You should really listen to John from what he posted above. Kontakt can take a while to load, especially with large sample libraries. there is an option in Kontakt to allow it to load samples in the back ground. See if that is checked, it will help speed you load time up.

I'll try that... But I still don't understand why Cubase can load it so much faster. Doesn't make much sense...

Just an update - I've tried everything, no luck. If after cold boot I open a new blank project, add VSTI to it and close it, then open old project - loading time is around 3 or 4 minutes. If I just open an old projects right away after boot - it can hand for 8-10 minutes literally. BTW it's freezing the PC for the most of that time (I can't even launch task manager). HDD is working like crazy, if I open task monitor first I see that it's the Sonar that's doing it (duh!). Either way it's way too long. Very annoying. I hope someone finds a workaround or the fix it in the next patch (whenever it's coming?).

I have AD as well and yes projects with this VSTi take longer to load. Not sure as to why but perhaps they aren't using any special coding to store their samples.  As you may remember, KONTAKT had this same problem when it was loading many samples to an instrument.  Back in a new version 3 or 4, I don't remember, they added a custom coded scheme wherein when you resaved an instrument it stored the audio in this smaller, faster loading compact method.  Perhaps AD isn't using any of this type of lossless compression.  Also, perhaps AD isn't loaded small pieces of the audio and then reading the rest when needing as triggered... that is another way KONTAKT sped up initial loading of instruments.

Anyway, it is a drag when it takes a project so long too load....

Jim

For Kontakt to load fast, load the instrument, then click on File and click on Batch Re-Save.
After that, it loads very quickly.
dan
Edit: I think only starting from Kontakt 5 that they have this feature.

Thanks to Dan Le I might have to have at least partial fix: After adding a shortcut to bitbridge.exe to my startup the project loading time after cold boot was about 3 min. It's still too long, but at least it's no 8-10 min. as was before. The prohect has Addictive Drums that takes longer to load I think. And OC doesn't seem to freeze while loading as it was before. I have to try it many more times before I know for sure, but it looks like it helps. Here is the PM he sent me: Role of BitBridge Try this, I came up with this by myself, after calling Cakewakj 3 times about this, and no answer. You need to put BitBridge.exe to start when you start up your computer. You can put in your Desktop and run it before you run Sonar, or you can put in Startup. I found out this by accident when I had the same troubles as you are having right now. I was looking in Process and I noticed that if I have BB.exe in there than I am fine. OK this is how it works. After reboot, there is no BBridge. After that, if BB is running, then we are OK. So try it. First look for Bit Bridge.exe. It is in: BitBridge.exe not .dll it is in under: c: Program Files Cakewalk Shared Utilities

You never did answer my question back in post #26 about what type of hard drives you're using and what your disk strategy is.

Are you streaming samples from your system drive? Is it a "green" drive? Is it an SSD or a regular HDD - if so, what speed is it running at?

This was happening to me over the last few projects as well and I thought It was a large VST as well ( we have Addictive Drums ) But that did not end up being the problem. It was actually the Cakewalk Sound Center synth. Even though you can load the exact same sound in Dimension Pro, for some reason the projects that had Cakewalk's Sound Center would occasionally take 6-8 minutes to load. I started freezing ONLY that synth on all the offending projects and hav'nt had a problem since. I realize this synth may not be your problem but, freezing the track and saving each potentially offending synth until you find the problem is a place to start.

To the original poster:

PLEASE detail your hard drive information.

How many drives?

What kind of drives (SATA, SATA 3, internal, external, USB, etc.)?

What spin rate for the drives?

How are things split across your drives, if you have multiple drives (are projects on the same drive as the OS, are samples and synths on the same drive as projects, all of that plays into project loads).

Questions about your drives have with my post now been asked 3 times.  Please respond with as much detail as you can provide, so that we can collectively help you get to the bottom of this.

Bob Bone

Sure - I have 3 drives all 7200rpm internal SATA (SATA2 I think, PC is about 3 years old and was near top of the line then), Most if not all are WD Caviar Green. It's early Intel core i7 quad-core CPU, 6Gb RAM, decent ATI GPU, Asus board. Sonar is on drive C (with Windows and all programs and VST plugin folders), all projects are on drive D, most sounds (sample banks) are also in drive D, and some sounds are on drive E. Thing is that Cubase has the same configuration drive-wise and loads virtually the same project in 25 seconds with all the same instruments etc. So it doesn't look like a drive problem. Also, when Kontakt is loading instruments there is a progress dialog and this actually happens very fast, most of the waiting time is with nothing happening, HDs working like crazy and mouse cursor spinning. It has two project loading speeds now: "just slow" (3 min.) and "ridiculous" (8-10min.). The "ridicuous" speed only happens first time project is loaded after the cold boot. The solution with manually running Bit Bridge first seems to prevent the "ridiculous" speed, although I only tried it once. Now it's "just slow". I still don't get why it takes 3 min. when Cubase is loading the same in 20-25 sec. Something's fishy here.