I've recently updated to the most recent Receptor OS.

Was told to change Receptor to Dual Core Mode
Was told to change my Kontact 4 to Multiprocessor Support.
Also have 1st Call Horns (Kontact Player2) set to Multiprocessor Support.

Certain Multis containing K4 are taking longer to load; practically stalling for 15 - 20 seconds.
I've experimented with Z-Load, on & off, and see no difference.

This is a real drag, and I can't have this delay for my live shows.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Is Dual Core Mode not supposed to improve K4/Multi Processor plug-ins on Receptor with the Dual Core enabled?
Is there a fix?

I noticed that some plugins (didn't really determine which ones - quite possibly Kontakt, as I do use it) load slower with multiprocessor support enabled on OS 1.9.

I also noticed after updating to OS 1.9 that switching between multis sometimes takes ages and/or crashes and reloads the previous multi. This happens regardless of whether multiprocessor support is enabled or not. I filed a ticket for it (http://www.plugorama.com/helpdesk.php?s=show&ticketid=6733) .

Hoping there'll be another OS update soon addressing these problems.

Spherical

Same thing here. Kontakt loads slower

Well then ~ that's crap, and if I don't actually experience some improvements, then I need to go back.

I have big shows in 10 days, and this is the last thing I needed

Does anyone know if it's the OS, or simply the Dual Core support?
In other words, are we doomed to this slower loard-time, even if I disable the Receptor Dual Core and the various Kontact Instruments' Multiprocessor Support?

Regarding the Kontakt 4 loading issues, what version are you using of Kontakt? Is it the latest? Generally speaking dual core shouldn't be making an impact on hard drive speed. Also, you might want to check some of the loading options in Kontakt. There is an option for background loading that makes a big difference if it's turned on. If all else fails you can check out the smart snapshots feature, which should improve loading times.

Hard for me to comment on other plugins (any specific ones you've noticed?), but we'll look into doing some tests.

- Kevin (Muse Research Support)

Hi Kevin.

I'm not with my gear, so I can't (yet) confirm what version of K4 I have... I'll need to get back to you on that.
Just to clarify, regarding this 'Background Loading' what is the best option for the fastest load time; what should it be set at?

Would turning off Receptor's Dual Mode, and turning off K4's Multiprocessor Support have any negative results, now that I'm running the latest Reseptor OS?

Background loading is an option that allows you to begin playing an instrument before it's completely loaded, thereby speeding up the load time. Typically it'll try and remember info about where you start playing the instrument (for example, if you always play C4 as the first note) and load that stuff first, while loading notes you don't usually play (say for example C0) later, in the background.

Turning off Receptor or Kontakt's dual core processing would not have any negative effects, aside from increasing the CPU hit on your patches by about 15%. What you want to avoid is situations where Kontakt's dual core is on, but Receptor's is off, and vice versa.'

- Kevin

My Kontact 4 is Version: 4.2.3.4914

NI displays a 4.2.4 available, but it doesn't appear to deal with any issue I've described.

What's my best course of action here?

Okay ~ wow ~ this is amazing!
I did some testing, with the time of loading a Multi that was stalling:

Channel 1. Ivory

Channel 2. 1st Call Horns (Kontact Player 2) *this seemed to be the long delay

Channel 3. Omnisphere

Channel 4. Omnisphere

Channel 5. Omnisphere

Channel 6. Kontact 2

Dual Core is on
Z-Load was off
I copied the Multi to another location, and went back & forth from one copy to another via Program Changes from my keyboard.
I tried muting channels
I tried deleting the 1st call horns - then replaced them.

All the above were taking 34 to 37 seconds to load. I did this 8 or 9 times.

I thought I was told Z-load was no longer that important, but with Z-Load on, this same 'problematic' Multi consistently loaded in 3 or 4 seconds!

Duh. What an immense difference.

There have been some significant improvements to Kontakt 4 in NI's recent updates that have a bearing on loading times. The current version is 4.24. I ran this update on a Windows machine and then used those dlls to replace the ones in my Receptor's hard drive. This has been stable for me, but I always save previous dlls in the "Documents" folder just in case problems arise.

Once you've upgraded to 4.24 I strongly recommend using Kontakt's "Batch Resave" function followed by the "Collect Sample/Batch Compress" function on all your Kontakt library folders. These are found in Kontakt's "Files" menu. If there are any "sample not found" issues you'll be alerted and will have to resolve them first. Running these two utilities dramatically speeds up Kontakt's loading time - at first I thought I had done something wrong, I couldn't believe that huge string and piano programs were loading in less than a second.

Can this be done the same way from a Mac?

Can I perform this "Batch Re-save" function & "Collect Sample/Batch Compress" on K4/on Receptor?

The batch resaving and compression utilities work fine on my Receptor 2+ Pro Max. You have to specify a destination folder for the compressed library, so some familiarity with the Receptor's file structure is helpful. I should also mention that batch compress doesn't work on protected libraries where the individual WAV files aren't accessible.

I don't think there's any way to get a Receptor compatible dll file from a Mac Kontakt install.

Thanks for sharing all the info TechEverlasting. Normal method for mac users to upgrade Kontakt is to get the windows update file from NI and place it in drop installers here (note this will only work if your updating Kontakt, not if your installing it from scratch).

Regarding z-load: it keeps files from your patches cached in RAM, so it should always speed up loading time. Just be aware that there is a risk of overloading the RAM if you use Zload with a lot of patches, as the date stored in there tends to snowball as you load more stuff.

- Kevin

I just upgraded my Kontakt 4. 2x to the most recent 4.24 using the Direct Install method. I'm on a Mac but downloaded the Win files from NI, logged on to Direct Install, followed the instructions, update complete. This seemed to work fine. Thanks to the folks in this thread for keeping me up-to-date.