Playback audio keeps cutting out

DavidJin

i dont know if anybody else has the same problem, I just subitted a support ticket, however I thought I'd give it a shot posting it here to see if anybody had any solutions? Below I've just pasted what ive written.

Hey, I recently purchased a Komplete bundle and use the midi instruments for music production, however I came accross this very weird problem where the audio would cut out randomly during playback, and on this one specific project, it got really bad as it would cut out even when bouncing out the file (using Logic Pro X). What makes this weird is that I find it would cut on the same section during every playback and even during exporting. I've made sure it's not because of any accidental automations, and I know for sure it's something to do with the way my instruments are loading, as every time it cuts out, you get that slight clipping sound. This was very frustrating, and I wasnt going to spend too much time trying to fix this problem, and initially on this project, I was just going to bounce the section out and playback through an actual audio file, however, again, no matter if I bounce it out in real time or offline, soloed instrument or not, the sound would always cut out on certain sections. And to be more descriptive, it's not a big cut out, it cuts out for around 1 second. I am running my komplete through a SSD that I've bought and made sure runs very fast, and I am using a MacBook pro 2020. Ive searched some NI articles online, however couldnt find any viable solutions, this is why I'm writing this for help.  

Jeremy_NI

Look no further, the issue here is the format of the hard drive. On Mac it should be APFS, as explained in this article: Notes on Hard Drive Formats on Mac Computers

DavidJin

Oh my gosh I think that really helped it! thankyou very much my friend, I think that was the issue

Jeremy_NI

@DavidJin If that happens only with one project, what instrument did you use? Is it a Kontakt library ? Which one? Is it installed on an external hard drive? What is the format of that drive?

DavidJin

Hey Jeremy! thankyou for your reply, and no it has happened on almost every project, however non so severe as this one, and I used the Scarbree Rickenbacker bass running through komplete kontrol, it is installed on an external SSD with a ExFat format. And Ive just attched a 2 minute video of me explaining in video, cause I thought that might better help me explain my issue, let me know if the video works

https://youtu.be/NZMqr5zVjd8

Jeremy_NI

Look no further, the issue here is the format of the hard drive. On Mac it should be APFS, as explained in this article: Notes on Hard Drive Formats on Mac Computers

DavidJin

Oh my gosh I think that really helped it! thankyou very much my friend, I think that was the issue

emilioogennaro

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/41894#Comment_41894

Hey man sorry to bother you, did it actually work? Cause if that's the problem I'll go through the hassle of formatting my HDD cause I now have it in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" instead of "Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)". Can this small absence of case-sensitiveness be the cause? If it is damn I'm 100% happy to spend a day extracting all my data to format it (i think you can imagine how frustrating this bug is), I just wanted to be sure first 😅

Jeremy_NI

@emilioogennaro I just want to make sure there is no misunderstanding here:

Native Instruments products are not compatible with Case-sensitive hard drives.

It should be Mac Os extended journaled) or even better if you have a current operating system APFS. If your HD is formatted to MacOs extended (journaled) and you have performance issues, there is a big chance the issue is not the format.

Arik Nesser

Hey, I'm having the same problems after moving my Native library to an external SSD. I'm running windows so I cannot partition my SSD to APFS. Is there a fix that anyone knows for PC users?

PhillD

Just wanted to add, I am also on Mac OS on an iMac Pro and the external 4GB HDD i was using was causing the choppy playback through Kontakt or via the Kontact 7 Player in Logic Pro.

I got a Samsung T7 2TB a few days ago, copied the whole 400GB across, updated the file location in Native Access and everything loads up and plays wonderfully now. The SSD 'disk' speed is just so much faster than that HDD i was using, which was also bought this year.. but anyone on Mac having this issue and using a HDD that isn't formatted with APFS, making the switch will surely improve things for you :)

Thanks for all the helpful comments in this post that guided me to the solution.

Jeremy_NI

@Arik Nesser If your SSD is formatted to ExFat and not APFS you'll always have performance issues on a Mac.

DavidJin

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/76046#Comment_76046

Hey there! Sorry for the late reply, but this has been a bit of a tricky issue for me, I reformatted the drive and for a time it seemed to have worked, and the issue definitely seemed to have gotten better, I thought this was solved, which was why I posted that it worked. But now, I realise issue is still happenening, the reformatting definitely felt like it helped, however it still seems to be an an ongoing issue, which is why I made another ticket, a part two if youd like, around this issue, if you want, you cant check it out here:

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/92087#Comment_92087

Jeremy_NI

@DavidJin I saw that other post of yours but we need to create another ticket for you and put you in contact with our specialists, they will need some private data. Before that I need to know if this is happening in Kontakt, in Komplete Kontrol or both?

DavidJin

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/93729#Comment_93729

Hey Jeremy! Sure, that would be great, and this only happens in Komplete Kontrol, Kontakt is all good.

Jeremy_NI

I've got another question, is the issue only in the 1st bar of the Logic project or is it happening randomly throughout the project?

BrandonEchols

@Jeremy_NI Hi, Jeremy. This same problem was happening to me, so I reformated my SSD as APFS. After re-installing all my instruments onto that drive, it still clips after bouncing audio. Any idea what's wrong? I need to get this music to my client soon. Help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Brandon Echols

mickeyl

Fiddlesticks – this is NOT a problem with timing because of a hypothetical slow external SSD. There is something broken with regards to the internal clock handling between the host and the plugin – probably a rounding error or another incompatibility when introducing a binary compatible with Apple Silicon.

NI folks, please look deeply into this problem and don't provide technically pointless pseudo solutions.