Poor preset loading times

I switched from a Dell XPS laptop with a 12th gen I7 and 64gigs of RAM to a 14th gen i7 Dell desktop with the same amount of RAM. Fourth gen NVMe SSDs on both.

The desktop is certainly faster but maaaaaannn are presets loading so painfully slow. I don't get it.

This thread with rudeness from JMgee talks about this issue from years ago. I work in IT and find it hard to believe that there aren't more people who have issues with slow loading presets.

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/1532/komplete-kontrol-slow-synth-load-times

What's going on here? This is happening to me across two different machines. It almost seems like what's happening is that when I tap the Preset buttons on my S49 MK2, Komplete Kontrol are completely reloading the instrument pack instead of just changing the presets.

If I use other plugins inside of other DAWs, this issue is nonexistent and things load instantly as one would expect on a higher end and new machine.

Doesn't matter if I'm in Ableton, standalone, Maschine 3.0, BitWig, or Cubase, the preset changes slow when talking Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol.

Is there anything we can to fix or correct this? Are there settings I can adjust in the software?

All of the hardware I have is on the higher end, I work in IT and am confident in my optimization skills so unfortunately/fortunately it'll be hard to convince me that it's something I've done, especially since this issue has persisted across two machines now (and while typing this had a friend test on their end and they're reporting the same: 5 to 10 second load times between presets but only when in it's Komplete Kontrol and the Preset buttons are used).

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Comments

JesterMgee

What "rudeness" ? The fact that I point out that after asking for examples on what a "long time" means it is revealed that 5 seconds is considered too long to load? I think people misconstrue not wanting to hold a hand as being rude.

Seems you did not take much away from that thread and it should be a bit of a hint that if that is all you can find in 5 years on this issue, it is not something people are having problems with generally.

You have not stated how long it takes to switch a preset or what presets/instruments you are loading.

Irrespective of advancements in computing, physics still remains the same and while a preset for a synth that just has to load a state should load pretty fast, if you load a preset for say Kontakty that has 2.8GB of sample data to load, that takes some real-world time to move that many 1 and 0 into memory to there will be a delay.

So chances are things work as they should but to offer a better guarantee we would need actual details of what you are loading and how long it is taking to load.

Vocalpoint

"Is there anything we can to fix or correct this? Are there settings I can adjust in the software?"

If you are actually using a MKII keyboard - ideally you should considerusing Komplete Kontrol 2.9.6.

I went back into do some tests and have noticed that specific libraries DO have some ungodly loading times - for reasons I have yet to understand.

JesterMgee

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/251867#Comment_251867

Not exactly, I also use v2.9 and while synth presets that do not have to load sample data are as instant as one would expect, loading a large instrument that has a lot of sample data, UVI, some Omnisphere, Addictive Drums and of course Kontakt may take a few seconds to load, maybe in some cases I have tested up to 30 seconds however that is also the same when I test standalone. Try load Alecia Keys and it will take some time to load.

The test would be to load 2 different presets from the same plugin using NKS presets and time the number of seconds it takes then load the same ones in a plugin standalone and compare the times to prove the issue is within KK.

It can also be a huge difference in switching between plugins as one has to completely unload from memory and the next into memory.

This is why we need to know what presets/library and how long it takes. I'd suggest a video posted to show the comparable difference between using just the plugin Vs via KK so we can compare it properly.

Could be an issue in the V3 software but without some way to confirm a test it is impossible to say.

Matthew_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/251867#Comment_251867

It's actually not ideal.

Some users may choose to remain on KK 2.9.6 for access to some very specific features.

But by not moving to KK 3, those users are also missing out on a significant number of stability improvements, including tens and tens of bug fixes affecting hosted content.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/251873#Comment_251873

With the utmost of respect - anyone moving to V3 also leaves a very functional UI, preset side panel on screen, drag and drop samples and faster performance behind.

If one is on a MKIII - I fully agree with you. However - all the bug fixes etc in v3 only have any real value if one was effected by them in KK v2.9.6

With no issues here to speak of using KK V2.9.6 on my MKII - v3 still remains a drastic step back in my opinion.

And this isn't the first time that slow loading presets have been brought up in that version.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/251875#Comment_251875

I think it is more to do with systems than versions. On my old iMac KK 2.9. was incredibly slow to get going, more to load and scan at startup than loading presets though. On my M1 Max it flies (with a SSD drive) and there is no discernible difference between 2.9 and 3xxx for me. Of course anything sample based takes longer, some Keyscape patches for example can take maybe 15 seconds even loading from a very fast SSD but that's acceptible.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/251881#Comment_251881

And I am unsure what the issue is.

After reading this post - I wandered back in and now that I go a bit deeper - there are some libraries that are off the charts bad.

Like Action Strings 2 - from clicking Load on the MKII to actually having a useable instrument - I clocked it at 41 seconds this morning

Same thing (25-30 seconds) between anything from Output like Analog Brass and WInds

On the contrary - Omnisphere 2 loads in 5 seconds and I can thumb through presets (via the Presets Up/Down buttons on the S61) with almost an instant load.

The irony is that all of these libraries - are all sitting on a Samsung 990 Pro NVMe with the faster measured raw speed than any other drive that I own.

The big offenders for me are all Kontakt based - where I see the same inexplicable load times when I am not using KK and just using standalone Kontakt 8.8.0.

Kymeia

I don't have Action Strings installed but do have Output Analog Strings - the first time I load from scratch it takes around 10 seconds but after that every patch takes no more than 1

DunedinDragon

I'd say it really depends a lot on what library and how you're using it. For example, using something standalone can feel very different than the same library loaded in a DAW project (due to multi-threaded loading of libraries). A complex library will obviously take longer than a simple one. In the end the greatest factor is how the libraries are stored and retrieved. Anything on standard HDD drives are going to be unreasonably slower than SSD, and older forms of SSD are going to be considerably slower the new higher speed SSD's.

For myself and my usage (Windows 10, Ableton, latest versions of Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol, all SSD storage on all drives internal or external), I get a reasonable enough performance to not be hampered in the general workflow on any given project which is all that really matters to me. I will also point out that when I'm doing dedicated work in my DAW I turn off Virus and Threat Protection in Windows Security which can make a difference.

DunedinDragon

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/49337/poor-preset-loading-times

There is a slight lag time difference when moving from preset to preset on the MK3 Keyboard than on the actual PC interface on a loaded and active library. For example when using Action Strings stored on direct USB on the computer interface and you move to the next preset using the right/left arrow buttons, it takes about a second to load the next preset whereas using the Previous and Next buttons on the keyboard takes almost 2 seconds. I suspect that's merely a communications difference between the keyboard and the program which isn't a factor if you're using the computer interface.

As I mentioned in my previous post the key to the best performance is always going to be most dependent on the type of storage being used. High speed USB storage of the libraries is going to be faster than HDD storage which will be faster than local area networked or cloud based HDD storage.

Choosing to select from the entire list of presets for a given library using the library symbol will be about the same load time difference as selecting from the computer interface or the MK3 interface.

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