. I have deleted the Kontakt instance and inserted a new one, but the problem persists. I have opened a fresh project but it still comes up blank.
 
I don't think the library is broken, as I can load it in standalone Kontakt and in Samplitude. The issue only shows up in SONAR and/or Cakewalk.
 
I did update Kontakt after realizing I was running version 5.7. But the problem showed in both 5.7 and 5.8.

At last, a clue, and an apparent resolution...
 
I found that it only failed in SPlat or Cakewalk if, when I insert Kontakt, I didn't tell it to create MIDI and audio tracks. If I let it create the tracks, the library loads. If I then route the original MIDI and audio tracks to the new Kontakt instance, the instrument plays.
 
However, as soon as I delete the now un-needed empty tracks that were created when I inserted Kontakt, the instrument goes silent. If, instead, I copy the MIDI data from the original track to the newly-created ones and delete the original tracks, then all's well.
 
Conclusion: there was something corrupt with the original MIDI tracks. Not the MIDI data itself, but something internal to the project file. Did not see that one coming.

bitflipper

abacab
Is Cakewalk/Sonar allowed outbound network access through your firewall?

Curious thing I noticed while running Process Monitor: Cakewalk is constantly talking over the network. So much so that I had to filter out TCP events to prevent them from filling up procmon's display. Another day, I'll have a peek and see what it's being so chatty about. I suspect it's the debugging features I enabled when I started participating in the beta program.

I've been messing with the new GlassWire Firewall app, that is really just a front-end for the Windows Firewall.  But it has a handy "Click to block" and  "Click to allow" feature to control applications for outbound net access.
 
It also has a nice usage monitor so you can keep up with what connects where.  It is just amazing how chatty modern apps can be.  If I'm in any doubt, I just go down the list and "Click to block" them.  If they still function afterwards, I leave them that way...

I can replicate this problem...just load an instance of Kontakt but don't check the options to create MIDI and audio tracks. 
 
Different libraries react differently to this situation. Shimmer Shake Strike comes up with the blank UI described in my original post. Orange Tree Samples and Spitfire libraries displayed a "library not initialized" error message. Most others load without complaint. Kontakt then becomes unresponsive when you try to close it, making it impossible to properly exit out of Cakewalk.
 
Only Kontakt behaves this way, and only specific nki's. Other samplers, such as Superior Drummer 2/3, don't have a problem with you instantiating the plugin before attaching it to any tracks.
 
The solution is to always create and route the MIDI and audio tracks before loading an instrument. Or just let Cakewalk create them for you automatically (which I often don't do, but will from now on).
 
 

I get this too with Orange Tree Samples!  Seems to be related to not having at least one audio output routed to the instrument though.  I don't think it needs any MIDI.  Which kind of makes sense, Kontakt the plugin doesn't know what format the audio is supposed to be so the scripts get inited differently.  Though I didn't have any trouble adding an audio track and routing Kontakt to it, which caused OTS Stawberry to init correctly.  And I didn't see a hang when I tried to exit.