Most Stable Sample Playback for Receptor?

[rbcairns]

Is there a consensus on the most stable sample playback software for Receptor? I've been trying to use Kontakt2, but when pounding pretty hard on some piano patches I can easily get the thing to puke. A couple of rock-n-roll glissandos and you're toast as soon as you let go of the sustain pedal...It sort of starts "burping" and then I have to restart the audio engine. Same problem with DFD on or off. I bought the thing to use live, but I'd be terrified to use Kontakt 2 live with Receptor at this point.

Is Sampletank any more stable? Is KOMPAKT more stable? I'm hoping KOMPAKT is less of a processor hog than Kontakt2 as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

[TomDM]

Thank goodness for the forums!

The more I read, the less I believe that the Receptor is ready for prime time yet. I love the concept... but, why they apparently went so wimpy in so many technical areas excapes me.

When I began comparing this box... which WOULD be my favorite way to go... with one of the Sonica offerings, the differences in design philosphy, that moved the Sonica forward in my mind and the Receptor back a notch, became readily apparent.

I won't give up on the idea that the Receptor will finally reach prime time performance; but, it seems to be too great a risk right now based on what I've read here so far. Of course, I may find similar comments regarding the Sonica boxes. If I do, I will be glad to post them here to make sure that fairness prevails.

[Tim York]

Is there a consensus on the most stable sample playback software for Receptor? I've been trying to use Kontakt2, but when pounding pretty hard on some piano patches I can easily get the thing to puke. A couple of rock-n-roll glissandos and you're toast as soon as you let go of the sustain pedal...It sort of starts "burping" and then I have to restart the audio engine. Same problem with DFD on or off. I bought the thing to use live, but I'd be terrified to use Kontakt 2 live with Receptor at this point.

Is Sampletank any more stable? Is KOMPAKT more stable? I'm hoping KOMPAKT is less of a processor hog than Kontakt2 as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

Are you saying this happens with nothing else running except Kontakt and only one instrument loaded into Kontakt - ie a piano patch?

If so, which piano patch from which library?

is there a CPU meter in Receptor, by the way?

[jupiter8]

Try loading as 32 bit float,if you have memory for it.

[PhilAiken]

Is there a consensus on the most stable sample playback software for Receptor? I've been trying to use Kontakt2, but when pounding pretty hard on some piano patches I can easily get the thing to puke. A couple of rock-n-roll glissandos and you're toast as soon as you let go of the sustain pedal...It sort of starts "burping" and then I have to restart the audio engine. Same problem with DFD on or off. I bought the thing to use live, but I'd be terrified to use Kontakt 2 live with Receptor at this point.

Is Sampletank any more stable? Is KOMPAKT more stable? I'm hoping KOMPAKT is less of a processor hog than Kontakt2 as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

You really need to specify your settings, the Receptor sample buffer, the DFD settings in Kontakt, etc.

[PhilAiken]

Thank goodness for the forums!

The more I read, the less I believe that the Receptor is ready for prime time yet. I love the concept... but, why they apparently went so wimpy in so many technical areas excapes me.

When I began comparing this box... which WOULD be my favorite way to go... with one of the Sonica offerings, the differences in design philosphy, that moved the Sonica forward in my mind and the Receptor back a notch, became readily apparent.

I won't give up on the idea that the Receptor will finally reach prime time performance; but, it seems to be too great a risk right now based on what I've read here so far. Of course, I may find similar comments regarding the Sonica boxes. If I do, I will be glad to post them here to make sure that fairness prevails.

You should keep in mind, and I'm not being an apologist here, that most of the time people post on message boards like this it's because they are having a problem. For everytime I've done that, there have been dozens of days where I didn't log on just to post: No crashes today, everything went great. Know what I mean? You also need to weed out the cases where there is a simple answer to a new owner who just hasn't come across a certain setting before.
If you use Receptor for what it is good at, it is totally ready for prime time. I think the one consistent problem is playing large sample libraries using NI products and direct from disc at low latencies. There is much you can do to work around that,
if you are willing to do so, but it doesn't seem like you can just pop in a large piano you just purchased and be off to the
races. Can't wait to try Ivory.

[Hybernation]

Thank goodness for the forums!

The more I read, the less I believe that the Receptor is ready for prime time yet. I love the concept... but, why they apparently went so wimpy in so many technical areas excapes me.

When I began comparing this box... which WOULD be my favorite way to go... with one of the Sonica offerings, the differences in design philosphy, that moved the Sonica forward in my mind and the Receptor back a notch, became readily apparent.

I won't give up on the idea that the Receptor will finally reach prime time performance; but, it seems to be too great a risk right now based on what I've read here so far. Of course, I may find similar comments regarding the Sonica boxes. If I do, I will be glad to post them here to make sure that fairness prevails.

You should keep in mind, and I'm not being an apologist here, that most of the time people post on message boards like this it's because they are having a problem. For everytime I've done that, there have been dozens of days where I didn't log on just to post: No crashes today, everything went great. Know what I mean? You also need to weed out the cases where there is a simple answer to a new owner who just hasn't come across a certain setting before.
If you use Receptor for what it is good at, it is totally ready for prime time. I think the one consistent problem is playing large sample libraries using NI products and direct from disc at low latencies. There is much you can do to work around that,
if you are willing to do so, but it doesn't seem like you can just pop in a large piano you just purchased and be off to the
races. Can't wait to try Ivory.

Wanted to echo what Phil said. I have NEVER had a problem using many many fine plugins on Receptor (Atmostphere, SonikSynth2, B4, B4II, FM7, Absynth, Minimonsta, Albino, Wusikstation 1.X...just to name a few). I've also managed to get SEVERAL plugins that are not really supported (even in "unsupported" mode) working (including Blue, Octopus, Nostalgia and Vapor). Yeah, I'm a bit of a hacker...hence this technology is just very COOL for me!

Yes, sample players like Kontakt and Kompakt are problematic. I hope that NI/Muse improve DFD. And yes, SampleTank2 (and SonikSynth2) are much more stable, but they are not in the same league as Kontakt/Kompakt since they don't stream. SampleTank2 actually has it's own problems and will crash Receptor in some cases, while SonikSynth2 is really stable (Which doesn't make a lot of sense since they are virtually the same engine, go figure).

Incidentally, I have had good success with NI Electrik Piano with DFD off (using the "small" versions). Collosus works well also, but granted it works better and uses much less CPU with DFD turned off (meaning you can't load the 2GB piano).

Must...resist....Ivory....want...it....

[TomDM]

If you use Receptor for what it is good at, it is totally ready for prime time. I think the one consistent problem is playing large sample libraries using NI products and direct from disc at low latencies. There is much you can do to work around that, if you are willing to do so, but it doesn't seem like you can just pop in a large piano you just purchased and be off to the races. Can't wait to try Ivory.

But, that's exactly what I was hoping a dedicated VST box WOULD do.

[TomDM]

Yes, sample players like Kontakt and Kompakt are problematic. I hope that NI/Muse improve DFD. And yes, SampleTank2 (and SonikSynth2) are much more stable, but they are not in the same league as Kontakt/Kompakt since they don't stream. SampleTank2 actually has it's own problems and will crash Receptor in some cases, while SonikSynth2 is really stable (Which doesn't make a lot of sense since they are virtually the same engine, go figure).

Incidentally, I have had good success with NI Electrik Piano with DFD off (using the "small" versions). Collosus works well also, but granted it works better and uses much less CPU with DFD turned off (meaning you can't load the 2GB piano).

Must...resist....Ivory....want...it....

For me, this means I must look elsewhere. Which is a shame, since I REALLY like the concept.

[timyork]

Is there a consensus on the most stable sample playback software for Receptor? I've been trying to use Kontakt2, but when pounding pretty hard on some piano patches I can easily get the thing to puke. A couple of rock-n-roll glissandos and you're toast as soon as you let go of the sustain pedal...It sort of starts "burping" and then I have to restart the audio engine. Same problem with DFD on or off. I bought the thing to use live, but I'd be terrified to use Kontakt 2 live with Receptor at this point.

Is Sampletank any more stable? Is KOMPAKT more stable? I'm hoping KOMPAKT is less of a processor hog than Kontakt2 as well.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

rbcairns,

Are you saying this happens with nothing else running except Kontakt and only one instrument loaded into Kontakt - ie a piano patch?

If so, which piano patch from which library?

is there a CPU meter in Receptor, by the way?

[rbcairns]

Hey everybody - I don't want to turn this into a referendum on whether or not Receptor is "ready for prime time" (there's plenty of those on the boards already), I'm just curious as to what the most stable sample-playback plugin is. I'm not blaming Receptor, I actually think it's a problem with Kontakt 2.

One thing I noticed is that the installer supplied by MUSE for Kontakt 2 installs an early version of the software, and there are updates from NI, but I wouldn't know how to install those on Receptor. I think some of the DFD problems may have been fixed already from NI...

Now - to answer some of the questions from other users who are trying to help my particular problem, here are a few more tidbits:

1: I'm using KONTAKT2 with no other plugins running, and trying the "Steinway D Light" patch from NI that ships with Kontakt 2 as my experiment. I don't want any convolution or fancy release stuff, just a decent piano to play live. I've got "Akoustic Piano" on my studio setup, and several GIGA piano libraries.

2: I've got the DFD settings set to 256 MB dedicated to DFD. But don't forget I'VE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH DFD TURNED-OFF.

3: Recepter is set to 128 sample buffer size.

4: If you want to recreate the problem, try holding down the sustain pedal and playing a bunch of keys really fast - like you were Jerry Lee Lewis, and finish maybe with a nice gliss! When you release the sustain pedal, it seems that there's this little looping "tick" with some possible "release sample" sounds. It almost sounds like a DC-offset "tick". But you get no sound when you hit keys from this point on. I'm pretty sure that that steinway light doesn't have any release samples, but I'll check.

[Watto]

From what I've read in the Ivory threads, that's your way to go if you want piano, mate. It apparently runs flawlessly, and sounds amazing.

Piano is really the only instrument that's still causing major trouble, because of the nature of the beast (sustain pedal, large samples, heavy playing etc), and Ivory takes care of that, according to users.

So, good news all round!

[rbcairns]

I think I might have solved the mystery - or at least one mystery. It seems that there's a script for Steinway Light in Kontakt 2 that has something to do with sustain pedals and sample releases. If I disable the script, the error I was getting seems to go away. With the script activated, I get it again.

Hmmmm....

On another note - I noticed some of the samples for the Steinway that ships with Kontakt 2 are called "Lady C2..." - are these from the PMI "Old Lady" library?