Has any one else experienced the white noise blast in Kontakt - Kinetic Metal?

McDowell · 2023-01-29T16:40:51+00:00

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Just now I loaded up Kontakt's kinetic metal instrument in my Logic session (I've used it before and not had any issues) and as soon as I went to play my MIDI keyboard a huge deafening blast sounded! And I happened to be wearing headphones... I currently have a headache and earache and will be going to the doctors if my ears are still sore tomorrow. I'm gutted my Beyerdynamic DT 880 headphones are completely blown... as a student, this is really frustrating.

Does anyone know why this is happening? I saw a previous thread on this too, here: https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/kontakt-and-kinetic-metal-just-blown-my-left-speaker-tweeter.462705/#post-2138793

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Gee_Flat

I had an old Kontakt 3 instrument that did it. Maybe 'Rock Kit'. I think I narrowed it down to a Convolution Reverb.

Calagan

It happened to me few times also...

It never happened before. Any understanding of the issue ?

By the way, is your hearing ok now ?

Calagan

ok, for those interested, I discovered the issue is produced by the exceed of the max voices (when you play too much notes at the same time).

I did contact the support. I hope they will be able to fix it...

Calagan

By the way, the support answered me and asked I send them a project where I can reproduce the issue, but it seems it can't be reproduced with only Kinetic Metal in a project...

I'm a bit clueless how to make them admit there's a HUGE issue with their plugin that need to be adressed...

Calagan

For those interested, I noticed something yesterday (reminding that I couldn't reproduce the issue with only Kinetic Metal in a project : it was only in my Live set).

The blast of noise was happening in the following situation :

Using a pretty heavy Ableton Live set with no latency compensation enabled (for various reasons I don't need to explain here)
using after Kinetic Metal a compressor (DMG Audio TrackComp) side-chained to another track
each track was having different plugin chain, so different latency

I had the idea to remove the compressor, and I couldn't reproduce the issue, while just 10mn before, I could reproduce it easily : in the previous situation, playing a lot of notes was after a dozen seconds conducing to the blast of noise.

Of course, I need to test it more scientifically (I was rehearsing, so I couldn't experiment more).

For those that know more than me about plugins and Daws, could it be the reason of the issue ?

I must clarify that I use TrackComp on almost all my tracks, very often side-chained to another track, and I never experienced such an issue. I also never experienced such an issue with Kontakt (I'm speaking about the blast of noise) : it happens only in this specific situation, and not in the various sets where I use Kontakt and/or Kinetic metal a little bit everywhere (I use quite a lot this library in my music).

Calagan

EDIT : ok I was wrong in my previous post.

The issue came back after my "fix", so it's another issue...

Jojo123

This issue has been around for a long time. The general consensus is that no one can really find a go to cause for those it happens to.

I use Cerberos Audio's utility, Ice9 as the last insert on the main output in Logic. Its never happened to me and judging by what others have said, I dont want it to.

Calagan

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98433#Comment_98433

It's not a Logic issue (even if I know it exists a similar issue in Logic).

It's a very specific issue with Kinetic Metal : it doesn't happen with any other plugin/library, and even with Kinetic Metal it doesn't happen in any other session I use (and I use Kinetic Metal quite a lot).

It truly is a strange one, and NI support doesn't help (at all).

Jojo123

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/99317#Comment_99317

Yeah I know its not only Logic, but the same loud blast has been experienced for varied reasons on various systems for a long time. Nobody has seemed to pin anything definite down. Whatever the cause it sure is no joke having that blast your hearing out of existence... hence why I use Ice9.

Calagan

Are you speaking only about Kontakt ? Or in general ?

If it's a long time issue, I don't understand how they can't finally fix it, because it's not a normal bug, it's a very dangerous one.

Do you have any links to similar problems ? I think I will gather some infos and send (again) an email to the NI support, but this time I will be less nice...

Jojo123

In general. Dangerous indeed. We all rely on our ears in music production - thats why I commented.

I know there was a thread on the old NI forum and I think I may have saved a copy but not sure. I'll dig into my system sometime and see. There was a long thread on LogicProHelp about the issue which got a bit heated as someone didn't believe it was possible to get such a blast. Cant remember the title but I'll try and find it for you. That was where I found out about Ice9. I dont know if its just for Logic/cross platform or what, but it lives on my main output as the last plug. The last thing anyone needs is hearing damage. Some have questioned if it works and others sware by it so I'll take what I can get to protect my ears.

Jojo123

OK so couldn't find the NI thread on my computer but found scads of threads at Logicprohelp - Heres a couple. Go there and search for "Logic devs you have a safety problem" (2021) and one way back in 2011 "sudden blasts of white noise" In those threads theres links to other accounts.

Calagan

Thanks for the info.

But you seems to assume it's a Logic issue. How do I have this issue in only one Ableton Live session, and I never had it in any other situation ?

Jojo123

It is a Logic issue but NOT ONLY a logic issue. I'm only talking of my own experience. Have a look what I actually said.

"Yeah I know its not only Logic, but the same loud blast has been

experienced for varied reasons on various systems for a long time"

I also replied to your question "in general" denoting just that. Im talking in general. I also posted some pertinent info at your request.

Whether you find it useful or not I dont know but whatever the case the blasts of this hideous noise in anyones language is far from ideal.

Twan

I recently just had the same issue. Im using ableton live 11 and the noise comes out of nowhere when using kinetic metals. The noise is mad loud and even maxed out the channel volume. Luckily my volume settings were low on my headphones.

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